There are those perennial defenders

Jan 29, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Recently, I wrote an article, namely, “Soldiers should remain professionals,” published in the Stabroek News on December 31, 2013. Promptly on January 1, 2014, there was a response by one Sultan Mohamed. Now, not being a descendant of the demi gods of the PPP, I do expect that if I say something in public I must expect counter views.
However, as regards this response, two factors surprised me. The first one was the speed of the response and the second was the shallowness of the writer. I am indeed led to believe and with good reasons that Sultan Mohamed is a paid writer or perhaps a ghost writer.
It did seem to me that this writer is paid to write in defence of members of the PPP regime. I think in this case he has done a poor job and should be fired for his incompetence. I think Mr. Mohamed is lazy. He spent approximately 60 percent or about 30 lines of his response simply restating what I had written in my article. This was done simply to add length to his letter. I suggest that in future Mohamed should research the topic and then make a more informed counter.
What I said in my first letter I still maintain, that is, there exists a relationship between the military and the politicians. I am convinced that Dr. Luncheon knows this relationship very well. However, he has deliberately twisted things to suit his political objectives.
I believe that a true public servant should strive to honor our national pledge part of which states “and to be loyal to my country” rather than to a political party. At no time did I suggest military supremacy over the civilian authority.
I think that while Mohamed mentioned Madiba twice in his response he is as narrow a political opportunist as one could find. It seems to me that Mohamed is indeed a disciple of a certain resident of Region Three who is permanently obsessed about the ethnic balancing in the armed forces.
We are interested in ethnic balancing of land allocations. We are all interested in ethnic balancing in the resources provided for agriculture. We want ethnic balancing in all government ministries. We want ethnic balancing in Guyana’s foreign services. We want ethnic balancing on all the boards and corporations in the country. We want ethnic balancing of the senior managerial staff on all the sugar estates. If I continue to demand ethnic balancing I will perhaps be able to demand an entire page.
When Mohamed talks of rigging an election, no doubt he expects PNC supporters to run and hide. Well Mohamed, if PPP does not rig elections you ask AFC and CN Sharma how they would classify the PPP’s skullduggery during the 2006 election.Ask the PPP why it took them four days to do a simple vote count of less than 400,000 voters in the 2011 election.
Finally, Mohamed, don’t try to tell Felix or Retemyer what to do. In a true democracy where merit and competence would count you may have been working for one of them and your job specifications would not have entailed defending political spin doctors.
Aubrey Retemyer

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