Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 11, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Many analysts argue that if Jagdeo didn’t invoke the nastiness of race hate in the 2015 general elections, the Coalition would have won by a wider margin. In terms of election campaigning, Jagdeo didn’t invent nastiness. It existed in the world long before Jagdeo was born. An infamous or famous example of dirt in an election campaign was that of George W Bush versus Michael Dukakis. When he was Governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis permitted weekend passes for Wily Horton, a convicted killer.
While on the pass, Horton went on a rape and robbery rampage. The Bush campaign ran a powerful ad with Horton’s picture referring to him by his first name. The ad subtly hinted that if Dukakis became President, rapists like Horton would come into the homes of Americans. The advertisement was bitterly protested by African Americans and the Democratic Party itself. The claim was that it crossed all decent lines of campaigning. But the damage was done. Dukakis was badly beaten. Many American historians believe the Horton advertisement was the reason for Dukakis’s defeat
If Jagdeo crossed the line of decency in 2015, the question must still be asked; what happens to the mind of rational human beings that they can vote for leaders that should never be elected. In 2015, the Jagdeo/Ramotar combination had ruled Guyana in ways that made even some of the world’s most enduring socialist countries look like capitalist states. At the end of those fifteen years, the masses and the working people made very few gains in social elevation as against big foreign companies and the local wealthy classes.
One can cite literally hundreds of policies of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal that undermined the economic well-being of the working classes. One that stands out in my mind is the sand truck restriction which still holds unto this day.
A truck carrying sand cannot be on the highways after 6 am. This means that all trucks have to deliver their loads of sand early in the morning. The truck then has to be at the sand pit in the wee hours of the morning. What is wrong with such a ruling? Absolutely nothing! The intention was probably sound. Traffic regulation was the reason. When you add context, then class structure and class politics come in. If you avoid confusion on the main highways by banning sand trucks then how could you allow similar transport vehicles? But this is exactly what the Jagdeo regime did. There is no time restriction on container trucks. You see them on all types of highways and streets in Guyana at all hours.
For me class politics come in. I would like to think sand truck owners fall into a lower economic category than the owners of those containers. This column was motivated by the accident involving a container truck and a street dweller in which the truck crushed the head of the man (see yesterday’s edition of KN). According to this newspaper, the incident occurred at around 8.30 am at the junction of High and Hadfield Streets.
My question is; what was the container truck doing at that extremely busy junction in the rush hour? If there was a time restriction on these humongous transport vehicles as is the case with sand trucks then maybe there would be less chaos on the streets.
These container trucks can be seen hindering smooth flow all the time. In a majority of situations, they hold up traffic. At the same time that man’s head was crushed my wife was having an argument with the driver of a container truck right outside my mother-in-law’s building on Hadfield Street. The container was facing west on Hadfield Street and traffic came to a halt; no other vehicle could have passed. It so happened that my wife and I were making our customary inspection of the former supermarket my mother-in-law owned.
The container hooked the electric wire that supplied electricity to our building. My wife pointed this out to the driver who cynically told his colleague that my wife is complaining about her wire when it was GPL’s wire. I was looking in another direction but I heard the exchange and immediately sprung into action. And you know how loud I can be. The container was about to damage our electricity supply and he claimed he was touching GPL wire.
Let me spare readers the details of our exchange. So what has all of this got to do with how people vote? Those same sand truck owners who are disadvantaged by the government that brought in that policy that favours container trucks, no doubt voted for Mr. Jagdeo’s party in 2016.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
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