The Chanderpaul issue: Sentiments are dangerous things

May 28, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Sentiments play a priceless role in civilization but when sentiments are determinants of human action without context, then, they become dangerous things. In life when we express sentiments we must understand the context in which we offer them.
When you hear that your friend from way back in high school is in contention for the top United Nations job, you root for him for sentimental reasons. But will you still do that if you find out that he has left a paper trail of financial controversies at every job he previously held?
In Guyanese politics, sentiments have been destructive factors. Countless people love and adore Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan, because they remember their halcyon days with these two founding fathers of the anti-colonial struggle. Those emotional journeys prevent them from accepting the plethora of sins both men committed against this country.
I have a lot of memories of my time with the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) but I did not put sentiments in the way when I chose not to be politically active with the post-1992 WPA and supported the Alliance for Change (AFC) when it was born in 2005. Over dinner at Excellence Restaurant in Charlotte Street a few nights ago, I explained to Dr. David Hinds and Denis Chabrol the contours of WPA politics and how those new pathways were not the WPA I knew.
For me, the Alliance For Change was more strategically placed to dissolve PPP tyranny. I feel that many of the people I know in the seventies and eighties still cling to the WPA and want to keep it alive for reasons of sentiments. I have always been fond of Moses Nagamootoo and I have kept a personal letter he wrote to me about my intellectual ability a long, long time ago when he was the de facto Deputy Leader of the PPP. But sentiments should not come in the way and we choose to stay silent if Moses does not deliver in his promise of bringing a new culture to Guyanese society.
Against this background I offer a few comments on the omission controversy that is swirling out of control in relation to Shivnarine Chanderpaul. It is utterly amazing and profoundly inexplicable that a nation competing in international sporting events, can select a team member for the specific purpose of a personal milestone and not for victory for the country.
It seems that people want Chanderpaul to play in the current test series with Australia, so that he can break Brian Lara’s record as the most runs scored by a West Indian cricketer.
So Chanderpaul comes first and not country. Two reasons make this unacceptable. First, no country should do that because it sacrifices nationalist pride. Secondly, it becomes even more repugnant when the selection is made for a genre of sports that seldom sees a cricketer playing at age forty, and one who has lost his cutting edge.
Every artist reaches a pinnacle then decline comes in. Michael Jackson had poor record sales on his last studio album before he died. After the initial listening, I have not played the latest studio album of Elton John even though I bought it last year. John has lost a large part of his talent after a career of fifty years as a singer.
It happens to all humans. When the sun sets, you bow out gracefully. There is another angle in this controversy that no one has highlighted. Why should I be the captain of my country’s test team and I have to live with a player who has lost his prowess edge but he was picked just to make a few runs more to break a record? The failure to win will be attributed to the captain. Why should West Indies pick ten men to play a strong Australian eleven? In selecting Chanderpaul they would have gone with a player who is not in form.
Some of the arguments in support of Chanderpaul’s selection is frighteningly inauspicious and if accepted sets an improper precedent. Does a team pick a player because he has a glorious record or because he has the capacity to create a victory? If it is the former then we are talking about the death of sports.
A country then would select its past players all because their records are stupendous. So the Sri Lankan, Indian and Australian test teams should recall Muralitharan, Warne and Tendulkar respectively.
It is never easy when one has to walk away from the cameras and the headlines, but it is inevitable as death. The memory I have of Chanderpaul was when he staged a two-man picket with then President Jagdeo at the Providence Stadium.

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The Chanderpaul issue: Sentiments are dangerous things

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