Circo Guyano starring Joe Shanlin

Apr 01, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Minister of the Presidency (de facto deputy president although the man from Whim is the Prime Minister), Joe Harmon must believe that this entire world of 7 billion people minus him are complete fools. When someone thinks all other humans are idiots it is time to call in the Freudian analyst.
In my column of Wednesday, February 20, 2019 titled, “Harmon’s harmonica lacks harmony,” I wrote, “Harmon told the media that the court judgement on foreign citizenship is yet to be pronounced on by the other two tiers of the court system – Guyana’s Court of Appeal and Caribbean Court of Appeal – and when the court proceedings are exhausted then he would decide on his foreign status.
“Either Harmon’s harmonica is malfunctioning or he is playing non-existent notes and so the harmony is lost in a cacophonous echo.”
Harmon has maintained that grotesque position after the Court of Appeal’s decision last week on the no-confidence vote (NCV) even though the facts are sunshine clear. What Harmon is talking about and what Carl Greenidge and Dominic Gaskin are silent about constitute one of the most outrageous and despicable acts of deception by any politician or political administrator since colonial times.
Greenidge and Gaskin cannot be accused of behaving like clowns in a circus. They have not been speaking about their dual citizenship. Greenidge and Gaskin find the wicket too turning thus unplayable and have decided to hold back on stroke-making and just put pad in front. Harmon on the other hand is going down the wicket and driving to all types of googles and doosras and when he is stumped he wants a review even though his team has exhausted their quotas of reviews.
Harmon keeps insisting that he is waiting on the last tier of the court jurisdiction for Guyana (the CCJ) before he makes a pronouncement on his dual citizenship. Bizarre is not the word to describe this stance. The correct adjective is clownish.
Now we could have forgiven Harmon for behaving like a joker in the circus if he uttered what all humans may do one day in the future of their lives – disagree with what the laws and the constitution of their country stipulate.
Harmon’s situation is a fantastic piece of clownish act for which the world is laughing at Harmon, his government, his party and the country. The leadership of Harmon’s government filed papers some of which bore Harmon’s signature asking the court to declare that MP Charrandass Persaud could not have sat in the National Assembly and voted because the constitution prevents a person with dual citizenship from sitting in the House.
The High Court and the Court of Appeal agreed with the writs. The judgement is that an MP that holds citizenship of another country cannot be a member of the National Assembly. It ends there because there is no appeal to the CCJ arguing for a reversal of that.
What is sickening about the Harmon/Greenidge/Gaskin stance is that once they knew they had citizenship papers from another country, they should not have pursued the revocation of the NCV based on that reasoning but stick to the 34 versus 32 formula.
They won that formula. If they had stuck to that approach there would have been no pronouncement by the courts or anyone else about dual citizenship. But it was the party of Harmon, Greenidge and Gaskin that approached the court to rule that an MP’s dual citizenship makes his/her presence in parliament unconstitutional.
To make Harmon, Gaskin and Greenidge look like performers in a circus, Lennox Shuman, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Gail Teixeira and Odinga Lumumba have agreed that if they have to give up their citizenship of another country they will so do.
The Opposition Leader keeps outfoxing the APNU+AFC war room. He says dual citizens in the PPP will not be returning to parliament or they can give it up. Morally you would expect the APNU+AFC leadership to say the same.
While Gaskin and Greenidge haven’t found their voice to inform the nation about their intention, “Joe Shanlin” is still going down the wicket and driving. It appears “Lil Joe” doesn’t care what the world says about him. He is at the crease and he is not conceding that the wicket-keeper stumped him. He wants a review.
But here is the thing. Joe’s team has exhausted their quota of reviews. But let us say Joe is granted the privilege of a review and the third umpire says Joe has to leave, will he do so? Can the nation count on Joe to “call it George?” What if he calls it, Joe?

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Circo Guyano starring Joe Shanlin

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