An ad hominem attack from a bereft politician

Nov 23, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Please permit me the space to respond to a bit of anonymous sniping in the Guyana Times (November 18, 2011), published under the title “Enfant Terrible Poseur”.  I can realistically attribute the letter to the PPP since it is for the most part a verbatim amalgamation of comments made on a thread on Facebook, all by a covert PPP account.
While I have no problem with the yellow accusations made against me personally, one part of this piece of writing that I found sickening is the attack on a respected citizen of Guyana, Dr. Ian McDonald, A.A.
In seeking to disingenuously link McDonald’s critical support of my work at the time with my being awarded the Guyana Prize for Literate (in a year that McDonald was not a member of the jury), the article states:
“We segue into 2002, when the Guyana Prize committee announced that locally-based authors would be permitted to submit work in manuscript form.  His godfather by then was Ian McDonald, who was seeking to salve his liberal white WI guilt over their default racism.”
If that sort of ad hominem attack is not indicative of the moral bankruptcy of the PPP in general, I don’t know what is.
The more important issue here, however, has to do with the issue of cultural policy and the role of culture in development.   The article cites my role as advisor to the AFC in that regard, but does not critically touch upon a single area of the Party’s policy as represented in the Action Plan.
Meanwhile, the People’s Progressive Party has the indecency to pay Trinidadian soca artiste, Destra Garcia, $7 million for a one-night performance, but yet the Ministry of Culture under PPP executive Dr Frank Anthony cannot host a single writing workshop that would function at a tiny fraction of that cost.
The money paid for Destra could have held 14 annual writing workshops for emerging writers in Guyana, but the PPP has no interest in that sort of intellectual development. The PPP’s complete cultural development plans for the next five years?  ”Upgrade the cultural assets in urban areas and provide similar facilities in rural and hinterland communities.”  That’s it.
Then there is the issue of the anonymity of the writer of the piece.  I’ve repeatedly made the point that this sort of cowardice and intellectual paucity is typical of the People’s Progressive Party.  The psrty’s Presidential candidate, when his Campaign Manager isn’t speaking for him that is, is comfortable with mouthing repetitive platitudes on the campaign trail, but has not opened himself up to interrogation.
Indeed, he is largely absent from the press conferences of a campaign in which he is asking to be given the helm of government.  This is laughable as it is absurd – How ridiculous would it be if the AFC’s Campaign Manager, Salim Nausradeen or APNU’s, Joseph Harmon, were to be seen as having a disproportionately greater public presence than either Khemraj Ramjattan or David Granger respectively?
The anonymous writer, seeks to attack my literary credentials.  As someone claiming to be a literary writer I can produce ample evidence of awards, publications and critical citations of my work; and that said, I am not running for President, nor am I even on the list of AFC’s candidates for these elections.
I challenge the PPP campaign, in contrast, to produce a single economics or political science paper produced by Mr. Ramotar, published in any half decent journal or even “stapled together” after being written on a “Palm Court napkin”, to support the absurd and disingenuous claim that their candidate is an economist and a political scientist.
If Donald Ramotar is either of those things, Guyana has an embarrassment of human resource riches – by virtue of that logic – considering that the University produces “economists”, “diplomats” and “scientists” by the droves every year through its first degree programmes in Economics, International Relations and Biology.
Those members of the People’s Progressive Party who continue to hold on to the bankrupt belief that the institution you support has any sort of integrity left, consider that the PPP’s campaign has not been primarily about issues, and about a defense of its policies after 19 years in government.
What you have had instead is the abuse of state resources in seeking to create the myth of popular support; cursing out and threats against the independent media; bribing of voters; and ad hominem attacks – openly and clandestinely – on critics whenever it is that your party cannot defend its record on issues.
The Guyana Times – under Editor Nigel Williams – which published that illogical, anonymous personal attack on me, and which was founded as a direct result of the PPP’s voting to legalise the Queen’s Atlantic concessions, will not – as would be democratic and decent – be publishing my response; that is the sort of skewed, weak and cowardly politics that you are supporting.
And what that says is that despite robbing the country in order to establish a media mechanism to support your policies, you are afraid of being interrogated or rebutted. I stand ready, both personally and in my capacity as advisor to the AFC, to debate the Minister or anyone in the intellectually bereft PPP, on any issue of cultural policy.
Unless the Party is prepared to do so, I suggest that you continue to keep officially and unofficially quiet on the areas I’ve touched upon; stay in your corner and try to ride out the wave of change that is sweeping the country.
The next time you to try to snipe, you will be answered openly, and condignly so, and you will again be unable to respond publicly.
Ruel Johnson

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