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September 15, 2002: The poor people of this world, will they ever see the light of day? I once used a line in one of my Kaieteur columns taken from the movie, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. I was a tiny little boy when I saw that movie and that line left a lasting impression on me. You are not going to believe this, but believe it -- I don't have that song, I haven't got the soundtrack and since that time, I have only heard that song once. I remember those words from way back then, and I know that verse out of my head. Here it is again. Jesus was speaking to some of his disciplies, and he turned to them and said:
Surely, you're not saying
We have the resources
To save the poor from their lot
They will be poor always
Pathetically struggling
Look at the good things you've got
Somebody ought to tell the PNC about this song. It is on the soundtrack of the movie. Can someone please download this song from a music site on the internet for the PNC before the music sites fall victim to copy right laws. If not, can someone please ask an overseas supporter of the PNC to buy the soundtrack and send to Congress place. Alright, let's make matters simple, I will pay for the purchase of the soundtrack in New York, I will pay for shipping at Larparkan because the PNC leadership needs to hear this song.
There comes a time in the life of a political party when the very existence of its supporters comes before party politics. There comes a time in the life of a political party when political games are put aside (temporarily of course) and fundamental principles of human relations take precedence. Is it alright for Venezuela to invade Guyana because the party you hate is in power? Well to choose that path is not only stupid but suicidal. What makes you think that when the invaders invade, and the government falls, your party will come to power? The invasion marks the end of the government, your party, your country, and maybe even you if you irritate the invaders.
I know this has been a long-winded way in coming to the point but I wanted to establish my theoretical parameters because my accusation against the PNC on an issue I am about to elaborate gets to the roots of the sordidness of the historical role of party politics in this country and how political parties play with the lives of their supporters manipulating the racial make-up of their supporters for the sake of tasting power. A majority of African Guyanese believes that the political purpose of the PNC is to secure a political economy for them so that they can concretize their existence in the land of their birth. A majority of African Guyanese would reject the accusation that the PNC's game is power and African interests are second to this. You can't blame the PNC for being the only party in the world that lives this opportunistic existence political parties are by nature opportunistic, manipulating creatures. But the PNC's callous abandonment of a section of its supporters in present day Guyana is abominable, I am talking about the vendors who were suppose to move into the Toolsie Persaud structure.
When the vendors were being chased off the pavements the way people swat flies, the PNC denounced this undignified eviction. Dr. Kenneth then wrote the longest letter ever carried in a local newspaper defending the rights of the vendors to make a living. One suggestion King was adamant about was the forced purchase of a building to house the victims. Enter Bharrat Jagdeo. Jagdeo then took up King's suggestion. This was a move beyond party politics. This was a national recognition of a fundamental problem of class wrong. This was a national solution to a classic case of class inequality. But since the purchase of that building, the PNC and ACA have been silent.
Let them eat concrete, the PNC and ACDA must be saying. Well they have to be saying this because the vendors have no way to go. They are still being chased away while King lives nicely in Belgium, and the PNC and ACDA sermonize us with their mantra of marginalisation and discrimination. But can't somebody show and tell the vendors that the PNC and ACDA are silent on their marginalisation because the PNC is on record of opposing the purchase of the Toolsie Persaud structure. Not one word came from the PNC, not one word came from ACDA when Mr. Persaud said he paid millions in American dollars for architectural services and others works done to the structure and therefore was calling close to half of a billion dollars for the sale.
But the PNC has a moral duty to see that the vendors move into this structure without delay. Under the Hoyte administration, this business firm was given generous concessions. This business firm was close to the PNC administrations of Burnham and Hoyte and enjoyed the benefits of clientelism. Now fatherless children whose mothers have to absorb the torrid rays of the sun on a daily basis to sell a few items of haberdashery on the pavement to feed their babies are being made victims of a power game.
This ain't no game. This ain't no political tussle. This is reality staring us in the face poor women are on the pavement illegally vending and living in perpetual fear of the city council police. And now that they have a lifeline thrown to them it is being made into a football to be kicked around for the narrow purpose of tasting power. Are the vendors so blind they can't see through the crass opportunism in the PNC and ACDA? Is Kenneth King too busy in Europe to pen a letter pleading with his colleagues in the PNC and ACDA to intercede with Mr. Persaud to let the structure go to the vendors who are hurting? Mr. Hoyte must know about the lands some Indian families own in Guyana. This ownership is dotted all over the landscape of this country including a part of an East Coast enclave which should have been given to UG lecturers
There is a real sordid dimension to this manifestation of party politics in Guyana. The PNC and ACDA were reeling with anger over the eviction of the vendors. King was writing letters so long that your eyeballs came out of their sockets in trying to finish reading them. Then once Jagdeo steeped in and claimed that he would give the vendors a canopy, the sound of silence took over the PNC and ACDA. In the meantime, the cries of marginalisation and discrimination continue on Channel 9. It is a nocturnal menu of African impoverishment. Strangely enough the people who have composed this hymn support the super rich wealth of an Indian businessmen over some starving African women. Maybe some charity house needs to share out spectacles to these vendors but not the ordinary type of eye glasses.