I smell hypocrisy

26.MAR.10

EDITOR: I have a few comments to make based on the Searchlight newspaper’s reporting on its front page, continued on page 4 of its Friday, March 19, 2010, edition.

The Searchlight reported the Prime Minister as criticizing me for having “religious and political intolerance…” I may have critical intolerance of the religion and even economic practices of Jews, as do Jews themselves such as Nathaniel Kapner in his www.realjewnews.com website.{{more}} Likewise the PM, in criticizing my view of Jews, is showing he has critical intolerance of my views. I do not have, however, political intolerance, neither do I influence policy that persecutes Jews, nor does my behaviour constitute violence or anti-rights and freedoms action against Jews or anyone else for that matter. Policy intolerance can be seen, however, in the governmental system of Iran, a theocracy where Islam is legislated, making it illegal for Muslims to convert to minority religions such as Christianity, on pain of apostasy charges and punishment. This political and persecutive intolerance transgresses religious liberty and is unacceptable in governments.

Yet the same Prime Minister, whose party in government accuses me of political intolerance, has relations with and personal acceptance of President of Iran, Ahmoud Ahmadinejad. That, my friends, is political hypocrisy! Therefore,

Mr. PM, come clean! Since you cannot get involved with the alleged “religious bigot and anti-Semitic” in Anesia Baptiste, then give up your Alliance with Iran, disassociate yourself from Ahmadinejad’s political intolerance against his own people’s religious liberty, and while you’re at it, your rebuke should be directed towards Ahmadinejad for his “rant and tirade” (long angry and violent speech or denunciation) against Jews, and not towards me. Or how about the political intolerance of rules in Venezuela which allow the harsh measure of closing down of radio stations, condemned as restriction of free press, since many of the stations are known to expose opposition views against Chavez’s regime. What about Chavez’s own tirade against the USA? In an article called “Chavez calls Bush ‘the Devil’ in U.N. Speech” by David Stout – 20th September, 2008, The New York Times reports Chavez as describing America as “the gravest threat looking over our planet, placing at risk the very survival of the human species”. Comment? PM?

Chavez also called former US president Bush a “donkey” and a “drunkard”, called Obama an “Ignoramus” and said he had won the “Nobel Prize of War”. By virtue of the PM’s apparent disgust with my alleged intolerance, he should forthwith disassociate himself with the Chavez led ALBA and relations with Venezuela because he cannot afford to be “involved” with such behaviour, right? In an article in the Washington Post, called “Chavez Anti-Semitism”, by Abraham H. Foxman on Tuesday, February 5, 2008, Foxman reports that “Chavez has aligned Venezuela with countries and radical Islamic movements that are a verifiable threat to Israel and world Jewry, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah; and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad”. Is Chavez Anti-Semitic, PM?

In your claim that although you gave the reasons why you could not attend the ceremony, you never said to the Americans to “withdraw their recognition”, you fail to see that you are actually admitting that you provided information with the intent of stopping the recognition ceremony. Your very hypocritical position that you couldn’t attend the ceremony in Frenches, SVG, to recognize a so-called “anti-Semitic” (but you can fly miles across the world to shake hands and embrace Ahmadinejad) shows that you were not in agreement with the US’ decision to recognize my work. Your actions certainly did not mean to strengthen their decision to recognize me. Vincentians are not fooled!

As for Julian Francis’ remarks on my “political career” and dealing with me henceforth as a “politician”, you can start off by getting your facts straight about the Thusia Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Thusian Institute for Religious Liberty, two separate entities to which I belong. You claim “the Thusian Institute is basically a secondary church…” then you turn around and confess “…her Thusian Institute, whatever her church is called-I don’t even know the name of the church…” Search the records and you will see that the institute is registered in SVG as a human rights education services provider organization (non-profit, non-governmental). The Thusia SDA Church is an independent SDA church in SVG. I will not forever answer self-evident blinding folly. The truth is there to be known by those who sincerely desire to know and who is not obsessed with rumour mongering and scandals. By the way, was the Anglican Church a “secondary church” when King Henry V111 created it by breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church?

Finally, during the Star FM-Thusian saga in 2009, where he called us racists, I asked Mr. Francis a question I’ll ask again. Was PM Gonsalves racist for saying he agreed with Brazilian President Lula de Silva’s comments in a Daily News Article by Catey Hill on March 27, 2009, that “no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person” could be blamed for the global banking crisis.” “This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of people that are white, blue-eyed, that before the crisis looked like they knew everything about economics…Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics”? Hmm….you call that Political hypocrisy, my dear people.!

Mrs. Anesia O. Baptiste