The PNC must fight back

May 27, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

You can divide the rule of the PNC into three periods. The first one was a coalition from 1964-1968, so the PNC did not have total control. The third period was 1985-1992 under Desmond Hoyte. It was definitely the most democratic era since Independence and few would deny that Mr. Hoyte was a transformative leader.
The problematic period in the PNC hegemony was under Forbes Burnham from 1968 to 1985. When the PPP condemns the PNC for all types of political atrocities, it is referring to this era.
This period of Burnham’s domination consisted of just a few months short of seventeen years. When the 2011 election comes, the PPP, as we know that party today, would have chalked up nineteen years in power. If you listen to Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar on the election trail and the school of PPP sycophants, you would think that we have just come out of PNC misrule and we are into a brand new phase of PPP procurement of power.
Reality tells a different story. The PPP under Mr. Jagdeo got twelve years of power and total PPP saturation is nineteen years. To obfuscate the ocean of scandals that it has drowned itself in and the rivers of political pollution that it is swimming in, the PPP’s political stratagem is to play on the psychology of its dwindling constituencies by presenting a picture of PNC vices and sins as if these things just went by yesterday.
The intention is to obscure the nineteen-year-old record of extreme corruption, extra-judicial violence and untold immoralities.
We see everyday from PPP writers with both fictional and real names in the two independent dailies how arrogant PNC leaders were. We hear how incompetent were PNC Ministers and how devastated was the economy. One person stands out in his quest of comparative analysis and that is Malcolm Harripaul. Harripaul is doing what the PNC should be doing for itself – setting the record straight.
Let us start with the 1973 shooting of two PPP supporters in Berbice after the close of polling in the election of that year. Mr. Jagdeo went to Berbice and tried to dirty Mr. Granger, using that event.
When Mr. Granger addressed a business luncheon recently, he was asked by Mr. Gerry Gouveia, about that incident. Did anyone from the audience inquire about another murder in Berbice one year after the two young men where shot? If questions are swirling around Mr. Granger about the killing of two PPP supporters during the 1973 elections then what abut the murder of policeman James Henry and the shooting of his colleague, Joachim Francis, during a prolonged period of PPP protest against the setting up of three toll stations for the newly constructed Corentyne highway in 1974?
A PPP member was charged for the two incidents.
This is where the PNC must fight back. Both the 1973 and 1974 murders should not be brought up in the campaign that is presently underway. But if the PPP and Mr. Gouveia are interested in locating blame for the 1973 tragedy then why should the PNC remain silent on what happened to Henry and Francis when logical deduction points to PPP guilt?
As the campaign intensifies, we are going to see and hear more about PNC sins under Mr. Burnham. But are these sins more numerous than those under Mr. Jagdeo? We will hear about Father Darke from the PPP bandwagon. Alright, what about Ronald Waddell? We will hear about imprisonment of critics under Burnham.
But under Mr. Jagdeo we have the first female treason accused which when taken with Benschop’s case makes it four persons to face treason charges under Mr. Jagdeo.
We read a recent letter in KN by a man named Karan Chand who wrote that he was an Essequibo school teacher. He intoned that during the PNC administration many African officials were arrogant, callous and hostile. He said the PPP may be the same.
But according to Chand, he migrated in 1989. It meant that Chand has missed first hand experience of unbelievable arrogance of East Indian state personnel.
I will end this column by informing Chand that had he stayed in Guyana after the PPP came to power in 1992, but particularly after 1999, he would have seen that the callousness, arrogance and hostility of PPP supporters and members in the state sector have made PNC bureaucrats look like little boys.
You have to live in Guyana, Mr. Chand to see it. You can call it hubris, hauteur, power-drunkenness, but it makes the PNC back in the seventies look like virtual angels.

Latest News

The PNC must fight back

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket Competition continues

GFF announces final squad for Concacaf U-17...

Cricket West Indies announces exciting 2025...

BCA, GCB to attend CWI meeting on February 9

Bolstered Harpy Eagles eyeing perfect home record...

Hockey PAHF Junior Challenge schedule released

Features/Columnists

Land, taxes and penalties

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Helping a brother traveling against traffic

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The PNC must fight back

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]