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Jan 28, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
When I was doing philosophy at university, I was already committed to a position of uncertainly about creation. Yet I found the philosophy of one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church very absorbing.
Saint Thomas Aquinas’s argument had an uncanny resemblance to the concept of dialectics, though dialectics and creationism are opposed to each other. I liked the way Aquinas polemicized on the original existence of objects. For Aquinas, objects have derivatives. For him, objects are derived from the working of God. But even if you rejected God, then you have to find an explanation for the origins of objects.
When I read an interview with House Speaker, Raphael Trotman about gridlock in the 10th Parliament, I thought of my university days studying Aquinas. Trotman expatiated on the troubles of the 10th Parliament and pointed to gridlock as the cause of the failure of the 10th Parliament. But not one word was alluded to as to the source of the gridlock or its derivative.
Trotman came across in that interview as an opportunistic politician, and his emanations bordered on crass, political dishonesty. In my life I can live and respect a person who is diametrically opposed to me. I don’t want to have anything to do with someone who is diametrically opposed to me but tries to deceive me by constantly telling me he loves and admires me.
Life is about knowing where you stand in relation to your friend and your enemy. Martin Luther King Jr. said; “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
I had this big argument last Friday afternoon in Stabroek Market. I accompanied Michael Carrington of the AFC to the market to buy a phone. I am at the stall waiting and this UG lecturer I knew, Sukrishnalall Pasha, passed by. Pasha is a devotee of PPP rule in Guyana. Stallholders listened attentively to our heated exchange and when Carrington was ready to leave, Pasha said people can disagree but still remain friends not enemies.
I told Pasha that was silly reasoning. I want to be the enemy and not the friend of people who hurt others. A person cannot violate the rights of others and you and they remain on good terms. That is sickening nonsense. I told Odinga Lumumba loudly in front of other protestors outside Parliament not to refer to me as his friend, because I am not his friend.
But it goes beyond that. It goes back to Martin Luther King Jr. You know who your enemies are, but it is your so-called friends who may be just as bad as your enemies. Trotman gave a long interview to the Stabroek News and pulled down gridlock from the skies. This gridlock, Trotman had to reach for in the skies because it was never on the ground in Guyana.
Trotman found gridlock in the skies. I found it on the ground. When people talk about gridlock of the 10th Parliament they have to describe the inherent, historical arrogance of the PPP. The 10th Parliament failed because a party that was in power for nineteen years before the 2011 election results became intoxicated with power and refused to acknowledge the political consequences of those election results.
Looking back at the 10th Parliament, the question is; given the nature of the Constitution with regards to the power of the presidency, what APNU, AFC and other stakeholders could have done to dissolve the continuous parliamentary impasse? They couldn’t do anything except go for a no-confidence motion, because the presidency is all-powerful and the concessions had to come from the Executive branch.
But the presidency and the PPP leadership wanted the compromise to come from APNU and AFC and they wanted the compromise at the expense of the credibility of both of these parties. APNU broke the ranks of solidarity with the AFC and voted for the Cricket Bill. The PPP did not respond with any generous concession.
The AFC was prepared to break ranks with APNU and give the presidency the Amaila Falls amendments. The AFC wanted in return, the implementation of the Procurement Commission. The presidency was inflexible on its rejection of the AFC’s request. This wasn’t gridlock, but the arrogance of power.
Looking back at the 10th Parliament, one saw a morbid lust for domination by the PPP that prevented them from making even small concessions. These include the site of the 1823 monument and the composition of the Council of the University. The monument location was the business of African rights groups not the PPP’s, yet the PPP remained intransigent. The PPP was the cause of the gridlock.
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