Still a good country, still nice people around

Oct 24, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I published a column last week on the tragedy that Idris Chester suffered in Buxton during the crime madness between 2002 and 2005. I failed to mention in that piece that Chester lost her daughter during the height of the violence when her common-law husband hacked her to death.
I appealed in that article to Guyanese to help Mrs. Chester complete her East Coast Demerara home; windows and a few internal items are yet to be purchased. The response from Guyanese has been overwhelming. I believe Mrs. Chester has received more pledges than she expected. Her house will now be completed.
I once ran a column in which I asked my readers to help with a desk and chair for a student I helped to get into a primary school. The headmistress was generous in admitting the pupil but furniture was short. I got more than six offers of help for that child.
Despite the horror shows the PNC and the PPP have perpetuated on this country from 1957 onwards, minus the Hoyte interregnum, the Guyanese people have endured and have retained their humanity which they continue to share with each other.
If this country can secure a brand new category of leaders to shape our future, we will have a blissful horizon. It is the politics of the former PNC Government and the 18-year rule of the PPP that continue to plague this nation. Our nemesis is uncaring rulers who love power more than they care about Guyana.
If we can get our politics right, we can set this poor nation on a path from which we can fly away into the future. And one reason explains this – there are good people still left in this land and they care about it, want to see it become modern and have the same love in their heart for their fellow citizens that you find in other nations.
I have been a university lecturer for twenty-five years (not thirty-five as Mr. Jagdeo twice told a public gathering; still waiting for his acceptance of my challenge that I show my published research and he must resign and on my failure to do so I will quit UG and this column) and I see young students with patriotic intentions and imbued with the spirit of love and vision as you will discover in any other country.
I have met bank tellers and supermarket cashiers whose pleasantness can be compared to any in the world.
In thirty years I have not watched as many courtrooms as I have seen in the last three months when turning up to show solidarity with Mark Benschop, Lincoln Lewis and also the truck driver, Manniram, whose employment by me, Benschop and Dr. David Hinds to transport protesting school children from Patentia to the Ministry of Home Affairs led to the illegal confiscation of his vehicle.
In all my visits to the court houses, I have met professional court officials, police officers and magistrates. Our encounters have been extremely friendly. You go to GT&T, DDL outlets, the fast food restaurants and you will come face to face with the future of Guyana and what you see is encouraging. You see people with a positive and friendly attitude.
I have been publicly referred to as a sleaze ball by President Jagdeo. The Chronicle ridicules me every day (don’t take my word for the frequency of the Chronicle attacks; just go to the newspaper and see for yourself) yet the venom that exists inside the mind of the dictators for me I don’t find replicated in the countless Guyanese I meet, many of whom live in the PPP heartlands.
I have never been shown a vexatious face wherever I go in this country. From East Indian districts to African-dominated cities, from working class citizens to middle class folks with money, I have never been taunted or insulted or even snubbed.
All, I repeat, all the persons that have discussed the substance attack on me believe it was the work of the Government.
It gives me encouragement to keep writing because I see the goodness and warmth in the Guyanese population.
The missing link that makes me sad is the fear I notice. People come up to you, they range from priest to market vendor to white collar worker to members of the nouveau riche, and they will impart information to you about the abuse of power. They want to see the Guyana Government exposed. They want to see the Guyana Government go but they are afraid.
People hate the ruling clique but fear stops them from even an open whisper. The Government knows that and it uses the tool of intimidation to drive the fear further into the souls of this tragic nation. When will this good nation be freed?

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