Encouraging anarchy

Looting

The lootings have begun in Linden, following the protests and the unfortunate shootings. The electronic goodies in the Digicel Store have all been pilfered. We will cease to pronounce on the shootings themselves until the commission of inquiry, about to be set up, are announced. But we all knew there are elements that were just waiting for the protests to ‘do their thing’ – and ‘their thing’ is never the thing of the public. It all has to do with exploiting the situation for their own narrow and selfish interests.
But the politicians stirring the witches’ cauldron in Linden knew all of this. They’re politicians who know the history of the country – and specifically the history of Linden, even before it was ‘Linden’. There were fires here before – and lootings. How many protests after the elections of December 1997 did not get ‘out of hand’ in Georgetown? And did they not lead to beatings, arson and fires? Did not the protest march after the elections’ last year careen out of control and the police were forced to use pellets to bring back law and order?
So what did these politicians, who were in the midst of the protestors, think would happen? Did their explanation that the marchers were tired and so were just ‘resting’ on the bridge hold any water, when traffic was prevented from moving across? So this jamming of the bridge with human bodies have nothing to do with Aubrey Norton’s observation to a meeting of Lindeners earlier in the month – that Linden controls the passage into the interior – have nothing to do with the resulting blockade of the bridge? Pleeease!
There is the theory of the ‘social contract’ that suggests we formed a contract between the state and the people so that we would be protected from the anarchy of everybody ‘doing their own thing’. The people elect their representatives to represent their interests as the state allocated resources, etc. Protests are permitted by the people if the latter feel their representatives are not representing their interests effectively in the corridors of power. But those protests must be peaceful or else it’s tantamount to trying to overthrowing the state.
Maybe this is what some politicians and their supporters want in Guyana. They have no interest in working through the institutions of representations to make their point: they want power at all costs. Such politicians must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

PNC’s internecine struggle
The PNC’s leadership beauty contest is shaping up as a real bloodletting between the partisans of Greenidge and Granger (Sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?). Up to now the two top guns have been taking pains not to personalise the contest – but don’t expect this to continue for long. With Aubrey Norton in Greenidge’s corner expect the sparks to fly from their direction with such intensity that Granger is going to have a heck of a time maintaining his carefully crafted ‘statesman’s image.
Don’t forget that Hoyte, the consummate PNC middle class operative, threw out Norton from the PNC’s general secretary’s position.
Granger, in coming from the same strata as Hoyte, seems to share the latter’s opinion of Norton. Even though Norton tooted his horn in claiming ownership of APNU’s success in Linden, Granger refused him a seat in Parliament. It’s payback time!!

Mining concerns
The Linden protests are sure to affect the economy very negatively. The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) expressed concerns about the protests’ effects on miners.
Obviously not expecting an early solution, they advised miners to skirt Linden. This move might just become permanent.