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Guyana is now in the twilight zone

Jan 07, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Working People’s Alliance is well aware of the ease with which the military and the police can be used as a political tool of repression against enemies of PNC government. It should therefore not come as any surprise to the WPA that state agents, including members of the military intelligence, are implicated in the alleged surveillance of civilians.
I use the words “alleged surveillance” because I for one have great difficulty in accepting that cockamamie explanation offered by the Guyana Defence Force as to what one of its officers was doing outside of the home of Winston Brassington, and was engaged in a car chase which ended in the loss of his life, that of his wife and another driver.
Those who wish to believe that version can do so, but at this stage, I find that explanation difficult to swallow for many reasons which I will expound on later after the solider and his wife are buried. I do not wish to disrespect the dead until the dead is interred.
But the truth has to be known and it is incumbent on the government which promised transparency to establish a commission of inquiry into this scandal.
For the time being, I will only say that it is bizarre for surveillance to be undertaken on someone and his family when that person and the members of his family are out of the country and this is known to the authorities.
Winston Brassington was not the target of that operation that took place recently and which ended in a car chase and the death of three persons. But more about that later!
Guyana has now entered the twilight zone. The repressive arm of the State is now being put into action. Agents of the state are being let loose on citizens. APNU, of which the WPA is a part, has brought us full circle.
The majority of Guyanese may not be aware of what took place in this country during the mid-seventies when activists of the Working People’s Alliance were hounded and harassed, when they were beaten, brutalized and killed. The WPA knows what it was like to live in a police state in Guyana and the constant surveillance that was placed on persons from their leadership right down to casual friends of friends of their leaders’ wives.
A young girl was once introduced by a friend to the wife of Walter Rodney.  For this simple introduction, this young lady found herself being followed by agents of the state. One night she discovered this fact and soon after decided that she had enough and left Guyana.
The spies were all around. The intelligence forces were spying on behalf of the ruling party. The Ministry of National Mobilization then located in the compound that also housed Congress Place had spies planted all over. Even school children were being spied upon because it was felt that the WPA had support in certain schools among the young people.
This was the extent of the paranoia that gripped the Burnham state. Even an innocent introduction could see you being placed under the radar of the intelligence forces.
A former senior member of Guyana’s Foreign Service went to school with Rupert Roopnaraine of the Working People’s Alliance. One day this diplomat was coming out from work when he ran into his old school friend, Rupert, and they had a friendly chat. The next day he was summoned to a meeting to explain why he was having a conversation with a leader of the WPA.
This is the level of intimidation to which Guyanese were subject. It was the twilight era.
Fear once again stalks the land. Agents of the state are on the prowl. Guyana is now reentering the twilight zone.

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