PERSON OF THE YEAR 2014

Dec 31, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Today is the last day of what has been a very eventful year for the Guyanese people. The year began with the disclosure that the Guyana Sugar Corporation was in deep distress, but ended with reports that finally the sugar corporation had managed to achieve its production target, as downgraded as it was.
The year also began with the Guyana Public Service Union expressing concern over the government’s retention of retirees. It ended with no change, with a number of geriatrics still blocking the upward path of younger members of the public sector workforce.
2014 began with concern over the state of many community roads, but it ended with many communities now having their roads redone, a clear signal that the government is readying for elections.
Elections were not on the political radar at the commencement of 2014, but it is now a foregone conclusion that elections will be held in 2015. This has resulted because a plan by the opposition parties to pass a no-confidence motion in the government backfired when the President did the unexpected and prorogued parliament.
For this act, the only thing of significance to have occurred under his presidency, Donald Ramotar has earned the award of Man of the Year from APNU. It was a satirical gesture by APNU, no doubt to shield its own shame at being outfoxed and outmanoeuvred by the government.
Prorogation was the most important and significant political development in Guyana in 2014. However in this column’s estimation, it was NOT the political development that defined the government over the past year.
The development that defined the PPP in 2014 was its oppressive hand, particularly the oppression that was brought to bear against the publisher of this newspaper, in what was aptly described by a noted intellectual as State terrorism. Never, since the days of the dictatorship, has various forces within the State conspired to frame the publisher of this newspaper and to unleash a campaign of oppression against him and his newspaper.
The PPP obviously had not learnt from its days in the anti-dictatorship struggle. It had not recalled that the people always come to rescue of those under the hammer of oppression.
And in the case of Kaieteur News, there were persons who did not agree with what was happening, who saw the insidious hand of oppression seeking to strangle Kaieteur News because of this newspaper’s exposure of the rampant corruption by a gang of cronies and lackeys within the ruling administration.
It is now crystal clear that panic has stepped in amongst those forces that are plundering the resources of the State for the benefit of themselves, their families and their friends.
They have been exposed for the vagabonds that they are, and they are fearful that it is only a matter of time before they end up facing justice and being jailed for their perfidious crimes against the Guyanese people. They are trembling in their boots because of the exposure of their corrupt and evil acts, and therefore, like a drowning rat, they are flaying crazily.
They are not going to go down that easy though, they are mobilizing themselves and critical players within the State machinery to go after the publisher of this newspaper.
They have joined in an unholy alliance to silence him. But their plot was unearthed by the people of Guyana and made public. It is now public knowledge that there is a plot by known individuals who are out to destroy Glenn Lall, the publisher of this newspaper.
They presumed that by pressuring him they could silence him and his newspaper. They miscalculated. It shows they never understood the character of the man they were going after.
They felt that by using State oppression against him they could intimidate him. They forgot they were dealing with a man and not a mouse.
Glenn Lall has stood up to their oppression. He has bravely faced his persecution and prosecution. He has not backed down, never will. For his courage and relentless exposure of the sophisticated political and intellectual banditry within the country, Glenn Lall is this column’s choice for Person of the Year 2014.
Continue the good fight, Glenn. The forces against you may be formidable, but the people are on your side!