What's wrong with Best?
August 14, 2000
By A. H. Hotep
The problem with most people like Lloyd Best, is after all their intellectualizing, they are still unable to identify with themselves which is evident by the detached way they live, write and speak. They are ignorant of the fact that the way they speak is foreign to the reality of the day-to-day living conditions of the ordinary masses. They do not maintain a day-to-day engagement with the masses, sharing in their troubles and informing them out of their everyday struggles while showing a better idea from which to build.
They stand aside seeking to pontificate over the masses, engaging in these long-winded monologues that can only hold the attention of those who feel themselves superior and are relatively comfortable in their living conditions. This is not to say that Mr. Best does not know what he talks about, certainly he does in part and that is the problem. It is only Best and a select few who can understand what he writes and speaks about. I can easily follow his circular reasoning that stops short of his personal responsibilities that leaves the majority waiting for a saviour.
This is his shortcoming for wanting to give the impression of embrace the whole without truly experiencing the parts.
He ridicules that which he does not understand and remains trapped in the prison of his intellect.
He understands part of the river from walking its banks, he is afraid to swim so he does not know of the turbulences that lie below the surface.
This was very evident in the way he dealt with a young female on a radio program a few days ago. She wants to be politically active and supports the PNM. He failed to grasp that opportunity to talk with her in a way that would guide her to take her battle for improvement to the hierarchy of the party she embraced. Instead he ridiculed her for aligning herself with the PNM.
It was also evident that this young person was naïve, but Mr. Best showed his immaturity in how he engaged her.
He was unwilling to allow the female space to realize the futility of her ways through a reasoned dialogue and/or through her own experiences from within the PNM. In the end, the callers ridiculed Lloyd Best for not respecting the female's right to be with the PNM. Any truly sensible person would have known that this female was not with the PNM of her own free will, she said that she was influenced by her parents who were longstanding PNM followers. She clearly did not study world affairs to be able to appreciate alternatives to the PNM. Therefore, ambushing her on stage would have made her more defensive and certainly would have caused the public to sympathize with her. This Best could not understand, and rather than admit that he handled the situation poorly, he sought to further ridicule the female at the end of the program causing the host to tell him that he is going too far.
Saturday's Express, August 12, 2000, Best took half a page trying to legitimize his poor conduct. He of all people certainly cannot claim that the media does not allow him sufficient time and space to express himself, and he uses that time to repeat the same things while never committing himself to anything.
Who is Best trying to teach, certainly not the ordinary man. Lloyd Best occasionally assists a newspaper vendor; a task he certainly does not engage for his daily bread. This cannot put him in touch with the masses. This is a simple public relations ploy just like Prime Ministers handing out food hampers at Christmas time.
I have been making the plea for more programs that reflect our diverse cultural expressions and Best have not supported this call. He certainly has stereotyped all people who speak of African affairs while not supporting his Tapia party.
This pretence, to embrace the whole without examining the sociology of the parts is akin to sending one's car for a wash and polish when it is not performing well. This is clearly cheap politics.
He does not see the need for programs on the radios and televisions that informs the masses about their differences and he talks down to the few of us who make such calls. Of course, if someone confronts Lloyd Best about this he would claim that this is what he has been saying all along, and he probably would be able to find a few words strung together in one of his thousands of articles that may give an appearance of this.
In my opinion, Mr. Best is quite contented with his regular appearances in the media and he has certainly gained the reputation for pontificating at election time. He sees no validity in anyone outside of the Tapia party, a party which has never made an impression on the masses and certainly have not pointed the way forward. A party where the members leave and join other political parties where same wrongs they previously condemned are committed.
Where does that leave the public? They are still left with the few of us who struggle for airtime daily to correct misunderstandings people have about our history and sociological differences, misunderstandings that have the masses unresponsive to change.
Improvement will come to those who can appreciate themselves and understand the differences in people, since only those who are comfortable with themselves would have the courage to struggle for higher ideals and this should not mean choosing Lloyd Best or even myself for Prime Ministerial duties. We do not need a throne to be masters of our own domain.
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