Elected dictatorship in Guyana and its apologists

Jul 06, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

On Saturday, June 26, the Guyana Historical Institute held its annual scholarly conference at the National Library. As described in a previous column, the afternoon session began with my presentation on the comparison of the Jagdeo presidency with his predecessors.
My task was to trace the historical, sociological and political difference between Jagdeo, one the one hand, and those Heads that came before him.
The main endeavour was to reveal the influence of the colonial struggle on Burnham, Jagan, his wife and Hoyte and how that environment shaped their nationalist outlook.
As soon as the chairman introduced me and I came towards the podium, six persons, three men and three women, began to make loud noises, one of them using a steady flow of expletives and denouncing my talk on Muslims. Apparently, he was told that my paper was on Muslims.
This display of thuggery occurred in full view of over sixty persons, including prominent Guyanese and some sections of the media. A few persons expressed their disgust openly to the six persons who were bent on destroying the event.
In the audience was Randy Persaud who, up to now, refuses to describe his designation even though he works at the Office of the President, and no opposition Parliamentarian has made a parliamentary inquiry.
The open show of political nastiness was witnessed by Persaud but here is his description of what took place. I quote from his letter to this newspaper (June 30). “Some people in the audience loudly criticized Kissoon as he rose to speak and then left. To the best of my knowledge those persons did not return.”
Here now are the words of the head of the Guyana Historical Society, Ms. Hazel Wolford who witnessed the disruption and together with the chairman of my panel, Dr. Thomas Singh, of UG, tried to prevent derailment. Her words are taken from her letter in Stabroek News of July 4.
“The demonstrators who led the chanting were neither invitees to the conference nor bona fide researchers. It was evident from their manner of dress and/or refusal to pay the registration fee that they were paid hecklers who arrived with the specific intention of bringing the conference proceedings to a premature end.
“It was unfortunate that the presenters were subjected to this display of bad manners. I would hope that at future conferences that we, the organizers, would have no difficulty in obtaining the assistance of the police when we solicit such.”
It will be insulting to Hazel Wolford if I wrote that I would leave it to readers to decide who gave an accurate description of what went on. To do so is to obfuscate the essential difference between Hazel Wolford and Randy Persaud. There is no evidence that Ms. Woolford has ever uttered a public statement in her entire life that is partisan to my politics.
At the same time, there is no public statement from Ms. Woolford that she has ever voiced a condemnation or criticism of the Government of Guyana and/or Mr. Jagdeo. I don’t think I need to make the comparison with Persaud who not only comes across as an apologist and propagandist for the Government, but is in fact such.
This is where we are at in this Naipaulian land in 2010 where tragedy and dictatorship have been intertwined since the PPP spilt into Burnham and Jagan factions. In one month’s time, Forbes Burnham would have died 25 years ago. Those who inherited the absolute power that Burnham once had would have had uncanny experiences strongly identical to what took place at the National Library on June 26, 2010.
But for all the talk about PNC dictatorship, after Burnham went, the PNC never perpetuated the ugliness that took place at that scholarly conference. Hoyte took power and we left the Burnham era behind.
At an academic confabulation at the beginning of the nineties when the PNC was in Government, the panel consisted of me, Professor Harold Lutchman and Ralph Ramkarran. The topic was the 1980 Constitution. No one from the Government of Guyana, the Office of the President or the PNC came to break up the meeting.
Those who endured Burnham’s thugs were free to criticize the PNC Government and they did, like me and Ralph Ramkarran. The bestiality, fascism, and thuggery that visited the PPP and WPA under Burnham have returned. Maybe it was a colossal mistake when President Desmond Hoyte on the Vincentian island of Mustique promised CARICOM leaders that Guyana would have free and fair elections. And we did have it. But look what it brought –elected fascism.

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Elected dictatorship in Guyana and its apologists

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