Raphael Trotman wields a forked tongue

Sep 28, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
Writing in the AFC page, the leader of that party Mr. Raphael Trotman said, “Dismantling the establishment founded on race, reward and revenge will not be easy. It has to start with an acknowledgement that race politics has caused Guyana to go backwards for the last forty years, followed by a healing and a closure of the past.”
When I read that I thought Mr. Trotman got it, but I was disappointed when I subsequently read Mr. Trotman’s reported remarks in Demerara Waves on September 25, 2011.
The leader of Alliance for Change (“AFC”), and former PNC executive member, is quoted as saying that he would prefer to see the TUF join the AFC, rather than A Partnership For National Unity (“APNU”), because the PNC is yet to apologize for years of rigged elections.
How do we get to healing and closure Raphael? How do we dismantle the current dispensation when leaders like you talk through both sides of your mouth?
Mr. Trotman let us set the record straight, the PNC was the party that ended rigged elections in Guyana under your mentor and friend, party leader and President Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
While ruling out coalescing with the APNU, Mr. Trotman states that he will gladly welcome and receive leading members of the APNU, PNC and the PPP. Question Mr. Trotman: will there be a litmus test for incoming members? Will PNC members have to denounce the party publicly and apologize for past rigging?
PPP members, for what will they be asked to atone? And you Mr. Trotman, where is your apology?
Your Co-Leader and members of your party have been spreading lies and rumours about the APNU, and inciting race-based electioneering in south Georgetown and West Berbice (Region 5). Are you proud to be associated with this type of electioneering? You have said that it would be a travesty to exclude those who have a contribution to make and are qualified so to do.
I ask you, in denying the APNU are you saying that David Granger, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine and Dr, David Hinds are not eminently qualified and have no contribution to make?
Will you ask the PPP leaders that you embrace, including your Presidential candidate, to apologize for “apan jaat” and the economic sabotage the PPP engaged in while a party in opposition? What of the TUF with which you are so quick to jump into bed?
Are you going to ask them to apologize for the sins of that party’s forerunner the United Force (“UF”) whose members and leaders were linked to the treasonous acts during the Rupunini uprising?
You got it right the first time Mr. Trotman. It is time to heal; it is time for closure. You don’t want to go down this slippery slope; no one benefits; this is a lose-lose situation.
When you left the PNC it was ostensibly to create a partnership for national unity, because you and your colleagues felt that the PPP and the PNC had failed Guyanese voters.
So, you gathered up the disaffected, the opportunistic, and the idealistic of all political stripes and formed AFC. Now, are you not a little disingenuous when you criticize APNU, and ask one of their partners to apologize for rigging, when a member of your own party has indulged in questionable remarks, conduct, and associations?
Would you like researchers to search the PNC archives and extract every speech you made, expose every association with the “riggers”, and ask you to atone for them? Is this the kind of Prime Minister you will be?
“Alliances are imperative, and what parties in opposition have to decide is whether they want to remain in opposition in perpetuity or whether they can get together to challenge the PPP.” That was you; you got it right there.
“AFC is not perfect, the AFC has refrained from demonizing anyone.…” Yet again, that was the right approach, and I ask what made you change from being a conciliatory leader into just another divider.
So why revisit the language of division and hate, for Raphael, you know that is what you get when you start talking about rigging? Many have sinned and fallen short, so why single out one party?
At the AFC launch you said, “It is time to put old quarrels aside and to ask neighbours and friends for help.” You used the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and said it was time for forgiving, time for healing, and a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace.
Will the real Raphael Trotman please stand up?
Mark Archer

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Raphael Trotman wields a forked tongue

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