Sustaining the split?
Frankly Speaking
By A.A. Fenty
Stabroek News
April 2, 2004
The respected Guyanese and Caribbean economist now based at the local university, Clive Thomas, mentioned in passing, during a recent television discussion that this country was "split down the middle."
He was alluding to an opinion that the current Administration should heed the criticisms and calls from the Opposition, partly because the PPP/C and its government did not command an overwhelming majority of the electorate now - or when they were voted into government at the last elections. Though Mr. Thomas was not explicit in mentioning race, I wish to comment on the split, real or perceived from two perspectives.
The PNC claims, from time to time these days that the PPP and its government are comfortable with the fact that the bandits target Indo-Guyanese as that serves as some type of comfort zone which indicates that the "Indians" will dislike the Afros and remain with the PPP as those victims would decide that there is safety in numbers. PNC Party spokesmen pen eloquent, if not persuasive letters to this newspaper arguing their case. One wrote, on Tuesday, inter alia: "It (the PPP) is persuaded that there is a net political gain in allowing the crime situation to drag on (consolidation of its ethnic support; putting the PNC/R on the back foot by blaming it for crime")
Another fellow also contributed: "It appears that government is only interested in crime that can be used as propaganda against the PNCR. People must be robbed, lives must be lost and women must be humiliated for the PPP/C propaganda canon to roar."
Whilst I may grudgingly concede that the Indo-Guyanese victims of Afro-executed crime will tend to silently consolidate with their (traditional) PPP, I also know that amongst those victims there is deep widespread dissatisfaction that "the government" is doing precious little to protect them. There is great disaffection. Many are voting with their feet so great is their fear and discontent with government's response. (Of course, there is no question of those victims ever "voting PNC".) In many cases too, victims of crime don't see the fault as a government failure directly. They criticise an inept Police Force.
In any case, the end result, the bottom line of these predominantly "black-on-Indian" attacks is the sustenance of the divide, whether now or entrenched. "They are attacking us."
The other perspective is the one being touted by the PPP/C Spin Doctors: that crime intensifies when the PNC mobilises for its now routine protests and marches. Surely that can't hold water. In the post-jailbreak rampage the PNC did not "mobilise". There were no marches for many months, but crime continued unabated.
The split remains secure even if the bandit-attacks are not racially motivated. Perception is often stronger than reality As the inter-party rhetoric rises in tempo, the PPP/C repeats its beliefs that anti-government, Buxton-friendly political forces aided and abetted the escapees and their disciples. Since the "Gajraj affair", the PNC/R has heightened their own propaganda that the big businessmen are not their folks and that there is clear linkage between Death Squads and the (then) escapees. Meanwhile, ordinary, innocent working-class citizens suffer and the split widens - or, at least, remains sustained. What a place!
There is the maxim - the reality - that nothing is really ever truly free of some cost. Like the much-touted "free education" of the past, "free" health care is not really free. Somebody pays somehow.
I'm seeing a time, however, when more of our health care services will have to attract some cost-recovery payments directly. Not all. But quite a few. The government is straining at its seams to maintain "free" primary health care at its hospitals and clinics. Consider the following: try getting X-rays or medication from the private hospitals or pharmacies; use a bandage or a pair of gloves in a private hospital. Compare your burden to the no-direct-payment for service at the public facility. Can our resources sustain that? Even as many abuse the "free" system?
Whenever we read of specialists visiting the government hospitals to provide top-class treatment, compliments of other countries goodwill or "co-operation", there is still always a cost to be borne by us - the hosts and beneficiaries. Could you conceive of those specialised, expensive procedures being made available gratis by private sources? Contemplate on these issues and don't abuse your own local goodwill. For if you believe the state has a right to provide you with medical services, you must also agree that you will have an accompanying responsibility. More later.
Miscellaneous
1) The Indo-victim's relative says: no matter how the `papers highlight the few Afro-Guyanese robbed, we know the majority. (I think: for one or many, the fear, the horror must be the same).
2) Is there no strategy available on earth to rid the community or guns? Don't tell me that Mr. Gajraj has caused all those weapons to be out there. Rather enact laws - if they are not there already - to empower the cops to conduct surprise searches in known trouble spots, at parties, at concerts and where the young congregate for entertainment or transportation. The key to the lessening of death and robbery is partly in getting guns off the streets and out of the pants!
3) But look how "quietly" the Bird Dynasty in Antigua collapsed.
4) What do GIHA and GIFT think of Phantom Gangs?
5) So we have two new political groups - the ARC and Mr. Puran's Alliance. What do you think? Leaders of impeccable integrity? A long shot at later alliances or alignments? Parliament and prestige? Discuss.
6) What!? What has really become of my beloved choral Silvertones?
7) Next week: "Public Scandal, Odium and Contempt…"
`Til next week!