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Likening Minister Cathy Hughes to a Sophist

Jan 22, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Reading a comment from Mrs. Cathy Hughes, Minister in the Granger government that “the APNU/AFC Government is committed to reducing corruption” immediately reminds me of the SOPHISTs. The Sophist were a motley bunch of travelling people who lectured for a fee in a sort of peripatetic schools, meaning that the instructor would walk with students and talk with them for a fee; meaning knowledge for a fee.  They taught the skills of rhetoric. Rhetoric can be described as the art of composition and it matters not if it is the truth or not, it just had to be said.
The Sophists abandoned science, philosophy, logic, evidence, mathematics and ethics. What they taught was the subtle art of persuasion by whatever means necessary. A Sophist was a person who attempted to prove a position whether that position was correct or incorrect. In other words, what mattered was not the truth, but just getting the message out and hoping to persuade the uninformed. According to one of these Sophist, Gorgias of Leontini (c.485-c.380 B.C.), they believed that nothing is good or bad since everything depends on the occasion.
Plato’s treatment of the Sophists in his late dialogue is hardly flattering because he found them as people with low ethics. He does not treat them as real seekers after truth but as men whose only concern was making money and spread propaganda with one aim of winning the debate, irrespective of how immoral their messages. Aristotle said that a Sophist was one who was made superficial wisdom.
I see Mrs. Cathy Hughes as a modern day Sophist because only a Sophist will say they are committed to reducing corruption but stand up in Parliament and defend one of the biggest act of public deception in the last 3 years – the Durban Park Scheme Project which has caused hundreds of millions of cash to be leaked from this public taxpayers-funded project into dubious areas for work not done.  One person who is now close to the leadership of the PNC is reported to have invested over American dollars in a Florida establishment.  One only has to take a close look at the business owned by person close to the PNC to see it has moved from a state of bankruptcy to a state of full solvency during the life of this Durban Park Project. I wonder why? It is alleged that a male person high up the AFC ladder is not clean as we though.  So how can a clean person like you defend this project, Mrs. Hughes?
I want to ask Mrs. Cathy Hughes directly, who is Mr. Larry Singh.  I want to ask her, if she knows the big wig which facilitate all sorts of deals with Mr. Larry Singh, many of which are single sourced with no competition?  You see, the answers to these questions will prove that Mrs Cathy Hughes cannot believe in her message that the APNU / AFC and WPA government is committed to reducing corruption. All she is doing is carrying a sophist line as instructed by political bosses.  If you continue like this Cathy, the Guyanese people are not going to listen to you.  Not today, not tomorrow, not ever!
Jai (Harry) Lal

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