… By the PNC
One of Eric Williams’ famous statements, when he launched the PNM’s 30-year reign in Trinidad back in 1956, was: “street fighting is over, and politics in Parliament will now begin”. Unfortunately for us in Guyana, his contemporary, Burnham, who had intensified his “fight on the streets” in Guyana into a literal racial civil war to come to power, did not wean his party to restrict politics to the civilized rules of Parliament.
In fact, with the PNC and Burnham rigging elections between 1968 and 1985 by bringing in the army to grab ballot boxes and murder civilians in the process, they expanded the arena of violence. The PNC’s parliamentary democracy was always interpreted as cynical – with a wink and a blow to the solar plexus of other political players. Some murders by Police “encounters” (Koama / Dublin), or with bombs planted in walkie-talkies (Rodney), or arbitrary torture after framed accusations (De Willem 15) were examples of politics that they practiced while in power.
When escorted after 28 years, PNC’s violent street politics returned without missing a beat – and Guyana knew no peace between 1997 and 2008. Then there was hope they learned a lesson – that violence can take control and consume us All. They re-calibrated, changed their name to APNU, entered into coalitions with the AFC, and returned to power. But it soon became clear that they could not keep going straight and narrow. The folk wisdom predicts that once canines start “sucking eggs”, they can’t stop!
And so the PNC returned to its rigging ways; and when that was blocked, has now refused to practice Parliamentary politics. Ever since August 2nd, if not the courts, it’s streets with their clenched fists and their supplementary rhetoric, racially based.
For the past few days, they have been protesting outside CID headquarters because former GL&SC Chairman Trevor Benn had been brought in for questioning about some transactions that the Police claimed to be is questionable. He had already been charged – like others – for some other transactions after the exact same questions by the Police. Therefore, your Eyewitness cannot conclude that the PNC has a problem when the Police follow their SOPs in dealing with suspected breaches of the law. So, they want the Police to make an exception for Benn?
But we know what’s going on, don’t we? All this simulated righteous indignation is just playing to the PNC gallery, in order to lift them and curb the street violence that has been their trademark since the 1960s.
Hope your Eyewitness the PNC constituency has learned their lesson after sixty years of being used as cannon fodder.
And the launch of a new democratic party!
… And serial murders
So we have another US serial killer, this time in Atlanta, where a 21-year-old white dude shot and killed 8 people – including 6 Asian women. “Oh no! So when will it stop?” Was your Eyewitness’s first thought. And his answer to himself was, “Not in my life”, because this was a racist crime, and even after All protests in the United States over the past year against racial hatred are not going away soon.And this is the clear and present danger with the PNC’s racist politics here in Guyana.
The fella said it was not “race”, but “sexual addiction”. And so, the next question is: “Why kill only Asian women?” Was he addicted to Asian women? And this is where grace comes into play. After the wars fought on Asian soil, beginning with the Philippines in 1898, then Japan in 1945, Korea in 1950; Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos etc of the sixties, many white American men have a fetish for Asian women.
They are considered docile and agile.
… And pavement politics
The Mayor met with vendors to get them to buy into his plan to bring some order to the pandemonium that reigns on the city’s pavements.
Your Eyewitness’s latest foray into town shows nothing has changed. Next move?
