Dear Editor,
Last Monday (SN March 09) you carried my letter which outlined the instruction given to me by what’s left of my conscience. That was to register publicly my personal outrage at the “Coalition” friendly GECOM’s first attempt to fraudulently award votes to incumbent kith-and-kin.
I promise not to become a daily letter-writer to these columns – like so many activists, analysts, advocates and surrogates always with something to prosecute or defend. How often do I not detect a case being made on behalf of an issue but at the personal dictates of the politics of perks and position?
Some professional letter-writers do contribute to enlightening robust debate. But I write this because my Friday column sometimes seems too “late”.
My conscience is at it again. For even though last Friday it compelled me to explain my rejection of electoral fraud now (March 2020) when I lived along with and tolerated massive rigging of the People’s will under Burnham and Hoyte, I feel I should emphasise for emphasis: I was an impressionable PNC “comrade” who actually felt I was working with the Kabaka to empower the marginalized section of the population – the Afros who eventually voted with their feet by the thousands.
Then again, under the rigging and the two PNC Presidents, brilliant minds, claimed that working with those “comrade leaders” was their way of putting their qualifications and talents “in service to the people”. Remember Ramphal, Shahabuddeen, Jackson, King, Chandisingh, Wills, Reid? As well as the cross-overs?
Today, as I note Bharrat Jagdeo now using one of my favourite words, “thievery”, again I cleanse my conscience and soul and lose some friends. Whatever the spin the young Turks and party veterans manufacture to flood the media and Facebook, like an aggrieved Kit Nascimento lamented: it was the most blatant form of vote-rigging ever recently experienced. So what do you do in the face of “Total National Defence” and friendly party police ranks with new equipment? How do you deal with the consequences of the electoral thievery and the new regime?
Well there is some hope from external sources. But I have my own doubts. Are the Americans not comfortable with his Military Excellency managing the Oil and Gas? Will any sanctions be specific to the rulers of the regime? Or will those sanctions militate against the poor?
For those who will be forever upset and bitter that their will via their votes, now matters not, I advise that you still teach your young that democracy will prevail sometime soon and yes, their vote will still mean something fundamental.
I advise too, still pay respect to our vital institutions and constitutional offices. Without them orderly societies and states fail. You don’t have to socialise and interact with office-holders you’ll now despise. Leave social/fraternal organisations they will still inhabit. Watch colleagues who benefit from positions born of electoral fraud and try hard to understand their survival and “progressive” skills. They decided that ”they have to live”. And remember: when the real poor sees benefits he forgets about rigging. Like me, you might have genuine friends or relatives who have sent you into permanent opposition. But realise please: friendship, necessary co-existence and brotherhood/sisterhood can always trump politics. Staying away from bitter thoughts could be a challenge, but you have to survive any autocracy for the sake of those close to you. Pay more attention to your faith if you have one. Be secure in the knowledge that “God doan wear pyjamas”. And even the mighty have to be scared of COVID-19/Coronavirus.
Stay safe and re-create a life.
Yours faithfully,
Allan Arthur Fenty
