Purveyors of Hate

May 20, 2012 Features / Columnists, Ravi Dev

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Last week I wrote about the insistence of some political activists to articulate their politics in such a manner as to incite hatred for their opponents. I named Messrs Lincoln Lewis and Freddie Kissoon as exemplars of this ‘Politics of Hate”. This practice, I proposed, is not conducive for healthy politics in Guyana. It’s not that I do not accept politics is by definition adversarial: in fact I’m a supporter of agonistic democracy.
As I mentioned, I spent six years in the Opposition benches and I received my share of venom – from both the PPP and PNC. But even though we had some heated arguments within ROAR, I never felt that we gained anything by responding in kind. My premise was that in such a small country if we are to move forward, we will have to work together and this would be hampered by engendered feelings of hatred. I’ve proposed that we treat each other as ‘opponents’ but not ‘enemies’.
LEWIS
Mr Lewis did not respond to my article, but in a riposte to PM Sam Hinds on the Linden electricity subsidy issue he did confirm the premise of my argument. Mr Hinds had responded to some claims made earlier by Mr Lewis. But in addition to offering his rebuttal of Mr Hinds’ points, Mr Lewis took pains to repeat his oft repeated charge that the PPP was engaged in ‘economic genocide’ against the African Guyanese community. “Genocide”, I have cautioned, is a raw emotive word: with the power of modern communications, all of us saw the reality of Rwanda’s genocide.
In addition to caricaturing the claims of ‘marginalisation’ of African Guyanese by other activists, Lewis demeans the horrors of real victims of genocide. As a trade union leader in Guyana with international connections, I wonder if Mr Lewis considers the damage he’s doing to our image with his drumbeats of ‘genocide”? And how he might have scared away investors who could have assisted in alleviating the poverty that is the basis of our zero-sum polarised politics? Also most insidiously, how he’s engendering hatred in the breast of African-Guyanese youths who are feeling the real pangs of poverty.
Mr Lewis knows that all studies have shown that Africans and Indians are in the same boat as far as poverty is concerned.

 

KISSOON
Mr Kissoon, complained I was not specific enough about his incendiary language. One example is his insistence on using the term ‘evil’ to describe the actions of the PPP: “The PPP anger at the budget cuts showed the most dangerous psychology at work, a psychology that is scientifically incapable of distinguishing between virtue and evil… how can commonsense and decency prevail when evil is a stronger force? Evil has its own epistemology, logic, philosophy and cultural underpinnings.”
As explained ad nauseum, in the Guyanese context, this word has been used for five hundred years to justify all manner of barbarisms and horror – beginning with slavery. Kissoon is obviously familiar with the prescribed wages of ‘sin’ for the PPP: for years he has obsessively insisted the Opposition return to the “slow fyaah; mo’ fyaah’ of post-2001 Desmond Hoyte. In a word, “burn them” – i.e. the PPP.
Have Guyanese forgotten ‘slow fyaah; mo fyaah”? It started after the March 2001 elections– scheduled after the PPP was bludgeoned to relinquish two years. The campaign slogan for the PNC was “Slow Fire”.  The PPP/C won for the third consecutive time. The PNC disputed the elections results and street violence begins as “mo fyaah” is unleashed. Violence against Indian commuters passing through Buxton becomes routine as roads are dug up to slow/stop traffic; an opportunity to rob and assault.
The fires begin in Annandale, Stabroek News editorialises about “The Preachers of hate” on the TV. “Dialogue” is imposed and Hoyte presents 17 demands for “his constituency”.  Mervin and Bemchand  Barran, Dhanpal Jagdeo and Sgt Kooseram  are killed. Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis declares that “a clear pattern of criminal activities designed to create a climate of instability in the country” was underway. And we segue into the Feb 23, 2002 jailbreak as ‘mo fyaah’ intensifies.
Kissoon himself described those atrocities in his “Ocean Eleven” pieces:  “the glaring fact, the incontrovertible fact, remains that a group of seasoned criminals with no scruples or remorse in raping innocent women, robbed and killed people savagely because of their ethnicity.”
Kissoon was castigated furiously by Tacuma Ogunseye, who defended the gunmen as “Resistance Fighters”. Kisssoon denounced the “Wild Man” as he described Benschop, who taught the gunmen in Buxton, “voodoo political theory”. And yet this ‘slow fyaah; mo’ fyaah” is what Kissoon is exhorting the Opposition to unleash against the “evil” PPP.
Last week, Kissoon wrote “Once during the crime spree in Buxton, (Philip Moore) advised me not to worry about the criticism I was receiving because of my denunciation of the misdirected violence.” Kissoon neglected to mention that the recently departed Mr Moore, a true Guyanese patriot, was thereby castigating those who encouraged Africans to resort to such mindless violence. Like the present Kissoon.

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