THE PNCR IS BEHAVING LIKE A BULLY

Aug 27, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I do not know about Macbeth’s witches being unleashed in Guyana. What I do know was that witchcraft and the dark arts were utilized in the streets of Georgetown as part of a devious and shameless attempt by the Peoples National Congress to steal the elections of 1997.
The PNC cannot claim that it did not know that it lost those elections. It had in its possession, copies of the Statements of Poll for the various polling stations and thus would have known that it had lost those elections. It dishonestly, however, sought to bully its way into power by fermenting unrest in Guyana, unrest which led to violence and terror in the streets of Georgetown and which fueled the ambitions of extremists on the outside and within the party.
The PPP compromised and reduced its term in office, but the damage had already been done. The underbelly of the ruling party had been exposed. It was unable to effectively secure the State and more importantly, private property from arson and its supporters from ethnic insecurity.
The period 1997 to 2001 was a tumultuous period in this country that laid the groundwork for what was to take place later in 2001. This time the Carter Center came to observe those elections and thus the same dishonesty could not prevail. Even before the final results were declared, Jimmy Carter informed Hoyte that his quick count showed that the PPP/C had won the election, with only a marginal increase over the results of the 1992 and 1997 elections.
No sooner had Carter jumped on a plane and the mischief started. Protests started in Buxton, but was not confined to that village. In a number of PNC dominated villages along the East Coast and West Coast of Demerara there was unrest. This was yet another attempt to steal the elections. This time Hoyte had learnt his lesson and when the protestors turned up in front of his house for instructions to go on the warpath, he declined their offer and urged restraint.
The extremists would however have no one of it, and it was then that we saw a number of tragic events take root in our country, including the Mash Day jailbreak which unleashed a hail of violence and criminality from which this country never recovered. Having failed at the polls, there was an attempt by political extremists to use criminals to undermine the State and to bring about the downfall of the government. One political extremist had the temerity to call on the East Indians who had voted for the PNCR to seek refuge in Congress Place. This was just another attempt at seeking to bully a democratically elected government out of power.
This is the historical context of the “slow fyah, mo fyah” campaign launched by Desmond Hoyte. It was intended to apply pressure to the PPP to make concessions, including constitutional reform through which the opposition hoped, as it did in the sixties, to unseat the PPP. It had nothing to do with poor governance since “slow fyah” began in 1997 and was aimed at softening the PPP. Slow fyah was an attempt to push the PPP to legislate itself out of power through pressure.
The PNCR eventually saw the folly of that strategy. It was alienating critical support for the PNCR, fostering ethnic polarization and allowing for the PNCR to be demonized and seen as anti-democratic. More importantly, it allowed the party support base to come under the influence of political extremists, some of whom had ties to the criminal underworld.
The bullyism of the PNCR is resurfacing again. The PNCR is asserting its right to protest while denying others the same right. It is claiming that those who wish to protest outside of Congress Place are looking for trouble. Yet this is the same party which wants the Guyanese people to believe that it is capable of defending the rights of citizens and of protecting civil liberties. It claims the right to protest, but dares anyone to exercise a similar right in front of Congress Place.
There is no law which disallows protests aimed at Congress Place, and those who wish to exercise their democratic right to protest peacefully in front of Congress Place should go right ahead and do so. The PNCR does not own Guyana and therefore does not have any right to deter persons from protesting in front of Congress Place.

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THE PNCR IS BEHAVING LIKE A BULLY

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