That argument is not only an affront to the intelligence of the individual citizen, it contemplates the absolute absurdity of citizens staging protest marches through the Caroni Swamp, the Nariva Swamp, the Oropouche Lagoon, the Grand Icacos Lagoon, or the dense forests of Cerro del Aripo and El Tucuche. Perhaps she envisions the public marching down open highways, abandoned Caroni cane fields, or isolated village streets. After all, those areas are all generously included in the 99.77% she has graciously allocated for the expression of our constitutional rights.
The very definition and purpose of protest seem to have escaped the Prime Minister. A public demonstration is not an exercise in land surveying; it is a demand for accountability. Its success depends entirely on visibility, proximity to the centers of power and the disruption of the status quo.
To tell citizens they have 99.77% of the country available for dissent is to suggest that a march through an empty forest or paddling through a swamp or lagoon holds the same democratic weight as a gathering outside the Parliament.
A protest that cannot be seen or heard by the decision-makers is not a protest at all—it is a government-sanctioned exile to the wilderness.
If the Prime Minister truly believes her own maths, that it is "mathsing" (to use her own words) perhaps she should move the next Cabinet meeting to the center of the Caroni Swamp, where the remaining 99.77% of her logic clearly resides.
Constitutional rights are not measured in square kilometers. To banish dissent to the margins of the map, tells us how much the Prime Minister and her Government fear the voices of the people.
We do not need a land surveyor to tell us where our rights begin or end.
Keep your 99.77% of the wilderness, Prime Minister—protest and (by extension) Democracy belong on the steps of power.
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