Mr Rohee should clarify exactly what he meant

Dear Editor,

My great grandfather, Duncan Rohee, who helped raise me and my siblings, was someone who instilled in all of us the importance of taking great care and being very clear with meaning.

I thought of him on Tuesday when I read Clement Rohee’s letter of January 28, 2020, in which he accused “known APNU+AFC Facebook trolls, police and apologists” of distorting remarks he made at a PPP/C public meeting in Little Diamond over the weekend, “for their own political objectives.” In fact, Mr. Rohee categorically insists, “no linkage whatsoever was made between the derogatory remarks describing the APNU+AFC symbol and women.”

I would agree with Mr. Rohee about the vitriol and hate that passes for political support on social media, except to say it is happening on both sides of the principal political divide, and that all right thinking Guyanese should have nothing indeed to do with it as it only fuels a culture of disrespect and violence.

On Monday January 27, I wrote a column in the Stabroek News. I am not fake. My name was signed to it. In it I called out Volda Lawrence (and she is not the only culprit) for irresponsibly, dangerously and potentially unlawfully calling on APNU+AFC supporters to show up at polling stations after the polls close on March 2nd. This is reckless behaviour and the silence so far from coalition members – from the highest to the lowest - is nothing less than shameful and outrageous.

I also called out Clement Rohee for remarks he made on the campaign trail, remarks I underlined are also an incitement to another kind of violence, one that takes women as its target. Heeding my great grandfather, I did not write this lightly. Nor did I rely on hearsay. A video of the honourable gentleman that was taken by a PPP supporter who attended the public meeting at Little Diamond was shared with me, which I transcribed. In it, plain as day, Mr. Rohee says:

What’s the symbol of the APNU+AFC…the palm with the key on the green flag. The palm key. And if you tek out the ‘A’ from the ‘P’, if you tek out the ‘A’ and you leff only the ‘P’ and you put in a ‘O’ instead of the ‘A’, and you leff the key, tell me what you get. Now this is school time, we back to school…this is back to school time. I don’t want you all to actually say what it is but I think you know what I’m talking about…Do you get something that you could hold on to? I talking to the men. The President of the United States, Mr. Bush, sorry Mr. Trump, he say grab something….”

In light of this transcript, let me ask a few questions:

Mr. Rohee claims that he intentionally mixed up vowels and consonants in his speech to create the pun “pamkey.” Perhaps this is what he meant (although the video does not support this at all). If so, I would be most grateful if Mr. Rohee or anyone else might share with us what this new word, “pamkey”, means? Learning of this new word sent me on a search (it’s too early to call it a wild goose chase). I have asked numerous Guyanese to assist, and even checked the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, but have so far come up short;

Two times in the video (he repeats the instructions for effect), Mr. Rohee invites the crowd to begin with palm key, leave only the “P” and the “key” (to be clear, this would leave us with the word “PAKEY”, and change the “A” to an “O”. If I am missing something here, I would be grateful if this could be clarified;

When Mr. Rohee then says, once the word is altered, “Do you get something that you could hold on to?” and goes on immediately after to specify that he is only “talking to the men”, what exactly does he mean? And when he refers to Mr. Trump and someone in the audience says, “grab it”, why does Mr. Rohee say “ay”? He doesn’t say “No, that is disrespectful to women, that is not what I meant, I meant pamkey, and here is what pamkey means.” When a man shouts out, “grab it,” Mr, Rohee says “ay” and goes on to repeat it: “Mr. Trump, he say grab something.”

I am glad that Mr. Rohee has emphasized that he intended no disrespect, “implicitly or otherwise,” to women. Given this, I would be grateful if he might take the time to respond to these three questions. And to all Guyanese, as this election season continues to foolishly heat up, being passionate about your support does not mean degrading or demeaning the other side or anyone to get where you need to go. Please listen carefully, please read carefully, please demand more, please do not settle for silence, or explanations that make no sense, or denials in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Look where that has gotten us since independence. What will it take to realise that we better than that?

Yours faithfully, Alissa Trotz