Lincoln Lewis justifies Dr Patsy Thomas' uncouth & vulgar behaviour at UG Council meeting.

Dr Patsy Francis gesturing in the
face of UG Council member
Indra Chandrapaul

Lincoln Lewis just doesn’t get it. He’s now extended his arbitrariness and solecism from single words to entire practices. He sought to excuse the boorish behaviour of Dr Patsy Francis, who had loudly and stridently berated UG Council member Indra Chandrapaul while having her finger stuck firmly into Chandrapaul’s face. All for Lewis’ picketing pal Kissoon.
Anyhow, Lincoln sought to make a distinction between Francis’ behaviour as a ‘person’ versus that of a ‘trade unionist’. According to Lewis, in trade union language, “militancy” and “fight” – which is the default position of trade unions means that trade unionists can behave as uncouth, rambunctious, and vulgar as they feel like doing. Once you’re a trade unionist, you have to learn how to behave; ‘wrong and strong’ in the most obnoxious manner. It is quite possible, from the vehemence of Lewis’ assertions that the unions dutifully teach members to behave ‘bad’.
It is also possible that they have punitive sanctions for members who refuse to get down and dirty towards employers and their representatives. We can now understand the crude language and disorderly and obstreperous behaviour of PSU members during their 1999 strike. Most Guyanese, up to then, assumed that these ‘white collar’ government workers, long the crème de la crème of the Guyanese workforce, would conduct themselves with some level of decorum. Not then; not now if Lewis is to be believed. Or if Dr Francis is to be our model.
Does Lewis really believe that tactics adopted in the colonial era should be deployed at UG? Academics (we, of course, should exclude Kissoon, whose lack of credentials explain his congenital loutish behaviour) can only interpret and demonstrate ‘militancy’ and ‘fight’ so crudely? What hope therefore of labour becoming a social partner to run this country?
Are we surprised if this is the default reaction of an academic, why we settle disputes with our domestic partners with fistfights and battering? Shame on you Lewis!