Tragedy in Linden: Time for a national government

Jul 20, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

You are not going to believe this. I know it may not be the right thing to say, but I will say it, because it pierces my psyche. When I heard that the police shot the protestors and many died and were injured, I don’t know why, but my mind went back to the 1980 Constitution. Why did that Constitution prevent coalition government?
I was angry, because if we didn’t have that clause, the PPP would have been wiped off the historical map after the election results last November.
This nation must not accept the killing of unarmed protestors. If it does, more will die, because as the PPP gets more irrational, more protests are going to happen, and more brutality of demonstrators will take place. The hierarchy of the PPP and its second tier lackeys know that any change of government in this country means that they will be prosecuted and will be imprisoned for a long time.
I honestly feel that the mountainous evidence of abuse of power and the nature of some crimes may even result in treason charges, should the PPP lose power. For this reason, the PPP leadership is going to use violent means to suppress legal and peaceful demonstrators.
The shooting to death of protestors has begun. It will continue. What will be even more bestial is if the PPP monarchy feels that the Linden tragedy will bring anger into Georgetown, there are going to be unpleasant reactions from the PPP. For all we know, the Arab Spring may have finally reached these shores.
So are we at the tipping point? Have we now reached the precipice? What happened in Linden on Wednesday as the sun set on the mining town was predictable. I will now resort to political theory to explain why this is so. In 2005, I wrote a column in which I introduced to the Guyanese political discourse the application of the term fascistization to the rule of the PPP.
It was clear to me that as Mr. Jagdeo got stronger in power, a creeping fascism was showing its head in the way the PPP was governing. From 2004 onwards, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill authoritarian system we had seen under Burnham in Guyana and Gairy in Grenada.
What was important to note is that this fascistization occurred in ways that were invisible, and many of its features we are still unaware of. Here are just two examples. I was literally speechless when I found out last year that the PPP Government had changed the law governing unlawful assembly. It now carries a mandatory term of imprisonment. This never happened under Burnham.
It is fascism to jail people for unlawful assembly. That charge was read to Norris Witter, Lincoln Lewis and Mark Benschop, when they were charged three years ago for picketing the police head office. Once convicted, they had to face imprisonment.
The second example is even more sickening. Do you know the level of sexual debauchery that takes place in powerful places with powerful people in this country? When fascism arrives, it inevitably brings with it unspeakable sexual improprieties. Do you know the amount of parties held by powerful political elites in which high-priced prostitutes are paid to be involved in sexual orgies? And the escapism is not only confined to heterosexual behaviour; but homosexual behaviour too. This writer has proof of this decadence and will testify once there is a change of power.
So where do we go from here? Should we let the death of three innocent protestors just pass through our memories? Should the nation accept that police can shoot live rounds into crowds where there is no visible evidence of persons armed with guns and other missiles attempting to kill? The answer to these questions is no.
The time has arrived for the implementation of a national government. The tragedy of this nation is going to continue until we are all destroyed.
To countless numbers out there, the Linden people were the victims of a government that does not like them because they belong to a constituency that has historically rejected the PPP domination of the government.
The disaster of the Linden electricity rate increase is that it came so soon after the national elections, thereby creating the suspicion that it was politically motivated. It also creates extensive mental anguish among Lindeners, because the increase has not been accompanied by any form of generosity.
The Linden people are still restricted to seeing NCN television only. My sincere wish is for the Guyanese people to finally accept that one political party and one ethnic group cannot dominate Guyana.

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Tragedy in Linden: Time for a national government

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