‘If the intention is to silence me, I shall not be deterred’

Dec 20, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
If Ravi Dev’s article, “Discourse of hate” (Kaieteur News, 13/12/2009) is intended to silence me with his manufactured accusation that the language I use to describe the racist and discriminatory practices of this regime will result in attacks against Indians, I shall not be deterred.
His vociferous quest for Indian dominance to the point where he condones and advances transgressing the rights of others and the destruction of principles that are necessary for a cohesive and functioning society speaks to the wicked mindset the society has to struggle against.
One may recall it was Dev who said if Indians didn’t come to Guyana the country would have reverted to mangrove.
This statement was clearly intended to send a message that Africans are lazy and others are justified in discriminating against them when in fact there is no evidence to show that Africans were non-productive/lazy prior to and after the arrival of Indians.
On the other hand there is a preponderance of evidence to show where this Government has a deliberate and sustained programme to discriminate against the African community.
Having consistently embraced rights regardless of which group benefits, my principle would obviously conflict with Dev’s.
Unlike Dev I have a keen sense of right and wrong, a moral compass that guides my daily practices and interactions with my fellow men and a conscience to tell me when I see any deviation from the universal principles.
Dev in his racist campaign sees it necessary to feign ignorance to my long standing advocacy for the principles of justice and fair play in Guyana, which has remained consistent from regime to regime.
Unlike him right and wrong for me are universal principles not premised on who is involved or who looks more like me.
I have too the basic understanding to know that to be a leader it calls for a level of honesty and willingness to deal with whatever circumstance emerges and make decisions guided by time-honoured principles, laws and conventions.
This principle has seen me speaking out against those who believe in and/or practice violations.
Having spoken out against other administrations – including the African led – on matters of principle which included workers’ rights; respect for the rule of law, convention, constitution and electoral policy I shall not stop now because this current administration happens to be Indian led and my outspokenness make some Indians angry or uncomfortable.
Given the overwhelming evidence and concern both locally and internationally of this administration lawlessness, corruption and ruthlessness, it is even more imperative that I speak out.
This is a Government that breaks the law with impunity, tortures citizens, employs Gestapo policing tactics to silence and drive fear into people, carry-out deliberate acts of discrimination against particular groups, associates with and offers protection to drug lords and rank the most corrupt in the Region. These behaviours and actions are of concern to me and law abiding citizens who believe in justice and fair play in administrating the laws.
It shouldn’t matter who leads the government but in this particular case it is an Indian led government that Dev wants to defend by virtue of its Indian-ness and this position is not racial but racist since he seeks to defend organised discrimination against Africans and crimes against humanity.
It is very disconcerting that the practice and continuity of this rapacious government is the fault of Dev, et al, who choose to demonise others when they object to being stripped of their rights, turn the other way in support of and seek to justify the lawlessness and injustices by their own.
This garrison mentality, dilemma or catharsis has to be sorted through by the afflicted. But the law-abiding will not wait until the purge has taken place.
It may be opportune to recognise that the violence inflicted on this society has largely been of the government’s own making which has threatened the society’s wellbeing, resulting in attacks against the citizens, including Indians, that have seen hundreds dying extra judicially; association/complicity with the underground economy; refusal to implement the Disciplined Force Commission Report;
encouraging crime by refusing to place persons before the Court; the non-implementation of the GTUC/Government of Guyana MOU to confront crime; refusal to access the British security funding; plundering the state’s coffers; denial of taxpayers’ funding to an institution it cannot control and a college whose population happens to be predominantly Africans; infliction of economic pains on the bauxite communities, regions, NDCs and towns not won by the PPP, the contemptuous treatment of public sector workers and playing one group against another.
The effort to justify the injustices meted out to Ronald Waddell, Mark Benschop and Dr. Kean Gibson and the creation of an anti-Indian nexus among us is nothing more than an act to communicate to his lawless colleagues that it is time to unleash violence against me.
It would be recalled that in all three cases these persons were first demonized followed by actions against them. Waddell was allegedly assassinated by Roger Khan gang, Benschop jailed on trumped up treason charge and Dr. Gibson’s work taken before the Ethnic Relations Commission.
It is the primary responsibility of every government to ensure the laws are enforced and citizens’ rights are protected.
This Government is abrogating its responsibility to and is guilty of committing acts of violence against the citizens, with the support of Dev, et al.
For my part I shall not be deterred. For speak I must and speak I will!
Lincoln Lewis

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