The Office of the President is where government is headquartered. A politically motivated, violent attack and invasion of the office of the Head of State of any country can only be regarded as an attempt to overthrow the government. What happened on Wednesday was just that. It was not simply a political protest out of control.
We know that whenever international conferences take place the world over, political parties and organisations with something to protest, use them as occasions to attract media attention to their cause and that often tempers flare, emotions run high and violent, usually unplanned behaviour results. This was not the case on Wednesday.
This was not an unruly mob, out of control, seeking vengeance where opportunity presented itself. Wednesday's attack on the Office of the President and the subsequent firebombing of business places in the city was planned and organised. People were mobilised with the express purpose of removing from office a legitimately elected government.
If ever it was the intention of those who organised Wednesday's march to earn the sympathy and support of the Caribbean and international community, then they need their heads examined. But the violent assault on the Office of the President was hardly that. It was clearly deliberately planned and executed.
Eyewitnesses, including professional news reporters, saw the immediate ringleaders directing the assault. Later Fullworths and Payless on Regent Street were set on fire with firebombs. Similar attempts were made on Courts and Caribbean Chemicals. All clear evidence of premeditated planning and preparation.
While hot heads and rabble-rousers like Phillip Bynoe and Mark Benschop were used and relied upon by the organisers, they were certainly not the brains nor could they ever have provided the brain behind what is fast becoming an incipient rebellion aimed at destabilising the country and overthrowing the government.
Long before the assault on the President's Office, senior members of the People's National Congress REFORM were observed mobilising for the march. Bynoe and Benschop have no real following and themselves have no capability for organising Wednesday's events. They were not the leaders. They were the pawns.
PNC Chairman, Robert Corbin and senior PNC member James Mc Allister, were also seen in the march which led to the assault and firebombing. If it was not part of the PNC REFORM's plan to carry out this utterly senseless act, they cannot excuse themselves from responsibility.
From the time the PNC REFORM terminated their leader's participation in the dialogue with the President, the party's leadership has increasingly resorted to rhetoric advocating the removal of the government from office. They know full well that ordinary people harbouring very real and emotional causes of complaint against the government will make no distinction between a call to remove the government from office and a call to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means.
What happened on Wednesday was certainly predictable. The fact that the President's Office was so easily assaulted and that the security of the compound so readily breached, is, unfortunately, disturbing evidence of the government's own refusal to acknowledge the extent to which the country's stability is threatened by a frustrated and angry opposition. The security at the Office of the President, especially at the time of the Heads of Government Conference, was inexcusably inadequate and lax.
There are powerful elements within the major opposition and outside of it seemingly ready to sponsor a full-scale violent rebellion against an elected government regardless of the terrible consequences to the country. It does not take a major force to kidnap and hold hostage the leaders of a careless government. Fiji is a perfect example. Not so long ago it happened in Trinidad & Tobago.
The fact is, that while elements of the PNC leadership have been displaying an ever increasing intention to confront the government by violent and unconstitutional means and have obviously formed alliances with extremists like Bynoe and Benschop and, possibly, much more dangerous ones, the government has been excessively tolerant and slow in recognising the seriousness of the situation which has been allowed to develop.
What is incomprehensible, is that a party possessed of the wealth of intellect, intelligence, political experience and quality of leadership, that is to be found within the PNC, should even remotely consider that there can be any useful purpose at all in contemplating, never mind organising, the removal of a legitimately elected government, yet, it is exactly this that the PNC appears to be embracing. Surely men like Deryck Bernard, Raphael Trotman, Stanley Ming, to name a few, are not prepared to excuse, never mind endorse this madness.
The majority of us, regardless of the party we may support, are absolutely fedup and tired of living in fear and the daily uncertainty about our personal safety and well-being. The majority of us want our political leaders to sit down and talk to each other and negotiate their differences within the framework of the constitution and the law.
There are many who, perhaps mistakenly, believe that the governing party enjoys an unassailable ethnic majority for the foreseeable future, and, therefore, is much less accountable to the electorate than a working democracy demands. Likewise, there are many who believe that the major opposition party is destined to remain so, unable to reach beyond its traditional ethnic support to gain an electoral majority and has, as a consequence, become frustrated and desperate. If this is so, it makes a mockery of democracy and is a prescription for disaster.
The majority of us recognise and admit that racial suspicion, division and confrontation, driven by politics will certainly destroy us. The majority of us expect our political leaders to do the same and to do something about it. We did not put them there to wage war and make us the victims.