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Former treason accused to resume fight to help the poor
Almost five years after he was pardoned by then President Bharat Jagdeo for treason, the highly controversial social activist/businessman Phillip Bynoe has announced his intention to re-enter the political arena.
This time around, Bynoe has assured that his energies will not be used to “fight anybody” but instead he will be focusing on lifting his adopted community of Linden and “poor people” in general, out of what he described as the morass they presently find themselves in.
Ironically, Bynoe made his announcement during an interview with another controversial social activist, who is now courting politics, Mark Benschop.
Philip Bynoe
Ironically also, Benschop was charged jointly with Bynoe for treason stemming from the same incident, the storming of the Presidential Secretariat on July 3rd, 2002, which resulted in the deaths of two persons and gunshot injuries to several others.
It was Bynoe who had organized the massive march after campaigning throughout the country, urging citizens to protest against what he called atrocities against them by the PPP/Civic Government.
Like Bynoe, Benschop was pardoned by Jagdeo, but only after spending five years in prison, while Bynoe remained at large.
Now Bynoe, who is no stranger to politics, plans to use a different strategy to help the poor and underprivileged.
According to Bynoe, helping the poor can be achieved without getting into any situation where all of one’s energy is spent fighting people who are perceived to be the enemy.
“In other words, I do not have to be rabidly anti-government or anti-Indian, or anti-white or anti-any other ethnic group in order to be pro-black. I do not have to do that,” said Bynoe who had publicly endorsed the ruling People’s Progressive Party during their campaign for the 2011 General Elections.
Bynoe told Benschop’s online radio programmed “Straight up” that he is prepared to work with anyone, “the devil and all of the devil’s children.”
“I am prepared to work with any government, with any political party, with any entity that is going to design and develop developmental programmes that could lift the community of Linden and other poor communities throughout Guyana out of the morass that they are in,” Bynoe explained.
He said that after working his way back into the society following his years on the run, he was disillusioned for awhile by some incidents that took place in Linden last year.
It was during the unrest over electricity tariffs when several buildings in the Mining Town were set on fire.
“An organization that I formed was able to construct two buildings in Linden and they were burnt by persons who I know….and that kind of broke my spirit for awhile, so I remained in the political wilderness,” he stated.
Now that he has re-entered the arena, he will certainly be watched closely, since many believe that he cannot be trusted.
Bynoe was a People’s National Congress Member of Parliament, representing Linden during the Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte administrations. He admitted back then that he was referred to as a “loose cannon”, a “maverick” for his political consciousness.
He explained that the way politics and political parties are organised in Guyana, “it is the boys in Georgetown, who sit down and decide who must become an MP for which area and who must become a councilor for which area.”
That, he said, is one of the biggest problems facing Guyanese.
“Some say that Bynoe don’t toe the party line… Well, all those things are true. I never toe no party line, because I always saw myself as representing people from my constituency, which is Linden,” Bynoe stated.
His style led to him being ostracized by the party he was serving.
At one time he defied his party by refusing to join them in a walkout of parliament.
“Since then I was labeled a traitor but I didn’t mind, it was par for the course,” he said.
Bynoe also played an integral role in the establishment and operations of the now defunct Guyana National Service.
Following the 2002 fiasco which led to the treason charge against him and Benschop, Bynoe had been writing to President Jagdeo since 2007, applying to him for a pardon.
It finally happened in 2008 when the president, acting in accordance with the powers granted to him in Article 188 of the Constitution of the Republic of Guyana, granted his request.
“It feels so good to be living among people again after several years of living among animals” Bynoe had stated immediately after the President’s move.
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