Latest update January 20th, 2025 3:15 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Shahabuddeen, Stabroek News, Nandlall and History

Mar 22, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Since the beginning of human society, its inhabitants have asked each other why speak on a topic that you are not trained in. Once civilisation is alive you will hear those words. It is so natural for a human to ask another; “But you are not a lawyer, you are not an engineer, you are not a doctor, how can you say that?”
Since the death of the Dr. Mohamed Shahabudden, the panegyrics in the print media have been more numerous than the condemnations. Permit a digression please. At the fund-raising bar-be-cue for the medical operation of Ron Robinson, I was in the line behind eminent insurance tycoon, Bish Panday. At the front of the line was a well-known woman whose dead father’s name travel very far in Guyana. I knew the man’s wife (deceased) well because we attended UG as students. Adam Harris, the editor of this newspaper, knows this family in a very close way.
I turned to Bish and told him that I once did a column in support of a certain public sector manager. The woman turned around, looked at me in disbelief and with a raised voiced, intoned; “You defended him. You know what he did to my father?” There and then, I told her I could understand her anger. The manager did a wrong to her father and she was hurt. She had every right to be.
When we sing praise to others, why do we obfuscate the violations they committed on others? Richard Dawkins has written one of the best philosophical books that I have read and one of the world’s fastest selling nonfiction books, “The God Delusion.” There is huge mistake in his argument even though I support the central theme of Dawkins’ work. Dawkins argued that people believe in God because they accept that God stops humans from committing cruel things.
In polemicizing that this an illusion in people’s mind, he went on to say if you prove to humans that there isn’t a supreme being, then if you ask them that in the absence of such a supervisory hand over human affairs, if they would run wild and rape and kill for their own selfish reasons. He said humankind would answer no. But Dawkins have never tested that and it cannot be tested. Humans would not admit in a survey that in the absence of God, they would rape and kill.
Where Dawkins is wrong is that even though mankind believes in a supreme being, people still do bestial things to each other. Imagine if it can be proven to them that, there is not a god.
This digression is relevant to my overall direction in this column, and that is with or without God overlooking us, we have no right to hurt other people. When we do, others have a right to condemn us.
Anil Nandlall and the Stabroek News have joined in the eulogy of Shahabuddeen with Nandlall just assigning three lines to Shahabuddeen’s unacceptable role in the composition of the 1980 Constitution. The Stabroek News Editor is not a historian, Nandlall is not one either.
When historians write, they include the good and the bad; the positive and negative; the lawful and the lawless; godly, the ungodly; the honourable, the dishonourable, the honest and the dishonest. That is history. When you obfuscate history, you deny knowledge to future generations.
The Stabroek News tells us that Shahabuddeen came from abject poverty. But what does one learn about life when one remembers the poverty they grew up into? In poverty, your dignity and freedom are taken away. When you grow up, you ensure people in poverty are given dignity, freedom and justice. No one can lecture this columnist on how poverty should shape your mind.
If you take a survey (which may be impossible to do) of the five most debated topic in politics since the 1980 constitution came into being in that year, I would say that 1980 Constitution together with the words, ‘racial discrimination’ would top the list with the 1980 Constitution coming in at number two.
There has been agreement since Desmond Hoyte became the president right up to David Granger that the 1980 Constitution is not a wholesome document and needs to be quickly reformed. The present president is from the party that composed the 1980 document and he agrees that it needs to be overall.
It was reformed a few years ago but there is the consensus that there is huge room for extensive readjustments. I was once told that Shahabuddeen chose to live abroad because he feared never-ending criticism about the 1980 Constitution.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 13th, 2025

 

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Madray, Klass impress on Day Two

Madray, Klass impress on Day Two

Jan 20, 2025

Terrence Ali National Open… …GDF poised for Best Gym award Kaieteur Sports- The second day of the Terence Ali National Open Boxing Championship unfolded with a series of exhilarating matchups on...
Read More
Sajid, Noman, Abrar share all 20 wickets as Pakistan go 1-0 up

Sajid, Noman, Abrar share all 20 wickets as...

Jan 20, 2025

India skittle WI, SL bundle out Malaysia

India skittle WI, SL bundle out Malaysia

Jan 20, 2025

The shortest Test match to produce a result in Pakistan

The shortest Test match to produce a result in...

Jan 20, 2025

Windies crumble to spin as Pakistan seize control with 202-run lead in Multan

Windies crumble to spin as Pakistan seize control...

Jan 19, 2025

Ashby, Inverary, Lewis among winners on Friday

Ashby, Inverary, Lewis among winners on Friday

Jan 19, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]