Linden Forbes Sampson Fowler: Guyana’s tragedy

Nov 02, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is absolutely nothing wrong with party leaders leaving their own organization and going over to another entity. This is as perennial as the grass. In Guyana, party switching has a history that existed since dinosaurs ruled the earth. Several ministers in the 1964 coalition government that belonged to The United Force switched to the PNC. The biggest exodus of leaders from one party to another occurred in 1976.
The de facto deputy of the PPP, Ranji Chandisingh along with PYO chairman Halim Majeed and top PPP leaders Vincent Teekah and GAWU leader Harry Lall took up high level positions in the PNC. Martin Carter, who belonged to an ultra-left section in the early days of the PPP became a PNC minister (see Jay Mandle’s paper; “Cheddi Jagan and the Ultra Left in Guyana” – Professor Mandle will deliver his research findings at a Moray House seminar on November 28).
John Carter left the United Democratic Party and went over to the PNC. Kit Nascimento left The United Force and embraced the PNC. Prominent lawyer (deceased), Vic Puran went from PNC to PPP then back to PPP. Valerie Garrido-Lowe, junior minister of Amerindian Affairs went from TUF to AFC. Burnham’s son-in-law, Richard Van-West Charles went from PNC to AFC then back to PNC. Odinga Lumumba went from PNC to Good and Green to PPP. Basil Williams went from PNC to Good and Green then back to PNC. Guyana’s youngest ever Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sampson Da Silva went from PNC to AFC.
Manzoor Nadir switched from TUF to PPP. Africo Selman left PNC for PPP. Moses Nagamootoo switched from PPP to AFC. Joseph Hamilton went from PNC to Good and Green to PPP. Former Deputy Mayor, Robert Williams (deceased) exited from PNC to Good and Green. Mayor Patricia Chase-Green went from PNC to Good and Green and back to PNC. Peter Ramsaroop dumped the PNC for the PPP. Dr. Ramayya left the AFC and turned to the PPP. Ramon Gaskin went from PPP to WPA back to PPP.
I have not included leaders who left their parties and formed rival organizations. Some names are; Balram Singh Rai (PPP – Justice Party); Dr. Makepeace Richmond (United Force – Liberator Party); Brindley Benn (PPP – Workers’ Vanguard Party); Llewellyn John (PNC – People Democratic Movement); Hamilton Green (PNC – Good and Green); Raphael Trotman (PNC-AFC); Khemraj Ramjattan (PPP-AFC); Sheila Holder (WPA-AFC); Keith Scott (WPA – National Democratic Alliance); Christopher Ram (WPA-AFC); Moses Bhagwan (PPP-Indian Political Associates); Eusi Kwayana (PPP to PNC to WPA).
Two cases of switching should not have been accepted by political parties. Our rotten political culture allows for this and Guyana’s fabric is consequently weakened. Kwame McCoy lost his place in Good and Green and the PPP accommodated him. The PPP saw it as an accomplishment stealing an activist that was once with the PNC, then Good and Green. In our dilapidated, miasmic political culture, that was a conquest for the PPP. No heed was paid to what Mc Coy really was.
Now we have the case of Linden Forbes Sampson Fowler of Region Three Council. He was a long standing “bouncer” for the PPP in the Region Three council. He was the man in the Region Three council that no one dared control or discipline. For twenty three years of the PPP’s rule, Fowler was the big and bad guy for Region Three. The region had its de jure chairman, but Fowler was the de facto head. Parika Police Station did not follow up complaints against Fowler. Such was the power of this PPP apparatchik.
Fowler has few democratic instincts and is not an administrator that one can reason with. Under Fowler’s hegemony, Parika vendors were treated the way apartheid rulers oppressed their victims. In November 2012, their goods were confiscated and burnt on the nearby beach. I met the man when I was part of a protesting group.
It is my opinion that Fowler is not suited for political office.
He has a falling out with the PPP. His claim is that the PPP is racist and does not like Black people. Fowler only knows this in 2018 when serious charges of grave misconduct were brought against him as related on television by Region Three officials who obviously had enough of Fowler. The PNC has embraced him. They have him on their slate for the upcoming LGE. What can Fowler do for the PNC? Only one thing – harm its reputation.
Why would the PNC want to have Fowler in its midst? Aren’t there some criteria a governing party should use before it accepts an individual that wants to join it? Can the PNC get anything right?

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