Atonement, propaganda and the truth

Jun 03, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One doubts that the Guyanese people internalise the propaganda that the PPP carry on daily in the state media. The Guyana Government has emerged as one of the most despised and despicable regimes in the history of the Anglo-phone Caribbean.

This government moves from one nasty incident to another. In any normal polity, Mr. Jagdeo would not have survived the accusations of Ms. Varshnie Singh.

The infamies and notorieties of the PPP Government roll on. As we finished reading about Roger Khan, there came the Stabroek News advertisement nastiness; the Lindo Creek killings came up so did the Marriott Hotel fiasco.

Then Queens Atlantic showed up; the army torture case surfaced; then Kellawan Lall moved in; we skipped over to Ms. Varshnie Singh; then Clico emerged; then Fidelity turns up and the saga goes on.

With about 18 months before the election campaign begins, what can the PPP and its government tell the people of Guyana about its achievements? The election machinery will be a jejune one but it will move into gear with its staleness nevertheless. Lacking a positive record, the PPP’s election train will go back in the past, back in time and run the propaganda trail of bad-mouthing the PNC.

The fiction of the PPP fighting the Burnham Government is all these people have to hold on to. Strange that two years ago, Clement Rohee, in a letter in the press denied that I was arrested and thrown in the Brickdam lock-up for picketing outside Parliament against the 1989 Budget of the Hoyte Government. But he conveniently let it be known in the same letter that he was in the protest and got collared by the police.

It is awkward for Rohee and his ilk in the PPP to face a critic that fought for democracy. The PPP thrives on painting their critics as people who were once in bed with the PNC. That can’t work with me. I would not be a good propaganda object to use for that purpose. So the best Rohee could have done was to deny my balance-sheet.

Readers of the exchange between us would know that Mr. Rohee made a hasty retreat when I threw out a challenge to him. If I could use the police records at Brickdam and the issues of the WPA publication, Dayclean, for that period and prove that I was arrested then he must resign as a Minister. Failure on my part would mean I must resign from UG and cease this column. I haven’t heard from Rohee since then.

It looks like the PPP has commenced its campaign for 2011. Two curious articles the past three days cover the stale, arid topic of PNC wrong-doing when it was in Government. But never mind that these outpouring will have no pervasive influence, they still should be rebutted even if at least one citizen should fall under their influence.

The first is by Mr. Ralph Ramkarran titled, “Atonement.” (yesterday’s Chronicle). The other is by one of the Peeping Toms (Saturday’s KN) sympathetic to the PPP. Let’s deal first with the Ramkarran piece. Mr. Ramkarran believes that the PNC should apologise for its conduct when it ruled Guyana. Mr. Ramkarran begins his essay with the following line; “When sensible people do something wrong, they know they must own up and apologize.”

I now throw out a challenge to Mr. Ramkarran. If he can cite just one example where President Jagdeo has apologized since he became President in 1999 then I will stop this column. The facts showed that the concessions to Queens Atlantic were not in sync with the relevant laws and they were subsequently covered by recourse to Parliament.

Mr. Jagdeo accused Dr. Yesu Persaud of being ignorant of the laws that provides for such concessions. Mr. Jagdeo was wrong. Mr. Ramkarran wants the PNC to apologize for as he puts it; “The implementation of authoritarian methods of rule, and the destruction of the economy.” I will leave it to readers to judge if the present PPP Government should apologise for those very two things since 1992.

Peeping Tom, writing about the Guyanese who are getting a hard time in Barbados observed; “If there is any government which is to be blamed for Guyanese having to leave because of economic reasons, it cannot be the incumbent regime…it was not that regime which reduced Guyana to the second poorest nation in the hemisphere.”

Peeping Tom didn’t tell us that the illegal migrants in Barbados left long after 1992, that Guyana may still be the second poorest in this part of the world, and that this administration is going on to seventeen years in power.

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