Manickchand, Aksharananda, Arya Samaj and the facts

Nov 30, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Readers would know that I am not on Facebook but I do have an e-mail account.
A few nights ago, I opened my mail and received a communication from the website OneVoicecanWin.com. It lifted a comment from Minister Manickchand on her Facebook on the cancellation of the Chris Brown concert.
Manickchand believes that the affair was aborted because of the protest in Guyana by the lobby to end violence against women. Enraged, Manickchand exclaimed that the opposition was being hypocritical in not protesting against CN Sharma. Manickchand left out the bold facts of the deaths of three women who were connected to men that are very, very top colleagues of hers in her party, the PPP.
President, Bharrat Jagdeo – allegations of mental abuse by wife who confessed to the media that the union was never legalized; , Canadian immigration judge approved refugee request for fourteen year old out of fear that her rapists would harm her if she stayed in Guyana because of their political power; criminal allegation against party person in the public health system; criminal allegation against a certain top personnel in the state media.
Now to Swami Aksharananda. He has penned a letter accusing the AFC of a scorched earth policy. The AFC can defend itself, but I would like to know where Swami was the past twelve years, including 2012, when the PPP Government was scorching the earth?
Up to this day he has not said a word. I was extremely disappointed at the Swami’s entry into political debate with such an inelegant contribution. The Swami is respected across political and religious lines and he may suffer damage to his credibility by his manifest bias.
Of course the Swami is entitled to call it the way he sees it. That is his right. But he will be hard pressed to defend his scorched earth opinion in a comparative context. Let us for the sake of argument say that the Swami is truly indignant at the AFC; and one suspects that in his letter he was alluding to the Agricola night of violence. But his analytical mind cannot ignore unpleasant and abominable State behaviour in Guyana, for which there is no parallel in the Caricom region.
Again for the sake of argument, let us say that we accept that the Swami is revolted at what happened in Agricola. Surely, as an educated man (he holds a doctorate in sociology) and a deeply religious figure, his conscience has to be moved at the rights violations we see in this country, particularly since the death of Cheddi Jagan.
It has been almost a decade since we saw any public correspondence from Swami.
If my memory serves me right, his last opinion was on Kean Gibson’s book. Now Swami has offered us his views which I have no doubt is welcomed in the country. But why this sudden appearance after a long break and the criticism centres on the opposition?
Is there a possibility that this religious gentleman is showing support to the Government? That is his right, of course, but given his standing in Guyana, it is bound to backfire on him.
Speaking for myself, it would be a loss to the moderate voice in this society if the Swami should decide to lend support to a government whose balance sheet the Swami must have difficulty accepting as being clean.
The Arya Samaj Movement of North and South America has said that Guyana should honour its leaders. One can hardly disagree with the Arya Samaj that the country’s leaders should be honoured. But there is no indication of when other presidents would make the list.
Would it not have been better to start with two former presidents of opposing sides so as to quell any suspicion of bias? Why not Hoyte too? Desmond Hoyte is definitely a Guyanese president that deserves to have a statue made in his name. His democratic credentials stand out. He was a transformational president as opposed to a transactional leader. He changed the course of Guyanese history.

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Manickchand, Aksharananda, Arya Samaj and the facts

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