THE AFC SHOULD SPEAK ITS PIECE

Jun 19, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There are persons within the Alliance for Change who held leadership positions in both of the main political parties at the time of the 2001 elections.

Those leaders I believe would be extremely helpful witnesses in any United Nations Inquiry into the unraveling of the State that took place following those elections because they can provide information on the positions adopted by both of the main political parties just after those elections.

But of course, we do not have to wait until a United Nations Commission is appointed before these good men break their silence of just how each side viewed each other after those elections which were certified as free and fair but which saw Guyana descend into anarchy just after Jimmy Carter left Guyana.

These leaders should therefore speak now about just what was the thinking in both camps as to the situation at the time.

I am sure, for example, that the PNCR would have taken a position on a post-election strategy and especially on how it would deal with the forces that were spreading fear in Guyana.

I am sure that the PPP may have been concerned that there was a political element at work in the violence emanating from Buxton.

This is why I believe we need to talk a lot more about this proposal for a United Nations Inquiry into Roger Khan’s activities in Guyana.

I believe it would be extremely shortsighted for any such inquiry to not also delve into the wider political and societal concerns which would have spawned Khan’s alleged cooperation in the fight against crime.

A wider inquiry is needed also for other reasons. There are many Guyanese who are relieved whenever they hear some dangerous criminal is neutralized.

They know they can sleep better at nights. But there is also the need for answers to a number of questions as to just what triggered this pathology of violence in Guyana.
There is the same relief now as reports filter in about the dismantling of the ‘Fine Man gang’.

The joint services have made dramatic progress in their hunt for the men. But this dramatic progress will also raise-up old sores such as why the same results were not forthcoming when the army was stationed years ago in Buxton under Operation Tourniquet.

How is it that so many persons had to be killed when the army was stationed in the same area where the men were eventually found? And why is it that after the killing of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh and the army was again sent into Buxton, there were comments from some of the ranks that the gang was not in that area?

We need an inquiry to understand why this dramatic success in the dismantling of the criminal network. Do we not? Do we not need to know why the Joint Services in an earlier period was generally ineffective?
I am sure that the Alliance for Change is simply not into scoring cheap political points by its request for a UN inquiry.

I am sure that like most Guyanese it too wants answers to what led Guyana to the state whereby the security forces could no longer guarantee the security of its citizens, what led droves of Guyanese to move out from areas surrounding Buxton in the period 2001- 2004; what was and still is behind the bestial levels of violence that Guyana has seen ever since the PPP won the 2001 elections.

I am sure it must be just as perplexed as most Guyanese at the atrocities committed on our citizens right under the noses of the security forces during that period. I am sure it is concerned about the level of political leadership offered to the Guyanese people during that time.

I am sure also that it has something to say about the latter. I urge the AFC to say its piece and let the chips fall where they may.

It has an obligation as a party that is based on a break with the old politics, to let the people of this country know what it knows about the mindset of the two main political antagonists at the time the PPP lost the elections of 2001. From there we can move on to Roger Khan.

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THE AFC SHOULD SPEAK ITS PIECE

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