Bisram reinforces PPP racial fear-mongering

Jun 13, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Kindly allow me to respond to Mr. Vishnu Bisram’s letter, “Only Harripaul does not believe Ogunseye message,” (KN 06-05-11). Bisram was responding to my letter, “Is PPP really democratically elected or racially elected?” (KN 5-27-11). However, rather than deal with my specific arguments that the PPP relies on racial fear mongering and intimidation to capture enbloc the Indo Guyanese vote, he instead resorted to repeating well known PPP propaganda. He even ended up rehashing some of the fear mongering techniques of the PPP. I will rebut some of the points of his letter.
Firstly, Bisram in defence of the PPP dictatorship was forced to engage in deception when he wrote that I had presented unsubstantiated character assassinations and that I had no problem with rejecting election results. I checked my letter, “Is PPP really democratically elected or racially elected?” (KN 5-27-11), and I found no mention of anyone’s character, nor did I write I had no problem with rejecting election results. So much for Bisram’s credibility!
Secondly, Bisram wrote that I had “allowed retaliation and vendetta against the PPP to cloud my judgment and analysis of politics in Guyana.” According to Bisram, I have an ulterior motive for being critical of the PPP. For the benefit of the younger readers, even when I was part of the PPP’s government in the early 1990’s, I wrote letters critical of the government. This infuriated the de facto party boss Janet Jagan and she appointed Mr. Ralph Ramkarran and Mr. Komal Chand to discipline me. My criticisms of the regime were based on principle then, and today it is still based on principle.
Thirdly, Bisram wrote, “Indians have been on the receiving end of violence during every election since 1961.” To be fair, political violence started in 1962 when Dr Cheddi Jagan was hell bent on placing his communist agenda above the interests of Indo Guyanese and Guyana, and so caused the United States Government to commence his removal from power. The PNC and UF, at the direction of the USA, fomented some social unrest. There was retaliation from the Soviet financed and Cuban armed PPP. Both major race groups suffered casualties. This round of violence ended when Dr Jagan accepted the Proportional Representation system in London in October 1963.
When the Jagans realized that PR would mean the loss of elections and power for the PPP because Indo Guyanese were not a majority then, they launched a “Hurricane of Protests” in January 1964 that ushered in the second wave of terror that pitted the main groups against each other. Ms Jagan was forced to end the “protests” after the Wismar Burnings on May 26th 1964 when Indo Guyanese were forced to flee from Wismar. However, the Guyana Liberation Army, is believed to have retaliated by bombing the Sun Chapman and killing 47 Afro Guyanese. They had allegedly also firebombed a school bus carrying White and Portuguese children, and had also wiped out a Portuguese family in an arson attack.
It is true that in the aftermath of the 1997 and 2001 elections, Indo Guyanese were subjected to violence but the PPP leaders denied this and they held no Inquiry into the beatings and home invasions. I challenge Bisram to rationalize the PPP’s actions then. Indo Guyanese being killed did not pose a threat to the PPP regime and the government did nothing, especially since the violence reinforced racial fears that benefitted the PPP.
However, when the PPP came under threat of destabilization in 2002, the party took actions, not to protect Indo Guyanese and all Guyanese, but rather to secure itself. Had the PPP followed the lawful course and called in the United Nations to restore law and order, then we could say that it had acted in the interest of all Guyana. But the regime employed narco militias and death squads to neutralize gunmen who had taken over Buxton. Some misguided Indo Guyanese applauded the actions of the cartel but whilst the drug lords empowered the PPP regime, Indo Guyanese continued to be vulnerable to violence.
Fourth, Bisram wrote that some old doctors told him how “hundreds of Indian girls” were raped in the National service. This is an old PPP fear mongering technique that was used to discourage Indo Guyanese from joining the National Service, and the Guyana Defence Force. I challenge Bisram to get these “old doctors” to document this “atrocity” before they die. It should not be much of a feat to do since only a few doctors did abortion in those days. Failure to do so would mean that it is as I say “just PPP propaganda.” That is not to say that a few women were not raped, but women of all races were the objects of sexual lust, not just Indo Guyanese. Not surprisingly, Bisarm did not deal with the current multiple allegations of sexual criminality against the ruling PPP elite.
Fifth, Bisram reminded me of the banning of “alou, dhal, roti, channa, etc,” as evidence of Indo Guyanese oppression in the early 1980’s. I am guessing that since Bisram grew up in an all-Indian village on the Corentyne, he did not know that Afro Guyanese also ate “alou, dhal, roti, and channa,” and were also affected by the flour ban. Burnham was wrong to force us to change our diets but it affected all Guyanese, not just Indo Guyanese. In fact, it affected Afro Guyanese more as urban folks primarily have bread for breakfast and dinner. I can tell you it affected those of us in the GDF. We went from bread to “rice pop”. Bisram and the PPP always “forget” to point out that Indo Guyanese farmers and smugglers made money during the flour ban. A point to note is that President Hoyte in 1985 removed the flour ban.
Sixth, Bisram wrote that I did not understand terminologies like “democratically elected” and “racially elected,” and “the PNM and UNC in Trinidad as do other parties in Surinam appeal to race.” Here Bisram is being intellectually dishonest. I am sure he knows that Indians are not the majority bloc in Trinidad and Suriname, and the Indian based parties do not exercise the Stalinist control of their supporters as does the PPP in Guyana. Nor do those parties employ fear-mongering tactics at election time. They all campaign on policies and issues. In a
multi-racial society, a party can and must appeal to other groups by programs designed to advance those groups. Such parties are democratically elected even if by predominantly their own group because of the absence of racial fear mongering.
In Guyana the Indians comprise a near majority bloc and the PPP relies on racial fear as an election tool to garner Indo Guyanese votes. This makes the PPP a racially elected dictatorship. In the other countries mentioned above, the parties do not have a rubber stamp parliament, nor do they have one radio station, nor can they close down TV stations at will, nor do they have a state media, nor are they hostile to the private media, nor do they control the state agencies, nor do they control every national institution. They do not practice de facto party paramountcy. In other words they are not elected dictatorship.
Seventh, Bisram excused the Stalinist imposition of Mr. Donald Ramotar on the PPP membership and Indo Guyanese by President Jagdeo on the grounds “the PPP has a mechanism that it considers democratic.” How on earth can one man and his lackeys in the Executive and Central Committees choose for 2000 members? I ask Bisram to contrast this with the PNC which held primaries throughout Guyana, held town hall styled meetings for the public, and allowed six candidates to openly compete for nomination. A free and fair election was held and David Granger was elected by the PNC membership to be their Presidential Candidate. Isn’t this American type democracy?  I guess Bisram prefers the ossified Stalinist democratic centralism of the PPP?
Lastly, Bisram reminded me of the ‘kick down the door bandits’ of the latter 1970’s and early 1980’s. May I remind him that from 1985 to 1992 President Hoyte stamped out this type of crime, but it was allowed to reborn under the PPP regime. In the last seven years of PNC rule, pick pockets were the criminals of the day. Today after 19 years of PPP reign, the armed killing gangs strike several times daily. The PNC Presidential Candidate David Granger has publicly said he would resuscitate the Guyana Peoples Militia at the regional levels. This means that Indo Guyanese can be members of their Militias to help protect their villages from armed gangs…and election violence. This is a Granger program that should appeal to Indo Guyanese as it addresses their security concerns.
Malcolm Harripaul

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