Dear Editor,
I was surprised by the recent utterance of the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) that protests are “never” welcome as a dispute resolution tool. I’m not sure if this represents an official position of the PSC or it’s just a personal view being advanced by Mr Persaud. Either way, it represents a line of reasoning and thinking that has no place in a democratic society.
Protests have been used effectively the world over as an advocacy tool to address and bring attention to grievances and injustices and also to bring about necessary social change in circumstances and societies where retardation and stagnation are
occurring. Without protests some of the world’s biggest injustices would not have received the necessary attention that ultimately led to the demise of those repressive structures.
If Mr Persaud is implying that PNC sanctioned protests result in violence, then he should have been specific to mention the history of such occurrences and plead with the APNU members to ensure that their call for protesting the absence of a timeline for local government elections is accompanied by measures to ensure those protests are peaceful and do not infringe the rights of other citizens.
I hope that Mr Persaud, or the PSC, can publicly rescind his “never” position. Only recently I attended a private sector discussion on counterfeit goods and the word protest was raised as an option if issues aren’t adequately addressed. I would urge the PSC not to discard any tool in its advocacy arsenal, for it might find it useful some day.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Urling
Blue CAPS
