The funniest politicians in the world
For me the funniest politicians in the world are from Guyana in the following order; Neil Kumar, Clement Rohee, Robeson Benn and Priya Manickchand. Jagdeo comes in at number five. I don’t consider a certain Minister funny at all when he blurted in front of the media; “I thought ya’ll talking about me because I is a Minister who like to do illegal things, so I thought is me ya’ll talking about when ya’ll say that a certain Minister is engaged in illegal conduct.”
Now that is far from comical. That is extremely sickening. And to think the Minister who said that at the time had jurisdiction in relation to the legal environment.
We can skip Neil Kumar. I have dealt at length with his exclamation that a government just cannot open a public pool for all and sundry to come; people must understand that you have to bathe before you use a pool. Kumar didn’t know which were the ABC countries that have embassies in Guyana. He said they were Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Now that is hard to stop laughing at.
I mean no insult, but whenever I am driving and I come across Neil Kumar in his car, I start laughing right away. I live near to the National Aquatic Centre and whenever the pool is open to the public I will make sure I don’t forget to shower before I jump in.
Clement Rohee has got to be the clown that is competing with Kumar. He told the media that he cannot see why he should not contest the presidency of Guyana because after all; “goat ain’t bite me.” What a crazy thing to say to a nation about your ability to run for president. But the joke is permanently on Rohee because he did not compete for the presidential slot of his party, which could be interpreted to mean that goat did bite him. Not satisfied with his caprine journey, he jumped onto the genetic road. Again, on wanting to be president, he said he feels it in his DNA that the time has come.
Rohee is indeed a person that makes you grin. Asked why in 2005 his non-immigrant and diplomatic visas were suspended, he said that it had to do with an incident in 1970 when he picketed the US Embassy over the Vietnam War. Why this is hilarious is that in 1970, Rohee was nowhere near the PPP. In 1970, I knew Rohee as a “limer” around the Metropole cinema when I worked as a teenager in the Michael Forde Bookstore Secondly, most, if not all the leading figures in the WPA and the PPP picketed the US Embassy and never had their visas suspended thirty-five years later.
Rohee is indeed competing with Kumar. He wants the police to question APNU Parliamentarian, Desmond Trotman, over a remark made in the House during the budget debate to the effect that the PPP is a criminal cabal. Only a limited mind, as the one Rohee may have, does not know that addresses in the House are backed by legal privilege and that the speakers are immune from prosecution.
Rohee has been in Parliament for over twenty years and did not know that. What does Rohee know?
The satirical column, “Dem Boys Seh” refers to Robeson Benn as “Bruck Up Benn.” Quite a comical description! Benn is the third funniest man on the face of the earth. He walked into Kaieteur News offices and told the editor, “You didn’t ask for my comments.” That was in reference to the newspaper carrying a news item of his son being arrested by the police.
What is funny about that is that Benn works for a government that controls three state media entities that never give the opposition the right to comment.
The one I like about Benn was when he said he was driving, heard an anti-government calypso playing over NCN, drove into the media compound and politely asked that the item be taken off the airwaves. Benn didn’t explain the semantic meaning of “polite.”
It was the genius philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who once wrote that language has no objective, definitive meaning. He’s right when you think of the way Benn uses language.
Finally, Priya Manickchand, the lady from Pradoville 2. Two days ago, she called a press conference to tell Guyanese about the four-million-dollar monthly allocation that Bobby Ramroop’s television channel gets for transmitting the contents of the Learning Channel. She said it has nothing to do with favouring Ramroop. Surely, it is always better to say nothing than to say something that makes you look like a clown.