Dear Editor,
I understand why we have to beautify our capital city but I simultaneously hear the agonies of the vendors and see their protest not as anti-progress but as a cry for respect and dignity. There surely must be a way to reason with the vendors rather than treat them like outcasts in their own country. There is something morally and humanly wrong with a scenario in which poor people stalls are bulldozed while the sins of the rich, including rich crooks, are left untouched. We are beautifying Georgetown by displacing poor people and disrupting their lives, but the ugliness of Stolen State Assets is left intact. We can reason with the rich and powerful but can’t reason with poor people.
It is that kind of official behaviour that needs to be checked. I join with all government supporters in wanting the government to succeed, for if they do, we all succeed. But I want to be an example going forward that fashions a culture of support that is not blind and mindless but one that is grounded in the defence of the poor and the powerless against the might of official and non-official power. I want Mr. Granger to be an effective and good president but I also want poor people to have bread and justice and equal opportunity to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty and want. That is why I stand on the side of the vendors.
Yours faithfully,
David Hinds
