Where were you last year?

Oct 07, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – A group of men were standing in one of the city’s avenues a few days ago. They were having what appeared to be an interesting discussion.
As I was passing, one of the persons in the group recognised me as someone he knew by face but not name. He turned to me and said, “Big Man wah yuh think about the President not wanting to meet with the Leader of the Opposition?”
I turned to him and asked, “What do you think about the rigging of the elections last year?” And I walked away before he and the other stunned members of the group could reply?”
A lot of persons have suddenly found their voices. They are freely and brazenly criticising the government on every conceivable issue under the sun. They are eager to vent their anger and voice their views.
But during the five months between March and July 2020 when the country was hijacked by the attempt to rig the elections, most of these persons were silent. They said nothing while the country was being held at a standstill and attempts were being made to rig the elections, including by seeking legal authorisation and through disingenuous declarations.
Not a tweet was heard from the many voices that are now very animated in being critical of the government. But when democracy – the very system which protects their right to express their opinion – was under siege, many of these voices were quiet.
Some of Guyana’s foremost academic who would usually rattle off opinions, said nothing during the elections impasse. They kept their peace.
One major AFC supporter never condemned the rigging but now wants to throw shade at government officials. But that only came after his attempt to ingratiate himself to the President by praising him, failed.
Suspicion is being raised about everything that the government does. The anti-vaxxers are now having a field day after a 12 year old boy died after taking the vaccine.
The post-mortem report into the child’s death found that he died from bleeding on the brain caused by a burst vessel. This is not one of the known side-effects of the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine which was administered is known to cause blood clots in extremely rare cases (one in a million). But there was no evidence of any blot clots causing the aneurysm which led to the 12-year old’s death.
But that is not what many of the skeptics want to hear. They want to indulge in conspiracy theories and so they are refusing to accept the results and implications of the post mortem.
It is the same baloney in relation to the destruction of the Brickdam Police Station. The Police claimed it had a written confession. Immediately, the skeptics began to claim that this is not the truth but that a cover-up is taking place. They want to believe some conspiracy theory about how the Government was behind the fire.
They refuse to condemn the work of the Fire Service because the President was critical of its response. But, they are quite willing to accept some unsubstantiated theory about what caused the fire.
The skeptics could not have been happier when they read a news item that the suspect is claiming that he could read and his confession was obtained under duress. Without a shred of evidence, they are refusing to believe the Police.
But, during the five-month elections impasse not a word could have been heard from the anti-government brigade. The shame was too much for them to bear. But many of them were also hoping, beyond reasonable hope that somehow the APNU+AFC would have managed to pull from the attempted rigging. They were quiet and kept their fingers crossed.
But when the attempt failed and the PPP/C was declared the winner, it was then that the animosity rose to the surface. The criticism of the government and what they would do, began even before the Cabinet was sworn-in.
No one bothered so say that the 40 year-old President should be given a chance to show what he can do. At every step, the poor fellow is being assailed.
They are even critical of the numerous relief efforts which are being implemented, including the COVID-19 cash grant, the school’s cash grant and the pensioners’ cash grant. But, they are still collecting what is due to them despite their objections to the cash grants.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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