Real martyrs are visible

THE EDITOR: Events on the international scene have, I hope, taught our local wannabe terrorists what pawns and suckers they are in the hands of their masters. These small time suckers are so dedicated to the cause, they are lining up to be trained as suicide-hero bombers with the promise of ten virgins when they arrive in their Muslim heaven.

Meanwhile, their masters are sleeping peacefully in their beds at 10 am and allowing themselves to be taken prisoner. What terrorist leader worth his salt, having sent thousands to their death in the World Trade Centre would allow himself to be taken prisoner while his minions embrace the sexual pleasures in the afterlife? That Sheik who is now spilling his guts like a drunken sailor should have with the first bang on the door swallowed a cyanide pill or shot himself in the head.  But he knows how precious life is, even without the freedom of life in a secret Pakistan hideout. He knows that he has at least some three to five years of life ahead of him even when he is parded as a spectacle on US television. He knows he will be fed the best Muslim meals, allowed to pray five times per day and have the best medical attention.

Here we have one of them enjoying the best life with four wives while a set of little boys live off handouts while doing his bidding. We have another one encouraging his supporters to allow their cars to stall in Port-of-Spain to create the bigger traffic jam while he enjoys the best “digs” in one of the most exclusive neighbourhoods with the blue-bloods in London, surrounded by his children who no longer seemed threatened as he once claimed. Mr Editor, has any of your reporters checked with the paysheet clerk at Parliament to find out if he or any of the little boys and girls who sat on the platform smiling and clapping at his every word, have given instructions to stop tax deductions from their incomes? They all know, sir, that no pay sheet clerk will risk his/her job to obey any such instructions, written or otherwise.

What about the sugar-cane farmers who are supporters. Do they still pay their quarterly tax deductions? Also, the druggists who have concessions to sell stamps and union leaders who are in charge of other offices as employers — have they instructed their employees not to deduct taxes from their incomes or send quarterly deductions to Inland Revenue? Yet these so-called protest leaders calling for civil disobedience are invoking the names of international icons and heroes as Gandhi, King and Mandela. Little Rosa Parks had more masculine physicality, proverbially speaking than these local frauds.

As an example Gandhi did not become this great leader until he had like so many Indian men fulfilled most, if not all his familial duties.  Here on bloody Tuesday the leader who is now boasting that he knows his cell, absented himself from “the coffee” when police in riot gear confronted the demonstration. He was later picked up and driven in a police car, not the “black maria” like the brothers, to the station. Compare that with Nelson Mandela. As head of the ANC it is not that he wanted to be a martyr for the cause. But the Congress voted that he should allow himself to be arrested, tried and jailed as a symbol, a catalyst for the cause. That he did. He sacrificed wife and children to the dictates of his fellow organisers and the cause. He did not hide behind simple operatives while suggesting to others what they should do. His stand and sacrifice have gained him the undying respect and admiration of his people and the international community.

Here, while sending coded messages about what should and should not be done, like no bail etc, these so-called protest leaders meekly obey court summonses, entering within a plalanx of lawyers and sycophants, all of them well-dressed, like a heavy weighted boxer, entering the ring to defend or capture a title. I am waiting to see if Bin Laden will have the gall or any other kind to allow himself to be taken alive to become a spectacle paraded on American television.

MERVYN BILLINGY
Arima