Let freedom ring…

AFC Bondage

When Ramjattan and Trotman ran off together from the PPP and PNC to start the AFC, they didn’t relinquish their seats in Parliament.

The two lawyers defended their action with devious sophistry. They claimed that they were representing the people who had voted for them and so they could not be removed by the PPP or PNC. They waxed eloquently about the ‘free mandate’ theory of representation: an MP should have the right to vote his ‘conscience’ rather than being forced to go along with the party.

To insist otherwise, as the PPP and PNC were doing, was to hold MPs in bondage, our dyspeptic duo shrieked.

The PPP and PNC later closed the ambiguity in the Constitution to prevent future “floor crossing” – over the vehement protests of Ramjattan and Trotman. Such principles! Such idealism! Such bovine excrement! Last weekend, Ramjattan and Trotman read the riot act at a special conclave of their MPs at the Pegasus.

Where else? It’s free, after all. Ramjattan put a spin on his warning to the AFC MPs not to vote with the government on the budget. It was comical but betrayed his assessment of why his cohorts are in politics – money.

Ramjattan told the press the PPP was trying to buy some of their votes! Hey Ramjattan! The AFC stalwarts are all “honourable men” aren’t they? At least that’s how they’re addressed in Parliament, no? They can’t be bought – the way you were by interests determined to bring the PPP down.

But we feel the AFC’s MPs vote their conscience… “free mandate” theory and all that! Let’s see if you and Trotman will use the law you opposed to keep them in bondage.

Let freedom ring! Let it ring from the forests of Region Seven to the village of Whim! C’mon Nagamootoo and Ramayya… vote your conscience. Granger already has marked the two of you as ‘untrustworthy”. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb!

Mental slavery

We Guyanese know very well that teaching at a university is no assurance that one does not think like an idiot. Remember Kissoon? The latest proof of this truth came with a letter on cricket from Hillary Beckles who pompously begins: “Reasoning and writing as a West Indian academic…” With very good reason, Michel de Montaigne had advised, “I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”

As he has always done, Beckles describes WI cricket players as unpatriotic louts… but now extends his dystopic view to Jamaica’s and T& T’s PMs and the WI “man in the street”. Referring to the present contretemps that has seen some of our best players out of the team, the man had the gall to claim that despite the ‘best efforts” of the WICB, ‘Blame the Board’ has become the rallying call, championed by the man roaming the street.”

The average fan is thus a feral, irrational creature ‘roaming’ the streets and PMs Miller and Bissessar who have called for an inquiry into the board are strident feminists in fear of “black masculinity gone wild”! This man is mentally enslaved.

Excess freedom

In disagreeing with Jerame Khan for supporting Chang, Kissoon reveals why he should have left the matter with the lawyers. As a ‘layman’ he disagreed with Chang’s rulings in the GCB/ IMC and bauxite matters – and used this to justify disagreeing with him on the Greene matter! This is exactly what the law prohibits, Kissoon! Each case must be judged on its own merits. Dolt!