Civil Society’s silence implies support for torture -Trotman

Nov 04, 2009 News

Alliance for Change Leader, Raphael Trotman, has stated that the recent revelations of the barbaric torture of a child by ranks of the Guyana Police Force have had a chilling and devastating effect on the minds of most Guyanese.
Yet there remains an eerie silence from the non-political leaders in our society.
He noted that, in the past, “civil society sat back, and for the most part, remained silent.”
According to Trotman, the AFC believes that meaningful change and transformation will be achieved if only the political parties, the GHRA, Red Thread, and a few voices remain the only ones being heard on these issues.
“This silence of the religious organisations and their priests, pastors, pandits, and Imams, the social organisations, youth clubs and organisations, the United Nations Association of Guyana, the ex-police officers association, and ex-members of the disciplined services, other associations of business and manufacturing, and leading citizens in our society, is what makes this administration, and these psychopaths who are state actors, bold and brazen enough to do what they do to other human beings who are Guyanese.”
He stated that the getting together of a few dozen lawyers to protest the torture and general denial of rights of persons held for questioning “is a good start, but this start must proceed in the beginning, without the usual high-pitched political screams for justice and the respect for the basic human rights of citizens coming from just the political parties to whom the brunt of protest has been shunted.”
He said that the AFC would support any people’s initiative that stands up to confront and defeats the scourge. “We want to see how the rest of society reacts and responds in the main.”
It was pointed out that the torture of the teenager, followed by the silence of so-called ‘civil society’, is a defining moment for them.
“The Oxford Dictionary describes this condition as “sufferance” where silence can be interpreted to mean “tacit consent” or toleration…Everyone wants to wash their hands and pass the responsibility to the politicians by asking…What are you going to do about this?” Trotman is of the view that all are involved and are going to be consumed at this rate, and that it is cowardice that keeps those who have a moral duty to speak out, silent. “So I, and the AFC, are now asking ‘civil society’ what have you to say and what will you be doing about this latest atrocity?”
“There comes a time in the affairs of men (and women) when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments, and their very civilization are founded,” Trotman quoted.
Trotman is of the opinion that, that time is now.
“We are waiting to see whether the Guyana Bar Association and other professional associations will take this matter further, and whether for once, the initiative will not have to be begun and sustained by the political opposition, but rather, will see us all standing side, by side, as we confront and defeat the evil within our society.”

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Civil Society’s silence implies support for torture -Trotman

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