We have thought that governmental highhandedness ended with restoration of elections
I welcome the comments at the end of my printed letter of April 25 “I continue to hold the view that the AG violates the spirit of the constitution if he or she offers advice to the DPP” and was lucky for someone to read them to me. In particular, I want to respond to the blogger that goes by ‘Ramjohn’. He seems to be someone who has afterthoughts about things and seeks to make others uncomfortable. He speaks of treason and the treason accused without reflecting that, at least as I recall it, the government itself in those days was the leading treason suspect. I do not separate myself from Ivan Sookram as I was present when he defended himself in the Magistrate’s court at Leonora presided over by Magistrate Anthony Singh.
I took notes word for word for the Working People’s Alliance and still think that his management of that defense was historic. I wish Ramjohn to know that I cannot answer for other human beings, including members of the WPA, in which I was active. For myself, if I had a safe house and believed that comrades were running from torture, I would have offered them safety and then probably tried to get a lawyer and take them into the police. As it was, my home was a bottom flat exposed to the world - and not a hiding place. To underline the gravity of what I am trying to convey, I can mention that to this day one of my colleagues from those days is living with the effects of a broken chest bone which developed during what the police involved with him called
“investigation.”
We have thought that the struggles of those days put an end to governmental highhandedness by restoring elections. However before our very eyes today there are elements of treason to the constitution as more and more innocent people complain of being punished without recourse by the authorities to the constitutional agencies that should be active in such matters. When people’s rights are being withdrawn by the powers that be in any situation, the answer is and has always been a building up of resistance. Though it appears a hard thing to say, peaceful and non-violent resistance will always be better and leave fewer chronic issues in the system than other forms of resistance. And in a human situation peaceful resistance will emerge.
Sincerely,
Eusi Kwayana