Dr Luncheon and the politics of confrontation

Apr 07, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Confrontation is something that I have always tried to avoid but try as I might there is always someone who would insist on some confrontation with me. There was a time when I felt that it had to do with my puny size as a youngster and the desire of people to beat up on me. I would be sitting in class and someone would simply hit me.
I learnt to fight and in the end I gave as good as I got. People stopped seeking confrontation with me, but that only lasted until I got married. To this day I cannot understand why women would for no reason seek a quarrel.
One day I walked into my home and there I was greeted with a sulking face. Obviously, I asked what was the matter. That was a big mistake. But then again, had I ignored the situation only heaven knows what might have resulted.
As fate would have it, I rarely respond to the person who seeks to quarrel. Many years ago I learnt to tune out so that most of the things I simply do not hear. There was the time when a situation arose and I simply sat while the woman ranted and raved. Then she said, “You ain’t gun answer me? If you ain’t answer me I ain’t gun stop.” I knew if I had fallen for that she wouldn’t have stopped anyway.
Confrontation seems to be the controlling factor in life in Guyana. I still remember the late Troy Dick, who was one of the February 23, 2002 escapees from the Camp Street jail. He was one of the patrons at the Library, a nightclub on Camp Street, when he stepped on someone’s toes. He apologized, but that was not enough for the man who proceeded to hit Dick. It is said that Dick in anger went home for a gun and shot his assailant dead.
There are many similar incidences. And people have been seriously injured. Motorists have run into others accidentally and despite apologies and promises to effect the necessary repairs, have been seriously hurt by the other aggrieved driver.
There was a case in Brooklyn a few years ago. This fellow was driving his BMW, obviously his pride and joy. He must have secured his car before he even thought about a place to live. Whatever the case, someone hit his BMW. This fellow came out of his car, shot the errant driver dead and walked away. I am not sure whatever came out of that incident.
We are witnessing similar scenes in our political life; we are not prepared to grant compromises. There was the case of Lawrence Fanfair who is in hospital. Reports on the event leading up to his hospitalisation are confusing but again, from what little has been forthcoming, a simple discussion could have averted the situation.
And so we come to this new development that is bound to produce another confrontation. The government as part of its e-governance programme will be establishing 55 towers across the country. Some of these towers are being set up in locations where at least the people of Plaisance believe that they would encroach on their playing area.
I know the Plaisance Community Centre Ground; I played cricket there and I watched many a schoolchild run his or her heart out at school sports. Recently I saw the ground and it was nothing to shout about. The surface had been scourged and it would take some time before that ground could be used for anything except the tower.
After three days of protest, the government’s Chief Engineer decided that it would not be in the best interest of anyone to continue with the tower at that location. Even the head of the project, Alexei Ramotar, agreed that a new location may be needed.
But Dr. Roger Luncheon steps in to indicate that there is not going to be any compromise here. It may be a rush of testosterone or simply a case of braggadocio on the case of Dr. Luncheon. I know that he is the man who would stand up to the world for the People’s Progressive Party.
On one occasion he said quite openly that his job is to defend the party and if the party is wrong then he would do his utmost to make that wrong right. So here he is telling the contractor, the Chief Engineer and the architect of the project that whatever decision they might have taken is not worth the paper it is written on. He has said that the tower will be constructed on the playground and that is going to be the end of the matter.
Such a statement smacks of raw power. Dr. Luncheon has long been known as the powerhouse inside the PPP. People will now see how powerful. But there is another side to this. Some believe that this attempt at provoking a confrontation is merely to divert from the real issue.
The society has learnt that the radio frequencies were allocated in a manner that was far from democratic; one that was discriminatory and one that smacked of cronyism and nepotism. If Dr Luncheon succeeds in provoking a war over the tower then the attention of the nation would be focused on that war and not on the allocation of the radio frequencies.
Many years ago the Government Information Services—GIS—made a documentary entitled ‘This is Guyana’. It was a beauty. What we are witnessing this time around can be entitled ‘This is Guyana’ but it is a far cry from that documentary made some forty years ago.

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