Pulling down our national leaders?

Dec 17, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Peeping Tom column of Wednesday 16 December, captioned, “Why do we like to pull our leaders down”, is an indication of how the “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” syndrome permeates the very core of the thought processes of some Guyanese.
It is also an indication of the hypocrisy that inundate the cerebral synapses of those who champion one side of the political division in Guyana, albeit, sometimes, appearing in the outpourings of a proverbial Zacchaeus pontificating from a metaphorical sycamore tree of anonymity.
Virtually every day the assets of the state owned media and those of private ownership are used to pull down, insult, defame and ostracize national leaders who happen to belong to one side of the political equation, and who garner their votes primarily from one segment of the Guyanese population.
However, only when the criticism is directed at or toward those with whom they share affinity do these self indulgent purists begin to wail sanctimoniously and beat on their chest in dismay over the “pulling down of our National Leaders”. Puuhlease!! Give be a break!!
Benito Mussolini is often credited with making the trains in Italy run on time. This was an urban myth that arose out of an incident in which the King promised to appoint him as Prime Minister if he were to catch a train and come to Rome.
Anxious to get his hands on absolute power, Mussolini, it is said, contacted the Mayor of Milan and implored him; more likely threatened him, to make sure that the train he was scheduled to travel on arrived on time. It did, thus the historical fable of Mussolini making the trains in Italy run on time.
Peeping Tom and others are engaged in a re-run of that scenario in the issue of President Jagdeo’s qualification to join the ranks of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Like King Constantine of Rome, they have become epiphanic disciples of virtues and values they did not consider important to write about prior to the idea of one of their own, or someone on their side, garnering international approbation. The hypocrisy is so stifling it is enough to make one want to puke.
What makes this all the more shamelessly hypocritical, is the fact that Mr. Jagdeo’s Party and Government have been engaged in measures that amount to virtual environmental racism with respect to the city of Georgetown.
They have displayed a callous disregard for the adverse health effects their policies, with respect to the Capital City and its Municipality, are likely to have on the quality of life or longevity of those who have traditionally made that burg their home.
They can’t win the municipality in democratic electoral competition, so the next best thing is to marginalize and pressure them into submission. And they have been shamelessly and vindictively pursuing this agenda with relish and some measure of success, with the contributing factors of an old and tiring Mayor, and an inept and strategically anachronistic political opposition.
Peeping Tom and others exhibit the kind of moral and ethical relativism that has from time immemorial defined the attitude and perspective of people, too drunk or intolerant from their proximity to power, to peep over and examine conditions on the other side, or to even take it into consideration. No, for them it is not much of an irony that Mr. Jagdeo seeks to alleviate environmental problems outside of our borders, while clearly not giving a fig or a hoot about its existence right in his back yard.
But that is in synchrony with the attitude of people for whom it has become natural to beat on their chests and wail about the importance of due process and the rule of law in some instances, while engaging in odious literal acrobatics in order to justify violations of those very tenets in other instances.
Robin Williams

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