Terrorist actions political

Nov 09, 2009 Letters

---

Dear Editor,

Terrorism struck again last Wednesday morning (04-10-09), when an armed gang camouflaged as policemen with AK-47s, shotguns, channa bombs, and grenades, inflicted a series of attacks on the Brickdam Police Station; East Ruimveldt Police Outpost; the High Court Registry, and Richard Ishmael Secondary School; including hijacking a vehicle on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. The incidents resulted in one civilian fatality and injuries to two police officers.

Domestic terrorism picked up where it left off last Wednesday morning, unleashing a reign of terror on a non-combatant and peaceful nation; the Guyanese people here feel the pain from this evil; to be sure now, with this new resurgence of violence and intimidation, previous efforts at total annihilation of domestic terrorism over the last few years failed.

And so, the real story, however, must be that for some time now domestic terrorism wallowed in camouflaged impotence in Guyana; long awaiting some international energizer to expurgate this impotence. Nonetheless, this purging exercise not only failed to provide the required energy to the long-dormant domestic terrorism in Guyana, but the energizing effort was so slipshod that it left a trail of evidence.

However, notwithstanding the appearance of such clues, albeit some cryptic, the jury is still out as to whether the security forces can now make domestic terrorism a thing of the past; perhaps, this time with assistance from the U.S. anti-terrorism network; note the possible international solidarity connection to release terror in this latest spate of incidents in this country.

A few weeks ago I alluded to a criminality that stalks the entire Caribbean, saying, “Politicians have a lot for which to answer when you think of stoking the fire for the purpose of promoting this unsavory criminality…Indeed, integral to this criminality is domestic terrorism that gains momentum as a strategy for political destabilisation when economic conditions seem to make a turn for the better. But any government has to spare no quarters to remove this nastiness of domestic terrorism.”

The recent re-booting of terror mechanisms to sensationalize and popularize insecurity, retard economic progress, and besmirch this country’s local and international image, has become a constant in Guyana’s politics.

And so, these morally offensive acts do not surprise me because the Guyana economy continues to demonstrate resilience against several recent external shocks. Think about two such shocks: the rising global food and fuel prices and the international financial meltdown; these shocks failed to compromise the integrity of the Guyana economy.

And in terms of the rising food and fuel prices just over a year ago, the Jagdeo Administration moved in a timely way to cushion the economy with a number of ameliorative measures; and the Bank of Guyana did indicate in the heat of the international financial meltdown not long ago that the Guyana economy had negligible investments in the U.S. investment market; not much of an impact here.

And now with Jagdeo lighting up the global stage with his Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), bringing immense prestige to Guyana’s international image, the terrorists-in-waiting are beginning to feel that they are not making an impact, especially as Guyana’s economy is out of the woods, even factoring the precarious nature of the global economy. These developments are beginning to irk the dormant terrorists, and with no publicity to sustain their credibility, the pressure to act becomes critical; their publicity depends on their immoral actions.

At any rate, terrorists are always looking for publicity for their causes; but publicity became problematic in the last few years as a result of their long-dormancy. However, terrorists need to use fear, intimidation, and violence to obtain this publicity. And so, these terrorists with an intense hunger for publicity, they may feel the need to escalate their nefarious activities. And, indeed, let there be no mistake that these terrorists may have local and international organisations fronting for them for financing, recruitment and travel purposes.

And make no mistake, too, about the notion that terrorists use the media as an important barometer to measure their success; and so the Guyana mass media with its reputation for unwholesome coverage, may unintentionally aid the terrorists.

And yet amid the onslaught of this terrorism and the reasons for its resurgence, commentators continue to hammer home the point that poor governance produces insecurity in this country.

But if we accept for the moment that poor governance is partly the culprit for inducing insecurity, how about the destabilizing role of economic sabotage and domestic terrorism as contributors to the insecurity paradigm? It, therefore, is amazing that the terms ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘economic sabotage’ suddenly seem to identify an escape route today in these commentators’ vernacular.

Clearly, terrorism uses intimidation, fear, and violence to achieve political ends. In fact, the U.S. Department of State sees terrorism as pre-meditated politically-motivated violence against non-combatant targets; certainly, the Lusignan, Bartica, and Lindo Creek victims were not combatants or fighters; they were peace-loving Guyanese who were cut down in their prime by this new criminality.

I harbour no doubts that the aim of this new spate of terrorism today, intends to destabilize Guyana through inducing crisis and provoking outrage as well as arousing racial hatred and violence between the two major ethnic groups, Indians and Africans.

And so when fear and intimidation take over, the terrorists’ capacity to manipulate public opinion becomes stronger; racial discord under such conditions is more likely to happen. Consequently, the terrorists’ expectation is that such crisis and outrage will bring down the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government.

Terrorists tactically and strategically apply violence in the process of championing their political cause; the local terrorists’ cause includes the removal of the PPP/C Government via a possible teamwork of international connection.

Prem Misir

 

---

---