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Selective remembering of Guyana’s political history

Apr 30, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
By asking whether PPP women are being trained in the art of public stripping, Dr David Hinds is engaging in some selective remembering of Guyana’s political history.
The public stripping of women has always been part of the racial violence that has marred Guyana’s political landscape. It did not only happen in the 1960s but in the post elections violence of January 1998, and onward through the terrorism that gripped the East Coast villages in particular and had its epicentre in Buxton.
The women selected for stripping in these attacks were perceived to be PPP supporters, i.e., Indian women. They were not only stripped and humiliated but the stripping was more often than not a precursor to rape. Both GIFT and GIHA compiled reports on these violations and recorded accounts from the women. The hurt and humiliation that these Indian women experienced have never been validated or given legitimacy in our nation’s collective memory.
The perpetrators were not only men but included women and the atrocities were always accompanied by curses and racial pejoratives.
It is disappointing that Swami Aksharananda in his letter requesting Minister Bheri Ramsaran’s resignation failed to mention any of this, and to make the point that the public stripping and assault of women are nothing new to Guyana’s political culture. He was there in both GIFT and GIHA and heard many of the accounts of the atrocities first-hand.
The outpouring of anger that Dr Ramsaran’s threat of stripping has generated gives hope that any such act done by any person of any political persuasion in the future would result in as much rage and disgust, and would lead to criminal charges being laid against the perpetrators as should have been done in the past.
There is a distinct impression that because of the PPP government’s arrogance and corruption the coalition should be held sacrosanct and above all criticism and questioning. If this is a predictor of the coalition’s style of governance should they win, where is the change?
Ryhaan Shah

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