The PPP is not concerned with protests that do not affect their families and personal lives

Oct 21, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
This era we dwell in and the difficult world economics facing us require a renewed perspective on almost every agenda we had constructed before, even in the face of the stagnant nature of the common enemy within and without. The exchange between PNC Chairman Basil Williams and media activist Mark Benschop highlights how the righteous vexations of citizens can be extracted and misrepresented to distract from the overall issue. This contention began with a Stabroek News article on the Oct 4, 2012 where some persons at Linden were reported to have thrown some remarks at Basil Williams the content of these remarks I know not to be true of Mr. Williams, who was active and like Nigel Hughes engaging throughout the Linden crisis. I saw Chairman Williams’ letter in the Oct 5 edition of the Stabroek News, and I expected a response from Mark Benschop.
I however did not expect a response that confirmed what Mr. Williams had said. As a member of ACDA a voluntary Organization I am challenged regularly that we haven’t done this or that sometimes short of arresting this Government, thus I am disappointed that of the serious economic marginalization facing Linden that Mark would organize against the grains of reality; targeting the APNU leadership.
What I am sure of by experience is the hidden grievances and contentions that propel the gallop of the singular ego of agitation in every crisis. I will illustrate what I mean by this , as follows…
In late June/early July 2002, I was asked to attend a meeting at ACDA which was requested by Phillip Bynoe. Curiosity propelled me. We listened to Bynoe; he essentially wanted us to participate in mobilizing towards a purpose we considered bizarre and conceivable only in the world of a mind boiling in hallucinogens. We rejected Bynoe, reminding him that not so long before during the ‘secret swearing in’ elections he and Anthony ‘Juan Edgill’ Cummings were on a platform before the St. George’s Cathedral urging the disenfranchised voters to accept their bitter lot. Now he was proposing the extreme opposite; this was a shape-shifter of incredible temerity. What happened next was that Bynoe proceeded to the Coast, using the aroused passions and emotional energy in the PNC support areas, and the end result was the misuse of that energy resulting in the July 3, 2002 protest that entered the Office of the President compound resulting in the deaths of Nicola Prince of Bare root, Mark Crawford of Linden and Alberta Fiffee of Buxton. These were courageous young lost on irrational whims; a definite meaningless sacrifice. Mark  Benschop went to prison for that and Basil Williams and Robert Corbin defended him throughout.
I must add that the most enduring revelation of that incident followed three days after that with a letter by Joseph L. Hamilton, Stabroek 06 July 2002 pg. 6, titled ‘Mad men’ who sanctioned overrunning the OP are to be condemned ‘.
This letter over flowed with servile
condemnations; Hamilton spat on the dead before they were buried. I pondered on this, because I had heard him over and over chastising the leadership of the PNC at Robb and Albert streets corner, advocating himself as more enlightened. I later learnt that all of that callous denunciation was linked to the OP giving him a contract to computerize the NIS. I fault no man’s choices with his political support; however to trade and to mislead in that trade for personal benefit is reprehensible. I hold the constant ideal less shape- shifter in contempt.
Basil Williams has been in the forefront of representing young Afro Guyanese thrown into prison for political expediency during the last twelve years of the Narco-Political Jagdeo administration, many of them arrested upon the flimsy information of Phantom operatives fearing retaliation from their home villages. At this moment over three dozen cases based on political charges exist.
What should be recognized about the Linden struggle is that out of APNU and the AFC new leadership has evolved. The agenda of any ‘people oriented activist’ today; must lie in the economic empowerment of his interest group, that’s where the sting of the cause must penetrate with resounding consequences. Projects that involve infrastructure at Linden and in Georgetown must be given to local professionals from those locations. Guysuco land behind Agricola must be made available for projects relevant to the economic stimulation of those areas. The PPP and its cronies are not concerned with our protests while it does not affect their families and personal lives, while they grow wealthy on contracts they are incompetent to complete.
Take the protest to Prado Ville, to Parliament. Activism must be channeled to produce tangible results. The Private sector must be challenged to manifest their suggestions made during the Linden crisis. Linden with the joint opposition stood their ground and fulfilled nature’s mandate that survival is ensured to those who fight, for survival is only entitled to the resilient, in the face of the predator. This is the lesson you and I Mark must understand on the ground we now stand on.
Barrington Braithwaite

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