The defence of no defence

Jun 30, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When I read Harry Gill’s letter, published in KN dated 06/27/2012 and captioned; ‘In defense of Minister Rohee’ my thoughts went directly to the story; ‘“The Tell-Tale Heart”, a short story written by renowned American gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe. Mr. Gill’s letter may deduce its most relevant comparison from the first paragraph of that story which begins; “True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily –how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”
The last time I read anything in the press under the name Harry Gill was some months ago when Mr. Gill, in his normal temper tantrum letters, threw a fit in the press and ended his letter by telling the public that that letter would be his last in the newspapers.
While many people probably breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they will not have to put up with Mr. Gill’s ‘public display of ‘scatter-brainism’, I was disheartened, as I believe that even the most disillusioned amongst us must have their say. So, when I read Mr. Gill’s re-entrance into the press, of course without notice this time, I was most excited. However, my greatest satisfaction from his re-entry lies in the belief that, it appears that it was me who had caused Mr. Gill to walk back from his earlier position, for this I gave myself a pat on the back, and say welcome back Harry Gill!
In a clearly unhinged manner, Gill launched his vile, but not unusual, attack at me for calling out Minister Rohee on his “potentially delicate period of national security” comment in which he suggests that cutting the leave of senior police officers was necessary because Guyana is currently in a period where the national security situation is fragile.
In his letter of defence, Gill made all sorts of comments and attributes all kinds of statements to individuals he named in his letter, but the very basis of his so-called ‘defence’  exposes the illogical pattern of his thinking.
The protagonist in Edgar Allan Poe’s story asks us how we can say he is mad, but yet he feeds us all the facts we need to conclude that he is a deranged and unreliable person. He claimed that he told us the whole story calmly and healthily but yet shouted “Hearken!” Gill is no different! He presented himself as the defence attorney for Mr. Rohee but yet offered an rational, coherent or consistent argument in defence of his master. However, we must be reminded that it is not unusual for those who have a propensity or preference for irrationality to be sucked into the realm of psychosis.
In his ‘attempted defence’ of Mr. Rohee, Harry Gill tells us that comments of which he attributed to one man, Aubrey Norton, are the reasons behind Rohee’s logic. If this is really the case, executive leadership in Guyana is at crisis point.
In his wild ramblings, Gill refused to address the last point I made in my June 25 letter and which I suggested might have been a more acceptable rationale, for cutting the leave of senior police officers. Yes, I made reference to the point that Minister Rohee made, in the same press report, in which he stated that it might be irresponsible to have four senior police officers proceed on leave, all at the same time.
I stated that while this seems to be a reasonable concern, the Minister treated this particular point as a fall-back rationale or supplementary reason to his ‘delicate period of national security’ point and all the other propaganda drivel he pedaled.
The question that any reasonable and rational thinking person would ask is; why would the Minister not stick with this latter reason rather than proffer reasons likely to create amongst the people a dangerous level of uneasiness, and added fear.
I am not disappointed that Harry Gill cannot find the logic in this view; for he merely does what he is expected to do, as can be gleaned from his comments – defend his bosses in the PPP/C. Those of his ilk are incapable, I believe, to apply objective and critical analysis to the actions of the government of the day, as they are recruited to focus only on coming to the ‘defence’ of the regime, even if they have to compromise their own principles.
Like a befuddled child, Gill claimed that my calling out Mr. Rohee, the Home Affairs Minister, for using language capable of causing unnecessary trepidation and disquiet amongst the people, amounts to obstructionist behaviour. Here he should ask like the protagonist in Poe’s story, why do you think I am mad? Clearly, this is twisted logic, or downright lunacy, trying to pin a tag that suits Rohee’s comments on my logic is a no-brainer that will not travel anywhere. It is an example of the weakest attempt at propaganda. What the PPP/C and their agents fail to understand is that there are people who listen and observe their actions and are thus, capable of making ‘spot on’ assessment of their very actions and words.
Of course, Rohee’s act to emphasize that the country is in a fragile security state, that things in parliament are not settled, snap election talk is rife, that we just had elections, as reasons for the cut in leave for senior officers, can be described as nothing but a calculated psychological assault on the people, for which the PPP/C apparently hopes to elicit a certain mental and physical reaction.
The PPP/C understood that should Mr. Rohee merely state the point regarding multiple senior officers being absent at the same time as the most important reason, the outcome that they hoped to achieve would be less likely.
There is no question about the dangerous and partisan political objective the PPP/C hopes to achieve by having Rohee make this announcement; the Minister’s comments attract alarming suspicion which cannot be taken lightly. The Minister and the PPP/C must know that Guyanese have been dealing with a grave crime and security situation for the longest while, and the least any government official, in particular the Home Affairs Minister, can do is to work to reduce people’s fear rather than use language that heightens that feeling of terror. Why didn’t he stick with the more rational, less emotive and ‘fear inciting’ reason?
The problem in Guyana is that the executive arm of the state feels emboldened to do and say what they like because they foolishly believe that the people are too busy trying to make a living and therefore pay no attention to their rhetoric. They also believe that the people are infantile in their thinking and so they couldn’t care less of how the actions of the government are perceived, or affect the lives of the people.
This is where I recognize the disrespect for the people, for if the PPP/C was concerned about the views of the people it would not have done many things.
In his ramblings Gill wrote; “…we all know how the system works, even for those who conveniently and publicly “oppose” corruption, but benefit from it.”
I’m not sure what the rationale was behind this comment, but I rather suspect he was throwing hints at Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran. My advice to Harry Gill would be to go directly to your target and not attempt to engage in the ‘politics of meandering’.
Finally, Mr. Gill must know that if it takes a hate-monger to expose the evils of bad governance and a power-drunk PPP/C regime, I certainly do not mind the label. You are what you are, a part of the PPP/C propaganda machinery, your philosophy is driven in the premise which says; when you can’t debate them on the facts and merits of the issue resort to name-calling. I have learnt your strategies well!
Let me end by asking this question; is there a relationship between Minister’s recent act of putting the water cannon on display parade and his recent comment, or is this a case of ‘rare coincidence’?
Lurlene Nestor

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