Time for all Guyanese to face this reality

Oct 21, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It is not easy for thousands of persons who sacrificed in large and small ways for the return of free and fair elections and the return of democratic structures and democratic functions in Guyana to wake up and find that all we fought for has disappeared in the sands of time.
It is psychologically impossible for many of the leading protagonists against the Burnham regime in the seventies and eighties to bring themselves to face the reality that the government under President Forbes Burnham now seems to be a tiny dictatorship in comparison to the frightening use of power under the PPP, particularly since the death of President Cheddi Jagan
I have read the explanation of Moses Nagamootoo in response a news item in this newspaper which reported him as saying that there is greater fear now in Guyana than in the Burnham days. This paper had quoted some of his remarks at a recent CIDA/Guyana Press Association sponsored media workshop.
His clarification was carried in both independent dailies. According to Moses, he was misrepresented.
Moses in his letter let it be known that he was concerned that his friend (he used those words) Sharief Khan had interpreted the Kaieteur News item to mean that there is greater fear among the media than when the Government was in the hands of President Burnham.
The contents of Moses’s letter resemble a similar one he did a few years back in retaliation for comments I had made about the PPP Government being more dictatorial than the Burnham regime.
In that missive, he describes the trials and tribulations he went through as a journalist and a politician under the repressive reign of the PNC.
I answered back with the question that to date Moses never answered. It went like this – “given all the harassment you claimed you received at the hand of the oppressive government why were you never arrested and placed before the courts not even once?” My point was to prove to Moses that PPP personnel were not devastated by the Burnham Government the way they would like people to believe.
For example, quite a number of PPP stooges would write that Freddie Kissoon and Christopher Ram, Stabroek News and Kaieteur News are free to criticize the government. Many PPP spokespersons would write that I confront the PPP Government often but I am still employed at UG.
What they opportunistically and conveniently refused to elucidate on is the graphic survival of the PPP under the PNC. How did they do that? How did they keep their state jobs? How come the Mirror lasted as long as Burnham’s rule lasted? Why wasn’t the Mirror banned by that brutal Burnham dictatorship?
I think that most Guyanese know how the PPP treats these historical facts so I wouldn’t dwell on that topic further.
Let’s return to Nagamootoo’s letter.
Again readers are treated to the dark days of Burnhamism.
Then Moses becomes opportunistic in subtle ways. He avoids comparison of now and the seventies.
He dwells on the rising tide of criminal violence, the drug trade, misbehaviour by the police force, fear of reporting crime for reasons of retaliation.
Finally he concludes by saying that the uneasiness he sees all over Guyana “is not due to any despotic rule and the syndrome of fear is not created by the Government.”
Here then is the reason for the title of my article. Many of the fears we saw under Burnham are back with us. They never left us.
The PPP continued where Burnham left off. But there are worse manifestations under the PPP now than in Burnham days.
Let me say boldly to Moses Nagamootoo that the PPP Government is a more authoritarian junta than the Burnham regime.
The best argument to prove this statement is the connection between deadly extra-judicial figures and high officials in the Government with the connection being the drug trade.
There is an episode that came up and just died a natural death. Commentators need to reflect on it. When “Fine Man” was on the rampage, his sister was murdered by unknown gunmen.
The rumour that took hold of the citizens was that it was a vendetta killing to show “Fine Man” that there are people who can carry the fight to him.
So who killed her in order to send a message to “Fine Man” that the fight will be taken to him?
Surely, it couldn’t be the Opposition. What reason they would want to do that? In any case, the ruling politicians told the nation that the PNC supported criminal violence. Who then killed the woman?
Media operatives know who killed Axel Williams. Over to you, Moses!

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Time for all Guyanese to face this reality

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