The world is full of examples of the strong and powerful taking advantage of the weak. Bullying is a classic example of the powerful subduing the weak. More often than not the bully or the perceived strong and powerful may pick on a person who, though possessing the ability to retaliate, would often shrug and try to move on.
While this may work sometimes, for the greater part, bullies being less educated than the average person who would reason or who would let better judgment prevail continues the attack.
The past week saw a continuation of the perceived strong and powerful using the seat of power to bring an ordinary person to his knees or at worse, demean him in the eyes of the wider society.
This is the case of Brian Tiwarie, a self-made businessman, who climbed the ladder of entrepreneurship and expanded his operations. He set up a number of diverse companies.
There is the story of the moth and the flame. The moth saw the flame and thought that it looked beautiful. Sadly, it got too close and got burnt. Some people flirted with the flame but decided that it was too dangerous and moved on. But the flame can be unforgiving.
There are many people who have found an unforgiving political situation. Most of them worked with a previous administration, some as far back as forty years. These people remained unforgiving and moved to destroy them.
The cases of the public servants who were dismissed these past few months are just one example. The placing of other public servants before the courts, even though the charge may fall through is another. The bottom line is that these people charged would have to find money that could have been used in other areas to satisfy legal costs.
Soon after acceding to the seat of government, there were people who turned their attention to Tiwarie. They attacked his ownership of the property; they revoked contracts granted under the previous administration; they threatened to shut Tiwarie out of future contracts. This threat was mouthed by Minister Deodat Indar.
He said that he was going to write to the Central Tender Board to have the body refuse to accept tenders submitted by BK International.
Indar does not end there. He goes to the press with a statement that Tiwarie is removing sand from Number 63 Beach on the Corentyne.
Banks DIH and Demerara Distillers Limited produce a brew that does strange things to some people. If one imbibes too much one could become disoriented. Many people have lost track of time. Some went home but could remember how they did.
Indar went to Number 59 Village where he saw a pit resulting from reef sand extraction by BK International. He stood at the location and announced that he was at Number 63 Village. This must have been the result of the brew produced by Banks DIH and DDL. Indar must have been disoriented not to know where he was.
His outburst continued the attempt to bully Tiwarie. He actually said that he would have Tiwarie return the sand to the location, something that he has no power to do. Such was his intention that he got favourable news outlets to publish his utterings on the front page of their newspapers.
Despite all the attempts to correct him, Indar simply refuses to change his position. In fact, confronted with his mistake he opted to remain silent. And rest assured, there will be no apology to Tiwarie for the embarrassment.
And no sooner had the Number 63 Village accusation ended than another surfaced. One of Indar’s followers published another statement designed to accuse Tiwarie of something of which he knows nothing. The accusation is that Tiwarie owns Village Voice, a nascent newspaper that is published online and in hard copy.
The writer of the social media post states that Tiwarie is behind the paper and that Adam Harris is one of the principals.
Perhaps the brew that Indar drinks are shared among his followers
. It clouds their vision and removes their short-term memory.
The man behind Village Voice moved to the courts and secured a writ against the publishers of the newspaper. He named every operative and how much money they were paid. None of the names was Brian Tiwarie and none was Adam Harris.
But that information seemed not to make its way into the heads of those who are bent on attacking Tiwarie and slandering him.
