WPA condemns ban on Professor Thomas from workshop

Jul 22, 2011 News

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The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has described as yet another giant step in the direction of a full-fledged dictatorship, the PPP-led government’s banning of Professor Clive Thomas from a workshop sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In a strongly worded press statement the WPA said that the ban on Professor Thomas was done on the grounds that he is associated with the opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
According to the WPA, Dr. Thomas was invited to the workshop and then disinvited. The institute headed by Dr. Thomas at the University of Guyana was then asked to nominate another person to give the lecture.
The party said that the “silly excuse by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that everyone could not be invited has only further exposed the nastiness.”
“Professor Thomas has been involved in National Politics for over four decades. He has been a leader of the WPA since its birth in 1974. The WPA is part of APNU. Dr. Thomas has been publicly involved in that process. The WPA is therefore asking “has the PPP now discovered this?  In any case what does Professor Thomas’ political affiliation have to do with him delivering a lecture on a topic on which he is an acknowledged expert?”
WPA condemned in the strongest terms “this most recent abuse of power by a government that must now be seen as the most degenerate in Guyana’s modern political history.”
“This is the worst form of political violence against a political opponent by a power-hungry but desperate political animal. It is now abundantly clear that this PPP party and government regard Guyana as their personal plantation in which they are prepared to entertain only house slaves and banish others to the margins. This surpasses anything that occurred during the period the PPP loves to cite as the worst in our history,” the WPA statement said.
This point was underscored by Professor Thomas himself in his statement of July 20, 2011, when he said “On the 6th July, I received a copy of the revised Draft Programme, which I am making available to you. I had started preparations for the lectures but during the week of the 10th July, I was contacted by the organizers who informed me that although the draft of the programme was circulated and there was no objection to it, that my later involvement with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) was causing a problem for the Government and that my participation was no longer acceptable. This is the first time that I have been asked for political reasons to no longer participate in an agreed training workshop for either public or private employees since I have been working at the University of Guyana.”
WPA said it views the ban on Dr. Thomas from three standpoints:
“First, the [party sees it as a violation of the right of association that is guaranteed by the constitution and that is a central aspect of any democratic process.”
Citizens, the WPA said, have a right to join and participate in any legal political entity they choose. “Many lives have been sacrificed to win and preserve this right. When a government moves to restrict or abolish it, as the PPP is doing, it invites the most vigorous opposition from all its citizens.“
Secondly, the party said it is a calculated assault on academic independence and freedom.
“The PPP is in effect telling academics that you can only practice your trade if you toe the PPP line. For the PPP to tell the country’s foremost development economist that he is not fit to deliver a lecture on the Theory of Development which formed part of the program of the Workshop on Development and Diplomacy, is most laughable. Further to deny the participants at the workshop the benefit of Professor Thomas’ expertise is the height of political over-reach that shows disdain for the exchange of knowledge and for education in general.”
Thirdly, the WPA said it views the action against Dr. Thomas as part of a larger attack on the party and its leadership.
“First, it was Tacuma Ogunseye. Then it was Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine. Now it’s Dr. Thomas. The PPP has obviously declared war on the WPA, a party that it has repeatedly described as defunct. If the WPA is a defunct party, then why expend so much capital on it? Why single out its leaders for special attacks?  Why do they fear a defunct party?  Why do they get delirious at the mere sight or mention of the WPA? There is clearly more in the mortar.”
The WPA sees the attacks on the party as part of a general attack on Guyana.
“We see them as representative of the naked misuse of power.  But we also see them as the action of a party that fears the prospect of losing power. We see them as an acknowledgement by the PPP that they are deathly afraid of what the birth of the APNU means.”

“As we have said before the WPA will fight back.  Cowardice has never been a quality of the WPA. We will use every avenue at our disposal to expose the wrongdoing of the PPP and its lackeys and mobilize the Guyanese people to put an end to this nasty regime. There is no turning back now. This government must go now.”

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