The AFC is a friend. I will forget the insult.

Feb 02, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I voted for the AFC the last election. I probably will do the same this year. As a matter of fact I am available to help the combined opposition. Many in the AFC are people I consider friends.
Khemraj Ramjattan is a buddy pal. I have known Michael Carrington long before he could have imagined himself in politics. I knew Gerhard Ramsaroop as soon as he came into the world. But when I write as a political analyst, I should put my head in front of my emotions.
I saw the Action Plan of the AFC and was a bit startled at the “copyright infringement” of my “work.” Bet you think I am referring to one of my columns. I am not. I am talking about more serious business. Under the section, “Liberal Democracy and Good Governance” there is a photograph of a protest march. I was speechless when I saw that item. You would think the last image of human action that the AFC would want to highlight is a protest. The AFC has avoided protest action like the plague since its formation five years ago.
The image was taken from a demonstration in Patentia on the West Bank of Demerara last July. It centered on the outrage of parents of many of the school children and the students themselves at the police shooting of an ex-student of Patentia High School a block away from the building. Kelvin Fraser died from his wounds.
That photograph was of a march organized by me, Mark Benschop, Lincoln Lewis from the TUC and Dr. David Hinds of the WPA. Even though the picket exercise lasted for three days, no one from the AFC turned up.
Then the organizers offered the AFC and the PNC and other groups a chance to show solidarity with the parents and school children.
We brought the protestors from Patentia to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Home Affairs. While we were on the picket line, Parliament was disrupted by a walk-out from the combined opposition. All the opposition MPs were out on Brickdam and could have seen the picketers who numbered more than fifty.
Then the police moved in. While David Hinds and I were arranging minibuses to take the children back to the West Bank, confusion broke out after Benschop was arrested. Only Robert Corbin came onto the scene and arranged bail for Benschop late that evening.
Why the AFC would want to use that image is beyond comprehension, because the minute one sees it one would be inclined to ask the question; does the AFC believe in picket and demonstration?
This has been one of the mysteries of the AFC since its birth. It has never arranged or participated in a picket exercise much less a protest process. It has been a source of irritation to me. I have been told that the AFC has a policy on protest. It has a conceptual foundation which when examined appears plausible but lacks cogency.
The AFC argues that street protest is something that East Indians have a morbid fear of. They have memories of post-election violence. The explanation includes the PPP’s use of such action to drive fear in rural folks. There can hardly be a debate about this. The AFC goes on to posit that when street action is conducted by the opposition, agent provocateurs invade the space, create mischief and the opposition is painted as violent people. This plays into the PPP’s hand.
There have been countless incidents where these agents have created mayhem. But the AFC has misconceived what a protest is all about. The AFC has confused the era of “mo fyaah/slo fyaah” with the obligation all political parties have to engage in demonstrative efforts to prove to their supporters that they are not armchair politicians.
Surely, no one in this country has ever asked the AFC to take placards to Regent Street and fill the place with human bodies, thereby giving the agents scope for doing evil things. However, peaceful picket is a duty in politics. You can go in front of a building and hold your placards.
Or you can step inside the building and assault people. Or you can stay outside and try to pull the structure down. These are different forms of confrontations.
The AFC, over the past five years, did not seem to have been able to differentiate these types of activities. For the AFC leadership, once you step on a picket line, all hell will break loose. Sadly this has been a major fault of the AFC. Not too late to start!

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