More than 40 years ago when I was in
school the two books we had to study for GCE literature were Shakespeare's "The
Merchant of Venice" and "A Man For All Seasons" by Robert Bolt.
I have not seen Bolt's book since I left
school but I have a good memory for these things, now Bolt's book concerned the
life, and death, of Sir Thomas Moore later to be canonised by the Catholic
Church to become Saint Thomas Moore.
Moore's king, Henry VIII, wanted to
divorce his wife Katherine, now Katherine of Aragon was in fact Henry's elder
Brother's wife, his sister in law and Henry had asked the pope for a
dispensation to marry his brother's widow when he became king on his brother's
death, since Katharine's father was the king of Spain and it was a political/military/strategic
arrangement. Now I am speaking from memory of what I studied 40 odd years ago
so if I make a small error here and there, you will please forgive me, as time
went on Henry had no son by this Katherine of Aragon so he asked the pope to
proclaim that he had made a mistake and should dispense with his previous
dispensation, declare the marriage to Katherine invalid and void, and this
would allow Henry to marry his new sweetheart Anne Bolin.
The Pope told Henry to go to hell and
Henry told the pope to go to hell, the result was that Henry was kicked out of
the Catholic Church, we call it excommunication, and he formed his own church,
the Church of England of which he made himself the head.
But Thomas Moore who was the Chancellor
of the Exchequer [a position much like our Minister of Finance but with far
more wide ranging powers] was one of the most celebrated scholars of his day in
Europe, and refused to play
ball with Henry; but Henry was insistent since Moor's support would have given
enormous credibility to his shenanigans. One day when all in England were
required to take an oath saying that they would support Henry in this breaking
away from the church and swear allegiance to the issue of his marriage to Anne
Bolin, Moore who did not want to take this oath was trying to tell his friend
the Duke of Norfolk about the importance of the Law.
Norfolk who was not noted for his
intellect said to Moore, "Thomas I can never understand you, I would cut down
all of the laws in England to get at the devil" Moore looked at his friend in a
most piteous way and asked him "and after you cut down all of the laws and the
devil finally turns on you, where will you hide? Having no laws to protect you!!"
It is a simple lesson and even as a 17
year old boy I remember it today, you cannot play games with the Law.
Sometime last week it appears that our
President as usual looking for popularity, especially this close to the
elections, told the armed forces and the police that he wanted something done
about Buxton and that human rights considerations aside he wanted action, the
police and the army took this to mean that they had been given carte blanche to
break the law and go into Buxton with the army a completely illegal arrangement,
which is against the Law, and committed what the Guyana Human Rights
Association now call gross human rights violations and an ill conceived
disgrace.
You cannot beak the law to enforce it
Mr. Jagdeo, and as the GHRA has said you are a lucky man that this has not
escalated into a civil war. It yet may.
You cannot have the moral currency to
condemn Ronald Waddle, who deserves criticism by the way, when you yourself the
head of state is also breaking the law.
I yearn for a Guyana where the law is held supreme ladies and gentlemen where every
person regardless of colour, political or religious persuasion has true
equality under the law.
By doing what he is doing Jagdeo is
telling me that he either cannot address the problems of the Afro Guyanese in
this country, or he refuses to do so and that he does not intend to see that
they are treated equally like everyone else, and if that is the case, then he
has no right to be the President of this nation.
Even a black man living in Buxton is
entitled to the protection of the law Jagdeo, in doing what you did you acted
no differently than Henry VIII and I for one like the GHRA condemn you for it.
Whilst we are on the subject of
lawlessness by this administration I want to tell you about the Guyana uplink matter and I hope that the
members of the European Union are listening.
Around 8 years ago the Caribbean
Broadcasting Union and CANA were informed that they would receive 4.2 million
Euros as part of the Lome IV agreement, this money was supposed to integrate
the Caribbean as far as news was concerned and put uplink dishes in Guyana,
Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica and link the rest of the smaller islands by
microwave and fibre optic connections so that anything happening in the
Caribbean could be visible the same day. Floods in Guyana for example could be seen in Trinidad the same day this would and
could for example alert any nation within the Caribbean Basin as to the
plight of their neighbours and mobilise help, if indeed help is needed.
So the CBU/CMC sent Mr. Ulric Captain to
Guyana to decide which station in this country will host the uplink, now I knew
that if I produced anything I would not be able to rely on the government to
relay it to the other territories and I convinced Mr. Rex mc Kay, Mr. Jacob Rambarran,
Ms Kathy Hughes and Alfro Alphonso the other CBU members in Guyana that the
best place for this uplink was at the VCT studios in Quamina Street, and they
agreed.
To my utter astonishment I read in the
newspaper that Fuzzy Sattaur Mr. Luncheon's slave, had announced that this
uplink was going to be located at NCNTV in homestretch Ave.
I immediately called the CMC to find
out what the hell was going on, they told me that it was not true that the
final decision was not made, but that they had been informed by this government
that if they did not locate the uplink at NCN, the NFMU would be instructed not
to give them a license to operate the uplink from Guyana.
The result is that Guyana will not get
this uplink and we will be left in the dust as we are being left in the dust
because we are not fulfilling out promises to the Brazilians to build the road
and the deep water harbour in Guyana for them, just as the government makes constitutional
changes but cannot be relied upon to implement them, since the PNC are behaving
responsibly and are not marching, the message that this sends is that unless
the PNC marches the Jagdeo Government will do nothing to honour past agreements,
and that is very bad for the country but marching and disruptions makes the PNC
unpopular and that may be what the PPP wants, no matter who gets hurt among
you, that is what the PPP may want to happen, so I am asking the supporters of
the PPP to wake up and see the real picture and the consequences of it and
demand that this be done differently, according to the law.
The PNC is behaving responsibly, there
has been no kind of fire for several years now neither slow or fast and have
generally been law abiding with no open acts of civil disobedience, and we do
not want them on the road again it is bad for the country, but tell me in the
name of the Lord, what choice is the PPP giving them or their supporters?
