“Chase them out” versus “war break”

Jul 06, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Government leaders indicated that the police should interview the Opposition Leader for uttering the exclamation “chase them out.” The police did just that. They went to his office. The Opposition Leader was in Berbice addressing a public meeting of the PPP when he told his audience that after the no-confidence vote the APNU+AFC should have called general elections. He said the government should not be in power and Berbicians should chase the ministers out from the villages when they come up there to address them.
Jagdeo’s utterance was nothing new. He was pandering to his supporters. This is natural in politics. See my Friday, April 26, 2019 captioned, “Restricting Jagdeo’s right to free speech will come back to haunt,” and Wednesday, June 26, 2019 with the headline” “My advice to the new GECOM chairman.”
Government leaders felt that Jagdeo’s words were configured to inflame passions and they believed he broke the law.
Has the government’s effort to get the police to investigate Jagdeo come back to haunt their leaders as I suggested in the April 26 column? Well after Winston Jordan’s outburst at Bartica the answer should be yes. But there is no haunting. Jordan was not approached by the police.
Can the two statements be compared for subliminal or overt incitement? This is where opinions come in. Based on your perspective you may see Jagdeo’s rhetoric as inciting but Jordan’s outburst as just politicians mouthing off. To my mind it is the choice of words that should guide the researcher or commentator.
A politician tells his crowd that when ministers come to their villages, they must chase them out. The operative word here is “chase.”
Another politician, this time a senior minister on hearing that his government has lost a no-confidence vote in the country’s highest court told the rally he was speaking at that “from today comrades, war break.” He went on to tell them that CCJ or no CCJ they must take to the streets to protest for house to house registration.
The operative words in Jordan’s exhortation are, “war break.” In the case of Jagdeo, the words have a contextual time frame. Suppose the ministers do not go to Berbice, then there is no violence. Suppose they go and bring goodies then why would they be chased out?
This is what happened this week in Enmore. There was a Cabinet outreach and no one chased the ministers out of a village that since 1957 has overwhelmingly voted for the PPP. Jordan’s use of the word “war” is more dangerous.
In using the word “war” the connotation could hardly suggest peaceful protest.
We can disagree on the severity or innocuousness on what both men said but I cannot see how one could justify the police visiting Jagdeo and not Jordan. It is my inflexible opinion that if the police could have spoken to Jagdeo then Jordan’s remarks warranted a visit too.
Why the police have not interviewed Jordan is up for speculation. It brings the police’s role as an independent agent into sharp focus.
This has been the pattern of our politics since Independence. The PPP protects its erring leaders no matter how egregious were the output and emanations. “Killamaan” was a serial offender. The police never touched him.
In fact, Roger Luncheon described the insulting dance Satyra Gyaal did at the home of the American ambassador as a feral blast. Kwame McCvery is very much a part of the PPP.
What makes anyone thinks that if a PPP minister had told a volatile crowd in relation to the PNCs action that “war break” that the PPP would have disciplined him/her. No one in the leadership of the PNC has asked for an investigation into how a person dressed as Santa Claus found her way in Parliament while it was in session.
The disguised person was seen entering a vehicle owned by an APNU minister. Simona Broomes used the respected chambers of the National Assembly to film a video that was scurrilous. Of all the places she identified, the National Assembly was her choice. The Speaker declined to discipline Ms. Broomes.
So the police are not going to talk to Jordan. At the same rally in Bartica, Nagamootoo made some ominous statements. But which police officer is going to interview the Prime Minister?
Our political culture is a debased on. I saw how both Jagdeo and Ramotar further push it into the mud. I really had huge expectations of David. Yes, the president does not incite or instigate and he doesn’t engage in vulgar language. In fact, he publicly said he disapproves the words “testicular fortitude” in the caption of a Chronicle column by Lincoln Lewis. But he is surrounded by philistines.

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“Chase them out” versus “war break”

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