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Oct 16, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Last Sunday, Senator Ted Cruz and Tea Party favourite, Sarah Palin, led a protest that turned violent at two sites – the Second World War Memorial and outside the White House.
The protest holds instruction for Guyanese opposition politicians who are accustomed to frowning on protest as if it is a thing to be scorned.
The Cruz/Palin action also has implications for the way we see opposition politics in Guyana.
Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin are two of the biggest names in anti-Obama politics in the United States. You may not like their ideology and their general approach to politics, but the undeniable fact is that they are large names in conservative politics in the US. Cruz and Palin led a demonstration on the WWII Memorial.
Because of the shutdown of the American civil service and related arms of the US Government, the war site was closed, with barricades surrounding the site. The demonstrators forcefully carted off the barricades and dumped them outside the White House fence.
There was no rush of National Guards, Washington DC policemen with guns or SWAT teams. Park police battled with demonstrators. Here were two highly prominent politicians leading a protest that reached the perimeters of the White House. And they did so because they had a point that they wanted to prove.
In Guyana since the last general elections, you can literally count on your five fingers how many of our legislators from the opposition held a placard in a protest. If my memory serves me right, I count once for Carl Greenidge outside the Office of the President in July last year to protest the Linden police killing; twice for David Granger; one with Greenidge mentioned above and outside of the Marriott Hotel site; two for Joe Harmon and there were the occasions mentioned above with Mr. Granger.
I count three for Khemraj Ramjattan – during the protest against my dismissal from UG, outside the Marriot Hotel construction and one with Mark Benschop. I saw Cathy Hughes thrice— once at UG when I was dismissed, outside the Marriott Hotel Construction and outside Sam Hinds’s home during the Linden uprising.
Apart from these names mentioned here, no other opposition legislators were seen in pickets since the November 2011 elections. And I can safely say that there have been more than three dozen acts of protest/demonstration on national issues of importance since the last general elections almost two years ago.
The outstanding figure, of course, is Desmond Trotman. Mr. Trotman is in a different category. He believes in protest. Of the top names in the leadership of the AFC and APNU who are not Parliamentarians, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye of APNU and Michael Carrington of the AFC stand out for their consistent participation in most forms of public protest against the PPP’s unjust rule.
For those in the Government and the PPP who constantly lament the opposition’s willingness to protest, one would be curious to know what interpretation they would put to Sunday’s event outside the White House.
The truth of the matter is that Guyana is a nation of sheep. We don’t protest against injustice, period! And our parliamentarians believe that their status prevents them from picketing and demonstrating in public. It seems that they believe it is infra dig for parliamentarians to be seen on the streets holding a placard.
Recently, Roger Luncheon publicly stated that the Government will move to arrest parents and teachers who stage protests outside of schools. And we are going to let him get away with that horrible statement. And if we do protest, we will make sure that we keep our voices down. And of course when the picket exercise starts, our opposition parliamentarians will keep their distance.
I have reached the stage in my life where I simply cringe when in my presence I hear Third World academics and politicians beat up on the white man.
The white man is everything bad. But we do not show the world that we are better than the white man. We do not have the courage to be as brave, inventive and innovative as the white man.
A wealthy US Senator leads a violent protest on the White House while here in Guyana, our opposition parliamentarians let women and young children lead the picket while they watch from their air-conditioned offices. Why do we, post-colonial people, have a permanent fixation about the “evil” white man because we need him to be our excuse for our perennial failures?
We can’t help ourselves, so blame the white man. And that gives us mental comfort. We feel vindicated when we fool ourselves.
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