The deadly twins claim another victim

Jul 01, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

This country has gone nowhere, is going nowhere and will not go anywhere unless the PNC and PPP as organized forces with power to destroy Guyana fade away. The PNC and PPP have kept this country down because these parties do not have vision and enlightened perspectives when it comes to nationalism, freedom, justice and many other sacred values.
For African-Guyanese, Burnham is a hero and the PNC is their party. For East Indians, Cheddi and Janet Jagan are great Guyanese that no others can match.
These are dangerous myths. These three persons maybe never set out to destroy Guyana but whatever they had in their minds, it was released and it devastated this land in ways that preclude any sensible recovery. Guyana’s future lies in other hands, not those of the PPP and PNC. The reason is obvious. I referred to it above.
The culture of politics and governance as they understand it will not bring progress. It didn’t under Mr. Burnham and it isn’t bringing it under Mr. Jagdeo.
From the time they were born, the PNC and PPP have been practicing internal and national politics that has been devoid of the fundamental characteristics of decency. The essence of what democracy is, these two parties have no interest in.
The latest victim of this prolonged evil is Aubrey Norton. Should we feel sorry for him? If yes, then we should have the same sentiment for Moses Nagamootoo. None of them deserves even a grain of sympathy from the Guyanese people. Remember it was this same Nagamootoo who for forty years saw how Cheddi and Janet Jagan rigged their party’s congressional voting and he endured the course.
It was this same Nagamootoo who saw how an open accusation was made against Khemraj Ramjattan in front of the PPP’s leading policy-makers yet when it was time to say what they heard, they all claimed deafness.
This same Nagamootoo had a 60th birthday bash and all his enemies who undid him in his own party, according to what he told me umpteen times, were the biggest guests of honour. Is this a man you should show empathy to?
Aubrey Norton is now crying “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark” (quote from Shakespeare, “Hamlet.” act 1, sc.4). Something has always been rotten in Freedom House and Congress Place. That putrid smell has spread all over Guyana for over sixty years.
Where was Norton, Nagamootoo and company when the rut and decay were as clear as a nice, tropical day on the Essequibo? They didn’t smell it. They didn’t see it. They didn’t feel it. Then both Norton and Nagamootoo suddenly found solace in what the German theologian, Martin Niemöller wrote; “When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant Church – and there was nobody left to be concerned.”
So Mr. Norton claimed that the election for chairmanship of the Georgetown district of the PNC was rigged. A few months back, I was having souse and black-pudding in Thomas Street, near to New Market Street, a weekly hangout for white collar workers, mostly African Guyanese.
I met Norton there. I asked him how he could not speak out against what the cabal did to Vincent Alexander in terms of the balloting.
His response was that he told Alexander that in order to ensure a free vote, it was important to safeguard the credential committee of the PNC.
Well, it looked like Norton did not heed his own advice and became a victim of the very thing he warned Alexander against.
A few years ago, when the “Big Man” used the UG Council to oust Dr. Mark Kirton from his position as acting Vice-Chancellor of that institution (Kirton lasted only one day, yes, one day), the Social Sciences Faculty called an emergency meeting. Norton didn’t speak (Imagine that!)
After its conclusion, I asked him why he didn’t even utter a few words of support. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off. Months after, Norton became a victim of the conspiracies that characterize life at UG and lost his lectureship. How appropriate are the words of Rev. Niemöller in describing the political experience of Aubrey Norton.
One wonders what is going through the mind of Dr. Van West Charles. He will challenge Corbin in August for leader of the PNC.

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The deadly twins claim another victim

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