Holocaust controversy has relevance for the election campaign

Apr 25, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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A controversy broke out last week between the FBI and Poland. It led to an intervention by the American Government. The Director of the FBI said that Poles were accomplices in the Holocaust committed by the Nazis because at the time they failed to speak out or even sided with the Nazis.
The Polish Government was furious. It claimed that the Polish people were victims of Nazi Germany just as the Jews were. The American Government stepped in and apologized for the Director’s remarks. But some scholars came to the support of the Director by asserting that Germans, Poles and other nationalities did give support to the Nazis.
This Holocaust controversy comes at a time when Guyana is in the throes of its most important election campaign that has no comparison in the history of both pre-Independent and post-Independent Guyana. The 2015 election campaign in the interpretation of this columnist is the most decisive election competition in the entire history of this nation.
The outcome will determine if this country implodes and sinks into the pit of nihilism and bestiality or takes its place as the centre of the CARICOM group of nations and a bright spot in the Third World.
Those who blame the PPP since 1992 for the social and ethical collapse of Guyana are open to castigation if they fail to blame the thousands of Guyanese who willingly supported the political decadence of the Jagdeo/Ramotar descent.
The FBI Director may have upset the Polish Government but he is not off the mark. Authoritarianism grows and sinks its fangs deeper into the society with every applauder that comes on board.
Many Poles and Germans supported a government that was killing Jews en masse. In Guyana, since Mrs. Janet Jagan retired, Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar have virtually desecrated every corner of this country to the point where everything is soiled and besmirched.
But Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar couldn’t have done it all by themselves. Thousands of Guyanese gave them succour. The Guyana Manufacturers Association, Private Sector Commission and Georgetown Chamber of Commerce have shamelessly endorsed every destructive policy of Jagdeo and Ramotar.  Prominent Hindu and Muslim churches using the name of God have embraced Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar
At Jagdeo’s Day of Appreciation, A UWI professor, a prominent UG lecturer and Sir Shridath Ramphal among other dignitaries participated. I went to the launching of the autobiography of Yesu Persaud and when one of the official speakers denounced power-hogging as the common trait among politician, the applause was rapturous. Among those clapping was a woman UG lecturer. But it was this woman who sat in the 50th Anniversary Committee of UG and proposed that on UG’s 50th birthday, President Ramotar should be the person to be honoured.
Imagine the vulgar impertinence of that suggestion. If UG should honour anyone it must be Forbes Burnham who took the institution from a semi-functioning night school at Queen’s College and turned it into a regional powerhouse.
If not Burnham then only one other name is eligible – Clive Thomas.
If there should be a change in government after May 12, national denunciation will focus on the PPP. The nation and its new leaders will become oblivious to the countless men and women who willingly gave a faithful embrace to fifteen years of tyrannical power.
It is for this reason I would not join a political party. Once I do so, I will create mayhem in that party using my membership card as my license to denounce its hypocritical embrace of the encouragers of the ousted oligarchs.
Make no mistake, when a new non-PPP government comes into power, those same business organizations will become the new sycophants. These servile creatures will now be the host of lavish cocktail escapades and our new leaders, all decked out in sartorial dapperness and robotic, gargantuan smiles, will willingly allow themselves to be feted by men and women who shut their mouths when Nero played his fiddle while Guyana burned.
To most people in politics, this is the way of the world. They would argue that a new government has to work with the folks who once waltzed with the previous dictators. They would say that the new government needs every ounce of support, never mind it comes from people who helped the previous rulers to become tyrants.
But where does it leave moral obligation? How can the new rulers bring themselves to shake a glass with a business leader who has no morality and encouraged his country’s destruction?
If that is the way of the world, it is not my way. It will never be my way.

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