ST. AQUINAS was the official philosopher of the Holy Roman Emperor. I am not a believer, but I am of the opinion that his justification for the existence of God is still one of the most convincing arguments in philosophy, although it was written hundreds of years ago. St Aquinas was a fixture on my course outline when I taught the first-year course in philosophy at UG.
St. Aquinas believes that every action in life has an explanation. St. Aquinas believed there was no such thing as an inexplicable human action. Hundreds of years after St. Aquinas wrote his philosophy, Sigmund Freud discovered the inner layers of the mind which he divided into ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO.
Freud insisted that no manifestation of human behaviour is irrational or inexplicable. Even when behaviour is irrational, the explanation lies in the ID. He said every human impulse that we consciously do not know why it emanated from us has a derivative in the ID. The ID, therefore, is where an ocean of subconscious impulses exists, and we humans will never know why we did the things we have done, but those things have rational explanations.
One example should suffice before we come to the collective Freudian mind of the APNU+AFC power wielders. For years a person takes one of two roads that lead to where he/she goes to each day. When asked why they never took the other road, they shrug their shoulder and say they don’t know why and never gave it any thought. But the explanation is in the ID. Somewhere on that road, a memory is there buried deep in the ID, and it determines why the person takes that road and that road only.
It has been five years since the APNU+AFC was given power to rule Guyana on a platform of breaking with the enduring political culture of Guyana. The breathtaking projects never materialised. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley (TSH) wrote a letter in the press last week requesting the government to implement the Guyana Human Rights Commission (GHRC), which was inserted into the constitution over two decades ago.
How do we get to look inside the Freudian mind of the APNU+AFC power-wielders? Why TSH did not have an accompanying note in her letter explaining that she was part of the APNU+AFC government? She hid that fact when she urged the government to have the GHRC. Obviously, there is a reason for hiding that fact. What is the Freudian explanation?
Let’s go over to the PNC online news page titled “Village Voice”. There are consistent editorials referring to mistreatment of African people by the PPP government. One recent editorial argued that dark-skinned African are more disadvantaged.
Here is my dilemma with the former APNU+AFC power-wielder. I don’t have and will never have a problem with opposition parties criticising the government. That is their right, and no one can argue they do not have such a right. As a matter of fact, I support the GHRC coming into being. Here is my problem, and it becomes personal for me because I campaigned for the then opposition in 2015. I will make a note on the person below.
Why TSH cannot describe the APNU+AFC regime, which did not bring the GHRC into being when it was in power for five years? There has to be a reason, and TSH has an obligation to tell us why. What circumstances made the birth of the GHRC impossible? What were the forces that stood in the way of the GHRC coming into being?
It is insulting to the nation for TSH to demand that the Guyana Government implements the GHRC but be pompous and arrogant to dismiss her obligation to tell us why her government chose to let it remain dormant. Now for the personal as it relates to me. I made an appearance at the Public Service Commission and pleaded for the retirement age in the civil service to be upped from 55 to 60. The commission accepted the elevation, and it was part of its final recommendations.
When the people who write those editorials in Village Voice (all of them are anti-PPP, and many of them were part of the APNU+AFC government) accuse the PPP of discriminatory behaviour, don’t they know that they are morally obliged to tell us why they, when in power, mistreated African people too?
Who chose to ignore the commission’s recommendation on retirement age? Who scuttled the amendment that would have allowed no prosecution for possession of small amounts of marijuana? You have the right to criticise the government, but you become morally unacceptable in this country if you cannot explain to the nation why you did not do what you want the present government to do.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.