Reichstag fire and snap elections

Jul 31, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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These people are smart. They knew that the Simels trial was underway in the last week of July. So the nasty, deadly, plots (and plotters) swung into action. Just before we continue, for our young folks in schools and those still in their early twenties, let us briefly discuss the Reichstag Fire.
Reichstag was the name of the German Parliament at the time (1933) when Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler was Chancellor of Germany with his party being a minority. To wrest total control, the Nazis burnt down the Parliament, and claimed that the Communist Party did it.
So the Communist Parliamentarians were arrested and banned, the Government called a state of emergency, and the forthcoming elections were manipulated to give Hitler a majority. What followed remains the saddest memory in the history of civilization.
My theory on the Ministry of Health Fire draws from the story of the Reichstag fire. It appears that some smart people knew that the Simels trial was about to get underway. The Simels courtroom drama had to be devastating for certain key political elites. And thus the plot unfolded. We know now who did what to whom. More evidence will indict the Government of Guyana.
But let us get back to the Reichstag analogy. The incompetent cabal may not know how to run a country but all over the world and throughout history, unintelligent men resorted to every conceivable method to retain or acquire power. When it comes to the violent maintenance of power, you don’t have to be an expert on the science on how to manage a country. The resort to violence is a stratagem that even the most incompetent leader can successfully pull off.
Enter the Shakespearian moment. As Mark Benschop and the TUC leaders stood outside the police head office at Eve Leary, ideas from fascism began to germinate. Thus was born the Guyana Reichstag fire.
Here is how the drama unfolded in which politicians and unprofessional state security officials met in a deadly confluence. Arrest the three men. Their imprisonment will bring emotional resentment. There will be outbursts from many stakeholders. Others will demonstrate and picket for the release of the men. There will be an atmosphere of uncertainty and potential instability.
In such a vortex, plan the Reichstag fire. The arsonists strike. The fire rages. The journalists write. Then the denouncement comes.
Known anti-Government critics are rounded up. Ethnic-based organizations are accused of starting the inferno on Brickdam. The effect may have been achieved but we in Georgetown haven’t done our research in Berbice and Essequibo as yet. Maybe the paranoia is raging there.
Maybe people in Berbice and Essequibo are already struck with the anti-Black virus. Maybe the fear of “slo fyaah, mo fyaah” is all over Berbice, Essequibo and places like Enmore and Uitvlugt in Demerara. In the midst of this concatenation of fear and trepidation, a snap election may be on the horizon. This is my take on the Guyana Reichstag fire on Brickdam.
Some people think the Guyanese people are stupid. National figures are being murdered like the builder of the CARICOM Secretariat, a bank employee, a strident anti-government activist and so many, many others; they are no arrests, no clues, no police action.
Then a fire guts the Ministry of Health, and the next day, the very next day, arrests are made and more arrests on the days to follow. It is clear that some people are drawing from their conspiratorial activities from the sixties. One of my persistent demands on this page is that we reexamine the conflagrations of the sixties.
I know I wrote twice that I have a secret to reveal about a violent act against Mr. Peter Taylor, the irrepressible, anti-Jagan newspaper editor, but I will do so in my own time. In 2009, some people have gone back to the demons of the sixties and Macbethian witches of that deadly period to seek inspiration for their master plan.
Will it work? The snap election is their only hope of saving power. I believe there will be more police action against high profile opposition activists in connection with the Brickdam plot.
The ethnic factor will feature largely. It is during the Kafkaesque trial of the Reichstag defendants that the election may be called.
The snap election has to be called quickly because the Khan confession transcripts will be on display in October and we may see an early trial of the Reichstag accused. The sad thing about the Guyana Reichstag conspiracy is that we go further down the chasm of doom.
Guyana is definitely one of 20th century’s most cruel tragedies. Can Barack Obama save this country? He should give it a try.

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