HAUL YOURS
January 6, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source - Kaieteur News
In The Middle Passage, V. S Naipaul recounted an incident at a political meeting in the 1960s in New Amsterdam. It was a meeting at which the then opposition politician Forbes Burnham was speaking.
It was a roadside meeting and as Burnham was at the podium one person riding past on a bicycle shouted out, “Burnham!” To which, without breaking a note, Burnham, replied, “Mister to you!”
Not long after another person drove by in a car and shouted “You lie! You lie! “Burnham continued to speak and then as the car disappeared, his repartee done with perfect timing was “…as that jackass will never understand.”
The crowd in attendance, according to Naipaul, roared their approval. They certainly enjoyed that feral blast from the man who would later become Prime Minister and then President.
In all the years that have followed that incident in New Amsterdam, never I have heard anyone demand that Burnham apologize for that feral blast or for that matter calling a citizen a jackass.
Many years later, Burnham was to address a meeting in a PPP stronghold on the Corentyne. Some PPP supporters, so the folklore goes, tied a few donkeys near to where the meeting was to be held. The donkeys were still there when Burnham’s turn came to speak. As he spoke, a member of the crowd asked him when he was going to give the area lights (electricity), to which Burnham is said to have replied, “Why do donkeys need electricity?”
I have never heard anyone call on Burnham to apologize for referring to the people of that Corentyne village as donkeys. What is known is that when electrification came to the Corentyne, that particular Village was bypassed for electricity even though the power lines passed through that village.
A local politician is fond of telling the PPP to go and haul their tails. I have never heard anyone call on him to retract that statement or to apologize for that feral blast.
But it now seems as if somehow people feel that they have a right to call on the President of Guyana to apologize for allegedly calling someone “stupid”.
Well, if Burnham was not asked to apologize for calling a citizen a “jackass”. And if that AFC politician who likes to advise the PPP to haul their tails has never been asked to apologize for his feral blast, why should anyone call on the President of Guyana for allegedly calling someone “stupid”?
None of the above mentioned statements of political repartee can be deemed as incendiary. None have inflamed public passions; even though the opposition would like to turn the statement allegedly made by the President into a political hot potato.
What was incendiary was a statement made by the late President Desmond Hoyte referring to certain persons as the “putagee mafia,” and to one lawyer as a man without an identity. This was racially charged and incendiary outburst. (Hoyte said ‘a man of questionable identity)
It led a number of prominent persons to sign a petition demanding a withdrawal of the remarks. There was a huge public outcry over the remarks and demands for a withdrawal and retraction. But Hoyte with his typical hauteur refused to apologize. He added fuel to the fire by his office issuing a statement saying that he was speaking in the vernacular. Now that was as stupid a reply as could be because it was the vernacular in the first place that was offensive.
Around the said time the remarks were made, an international cricket match was being played at Bourda. A relation to Guyana’s national poet, Martin Carter, wore a jersey with words to the effect that he was a member of the “Putagee mafia”. This was of course an attempt to publicize the objectionable statement by Hoyte. For his efforts the young man received a sound beating by persons believed to be supporters of Hoyte.
I do not suppose that anyone is now going to wear a T shirt at any public event describing himself or herself as being “stupid.” Yet, we can expect that there will continue to be demands for the President to withdraw his alleged feral blast.
To all who will make such a demand, I can only say, “haul your…” Well, I had better let that fellow from the AFC say it. He always makes it sound so much better.
