Friday, April 16, 2010

People ent got time to protest!

Peeping Tom: If the protests launched by the opposition parties following the 1997 general elections were infiltrated by the ruling party’s agent provocateurs as is being suggested by Freddie Kissoon and Sheila Holder of the AFC, then how does one explain that during the height of slow fyaah, mo fyaah, certain reporters were relieved of their equipment by thugs who disappeared into the crowd at Congress Place, the headquarters of the party that launched the campaign?
Was it a case of infiltration also that caused an individual to be kidnapped and taken to a certain location where he was interrogated? What about the fires that destroyed large sections of the business community, including the headquarters of GAWU and the properties belonging to the People’s Progressive Party? Were these also the work of infiltrators wishing to give the PNCR a bad name?
The logic of street protests by the PNC has historically been about making the PPP government look ridiculous. This is what was done in the sixties when the very class which joined the PNC in opposing the PPP suffered as a result of the PNC trying to make the supporters of the PPP look bad.
The street protestors in those days associated certain businesses with the PPP and therefore set out to make the government look ridiculous by setting upon this class and their properties. The goal was to make the government look ridiculous, never mind the destruction that was caused and the innocent victims involved.
Among the innocent victims whose properties were leveled were some of the very persons who were opposed to Cheddi. But that was not then deemed infiltration. It was deemed collateral damage. Martin Carter, a man whom is often referred to as Guyana’s national poet, referred to one day of infamy in Georgetown as the day when a city of clerks became a city of men. These were the words of a man who was bitter with Cheddi, and who sought to portray the cowardly actions in the streets as heroic.
There is nothing heroic or even redeeming about terror used to make people suffer simply because they are seen as being associated because of their physical characteristics with the government.
It was not infiltrators that led to the undressing of women in our streets, the smashing of windscreens at certain car parks and the robbing and molesting of citizens trying to get home to escape the infamy of the mo fyaah, slow fyaah campaign. It was not infiltration. The logic was to place pressure on the government to cause it to fall, and the means to bring about this was to make the government look ridiculous by assaulting innocent citizens and burning down businesses.
At one stage things got so out of hand that a leading executive of a major corporation was forced to come out and condemn what was taking place in the streets. On that very day, that executive was joined by the owner of a television station which was not at the time perceived to be sympathetic to the ruling party, in also condemning the lawlessness that was taking place. And those individuals knew to where they were directing their criticisms; they were not directing it to agent provocateurs of the ruling party.
The right to protest is a democratic right but this does not translate to the right to inflict collateral damage or for that matter any damage at all. Thousands of persons in the streets protesting peacefully send a stronger message than a few hundred who seek to make the authorities look ridiculous.

6 comments:

  1. Well said Peeping Tom, the PNC being the leading opposition party has done nothing other but try to humiliate the PPP party by defying the government's work and his governance in Guyana...the PNC are ruthless and lack of ambition when standing up to the people...that slow fyaa, more fyaa capaign did not get them anywhere but to destroy innocent people lives and there well being and yet they want to even consider contending for the next election

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  2. I hope the public remember those day that inflicted so much pain by the PNC …there only from of understanding and administering something is through violence, these are insecure and lack common sense in determining what is right from wrong…but coming election will be different, that same campaign would back fire in their faces, people would not succumbed to their shit anymore

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  3. Indeed people ain’t got time to waste protesting because they are satisfied, so what is sense protesting , and if that was the case then it would not be on the manner to which the PNC conducted it…even though they would love to see that happen again...people are tired of their nonsensical habits stirring up corruption

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  4. People are looking at dealing with real substantive issues, not rumors emanating from criminals. Long gone are the days when persons will down tools and protest in the hot sun, people have realized that it is only this Government who represents their interest not any other political party.

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  5. The people have realize that there is no need to protest against the government who are doing every thing in their power to make their lives comfortable and got their best interest on their minds.

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  6. Violence, corruption and the inhumane acts in the book that the intention of the PNC, all along even when they were in power…that slow fyaa, more fyaa campaign has gotten to the AFC as well, so just imagine what will happen as election is just around the corner, this public and supporters should start enforcing measures for this nonsense not to prevail…these people acts needs to come to end once and for all

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