Dear Editor,
I attended the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA) lunch yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel. There was a protest by some 200 or so people outside which was quite noisy when I arrived but not violent. I was told later that Minister David Patterson was harassed by the protestors as he arrived. Due to the heavy rainfall and some flooding of the Pegasus entrances and driveways coupled with the security arrangements, many attendees had to park and walk past the protestors to find dry ground through which they could get into the Pegasus premises. So Minister Patterson could have been exposed to a little “roughing up”, but nothing like could or would have happened in some other countries. That the protestors were able to get close to him is testimony to the fact that we are not really too scared of one another.
Inside the event I had a close view of all that was taking place, including the protest by a table of PPP/C supporters with makeshift placards which obviously had to be cleverly concealed on entry to the event. At the end of it all I was confused for a while. Should I be embarrassed at the behaviour of some of our political leaders and embarrassed for Guyana? Or should I see it as democracy in action. The optimist that I am I always prefer to see the glass half full than half empty. And President Granger’s response to the interruption which was nothing but graceful; helped me to conclude that democracy is alive and well in Guyana and that the Opposition, whose role it is to oppose and protest, know when to bring their actions to an uneventful close. I give the protestors credit for knowing when enough is enough.
I am a dual citizen and in my other place of abode the current president might have told the police to “lock them up” or encourage some of his supporters to slap them. There was none of that. Before the protest, I focused on the table of PPP supporters when the president was introduced and made his way to the podium. All but one of the persons at the table stood up, though some hesitatingly. I was encouraged. I said to myself the political culture is changing, not knowing what was soon to come. But even after the protest I am encouraged that we are a people who must be proud of each other. Protest is a legitimate tool, once done peacefully and without any threat of violence and harm. The protestors got their five minutes of attention and after being persuaded by the police to leave, did just that.
This is not the kind of treatment that should be meted out to a president in a decent and lawful society, but these are not normal times in Guyana. The president, like I said earlier never responded to the protestors but continued his address until it was clear that his remarks could not be heard by the audience. He stopped. He remained standing patiently at the podium for quite a few minutes while the protestors went on. In some other countries the protesters might have been removed at gun point and arrested. Not so in Guyana. The police acted quite professionally and the protesters knew quite clearly that after about five minutes, their time was up. They had made their point and gotten the attention they desired.
For me, I am encouraged. No police brutality. No leaving the event on the part of the president; no condemnation of his hosts – the GMSA notwithstanding that the audience was encouraged to give a round of applause to the protestors as they left…and the audience did. President Granger too got a hearty round of applause at the end of his very detailed presentation which covered his government’s response to the No Confidence Motion (NCM) and the legal justification for its actions thereafter; the process for his naming a date for elections and a quite long overdue expression of commitment to the role of the private sector and recognition of it as the engine of growth and development. He also fielded questions.
I had earlier joked with Bishop Juan Edghilll that he had defected from the protestors outside and told him I understood he was there to offer prayers and to bless the proceedings. Perhaps it was indeed a blessing in disguise, that we can disagree, protest, disrupt temporarily the president of the country….and then we all go home to live normal lives until another day and another protest, which hopefully will play out just as this one did.
On the question of elections, I would have preferred a November election at the latest. GECOM’s chairperson has advised otherwise. It is apparently her and her Commission’s call about when it is ready to hold credible and verifiable elections, and it is the Constitution, not Granger that mandates this. That is why we need constitutional reform.
In the meantime let the protests be peaceful. Let the government function as an interim or caretaker government and let all of us be responsible in our actions so as to ensure we don’t blow our first and last chance (combined) to enjoy the prosperity for which we have longed, for so long.
Yours faithfully,
Wesley Kirton
