Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Sep 28, 2014 Editorial
The private sector’s response to Brigadier (ret) David Granger’s call for protest action to back his demands for local government elections was not surprising. Comments by Mr. Lincoln Lewis and Dr. David Hinds were also not unexpected. The different perspectives of the various actors point to the thread in the narratives which addresses the question of violence.
On the one hand the body which speaks for the business community, and which – incidentally had not much to say in support for calls to hold local government elections, is now very much vocal, albeit in pursuit of its own agenda. In the opposite corner is the viewpoint that protest action is among the more acceptable means of moving an intransigent administration in a desired direction.
One group is offering the subliminal message that protest action will affect its profit margin, especially if these are timed to coincide with the approaching holiday season. There is no stated consideration for the concerns of the wider body politic; a position which reflects self-interest pure and simple.
The other group argues that the history of post independence protest is replete with instances of unequal treatment depending on which side of the ethnic fence one sits. The Guyanese people have at various times capitalized on their constitutional right to protest but recent history has demonstrated a movement towards an ‘Animal Farm’ mentality where some folk are more equal than others, and are therefore to be accorded a special dispensation when it comes to public protest. In all of these inequities the voices of groupings like the PSC remain silent.
One community can come out in numbers to torch vehicles, attack police stations, assault policemen and ministers of government and the assailants are treated with kid gloves. They are virtually told that their concerns will be addressed; ‘Go and sin no more until next time’. Another community dares to raise its voice in anger at inter alia the failing justice system, the brutality of the young and disadvantaged by the police, and the stench of a rotten local government system and its members are described as hooligans and thugs – these being among the more charitable appellations.
One thing that is sure not to have escaped anyone’s attention is that by dealing with the two situations in the manner that the administration has been treating with them, the message is being sent out that one group enjoys favoured ethnic status to the exclusion of the others.
It is incumbent on all nationalistic Guyanese to lend their efforts to eradicate this impression of ethic favouritism which is a scourge on the soul of this nation. It seems as if people have lost sight of the long-term danger perpetuation of this evil brings. Children are brought up in households programmed with tales of the wicked and unworthy other(s). They in turn find themselves confronted with a culture shock when they are exposed to the world beyond their ethnic enclaves.
Not surprisingly they are shown evidence to support their indoctrination like scenes of violent protestors who might be responding to aggravation caused by politically-inspired tension and inept police action. It is never a pleasant sight to see young defenseless women cowering in fear and seeking the protection of their ethnic other with whom they work or go to school. Ironically, those same protectors might themselves be seeking protection but no one seems to think that likely.
There is a widely held conviction supported by incontrovertible fact that political activists go into depressed communities like Albouystown and Tiger Bay to recruit people during protests and elections campaigning. These agent provocateurs usually target young unemployed and unemployable men (and lately women) to wreak havoc on the activists’ own party supporters with the aim of ensuring their followers remain loyal while discrediting the protest action.
In the few instances where bona fide protestors seize these misguided young men and hand them over to the police no prosecutions have resulted. The organisers of protest marches and picketing must be on their guard to deal condignly with infiltration of their ranks by people bent on bringing their just struggles to naught.
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