Will the Velvet Revolution in the Arab World reach Guyana?

Feb 03, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

At the time of writing this commentary, the European Union has frozen the assets of the ousted Tunisian President and France has seized his private jet. For sure, he is not going to get back that illegally acquired wealth which runs into hundreds of millions.
Across the border, in Egypt, time has run out for Mubarak. He has to go. Dictators must be removed by their oppressed people through a relentless display of energy, passion and revolutionary fervour. If the security forces shoot down innocent protestors, the new government must prosecute them.
Since the Tunisian and Egyptian outburst, people have asked me if I think the impulses will come to Guyana. My answer is no but it should and we should start to move in that direction. People hate dictatorship, whether elected or unelected.
For those who support fascism in Guyana, and tell the Guyanese people that revolution cannot come to Guyana because the PPP was legally elected, they are nasty propagandists. Mubarak was elected. Legal election is not democracy. Free election is one tiny part of the entire gamut of freedoms.
An elected organization can descend into a frightening tyranny. This has happened in Venezuela, Russia and Guyana.
I am not going to utilize precious space in this newspaper to argue if absolute power exists in Guyana. Most Guyanese are aware of the dictatorial nature of their present rulers. The only thread the PPP Government has to cling to is the banal resort to being freely elected.
After elections in 1992, the regime closed off the institutions of freedom. Mr. Jagdeo goes out in a few months time (will the mansion in Pradoville 2 finish in time?) and there is no Freedom of Information Act, no Human Rights Commission, no Ombudsman, no reform of Parliament, no Procurement Commission, no appellate tribunal for the public service that long existed in this land but now is gone. We still have one radio station. We still have only one newspaper receiving state advertisements.
These are just small examples of dictatorship. Interesting to note, Guyana is the only Caricom state that had a citizen on treason charges for five years, has three persons at the moment on the same charge and recently a well known former soldier was freed from a sedition indictment.
Compare Guyana to its CARICOM neighbours and you wonder why they too aren’t prosecuting their citizens for treason and sedition as often as the Guyana Government does.
The Guyanese dictators aren’t far from their Arab counterparts. What goes through the mind of citizens when they hear and read that the Head of State sold his government-supplied state land (with completed house) and decided to buy an acre of land from the government itself?
That isn’t the end of the story. Ministers of the Government secured a plot too and so did state security personnel. A gentleman who was absent from Guyana for a long time and still lives outside the jurisdiction was awarded a plot too. How he came into the picture adds to the mystery. The scandal has more putrid dimensions.
To date, no citizen knows how the recipients were selected, what shape the process took that led to the purchase and how the price was arrived at. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the absolute refusal of the subject Minister to disclose any detail on the transaction. Isn’t this more evidence of dictatorship?
So can the Arab zeal reach Guyana? If this was to happen, it should have occurred two weeks ago with the display of fascism at the Stabroek Market Square. That was the opportunity for the Velvet Revolution to come. It wasn’t to be. It should have happened though.
Where in the world would you find a silent population in the face of state-violence that resulted in the forceful uprooting of over three hundred poor street vendors? While the bulldozers were destroying their livelihood, they were rushing like animals to save their assets.
These are the cruelties of dictatorship that spark the Velvet Revolution. As I write, I don’t know at this very moment what is happening in Egypt. But I hope by the time you read this, the Velvet Revolution in the Arab world that began in Tunisia would have been completed in Egypt.
So what is the possibility of it coming to Guyana? Even after the fascist display at Stabroek Market Square that marked a victory for dictatorship in Guyana, the Velvet Revolution can still come. I believe it will. Stranger things have happened in politics. My deep personal feeling is that it will come.

Latest News

Will the Velvet Revolution in the Arab World reach Guyana?

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Tonight: Sparta Boss goes up against Bent Street ‘A’ for K&S...

Botafgo pummel Milerock, 11-7, to become new UDFA...

BCB player transfer window opens for 2025

Archery Guyana National 2-Day Indoor Senior...

Grandmaster Jose Luis Montes to lead Self-Defense...

Keevin Allicock – the next torchbearer for...

Features/Columnists

GUYSUCO’s problems are political not managerial

Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will

Exxon Awards

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Will the Velvet Revolution in the Arab World reach Guyana?

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]