Latest update April 4th, 2025 6:13 AM
A response to GCID–Truth does not go away
Dear Editor,
I am loathe to revisit subjects as I make every effort to be informative and unambiguous in delivery of my concerns, opinions and solutions. I wrote about the GRA Commissioner General attempting to set policy instead of executing those of the APNU+AFC administration.
He replied, “The Commissioner General views on tax credits versus exemptions are well known. These views are in keeping with international norms and those of the Tax Reform Committee of which he was a member.”
How would one go about replying to such fatuity? However, my recent call for a ‘Truth and Reconciliation type commission’ as utilized in South Africa has prodded a response from a purported group the Caribbean-Guyana Institute for Democracy, in the Guyana Chronicle 13th December, which cannot be allowed to pass without response.
The CGID urges the Government of Guyana “to take action to investigate hundreds of extrajudicial killings and political assassinations, which took place in Guyana between 2001 and 2015.”
And then launches into a regurgitation of the Dossier of allegations against the then Government of Guyana. This reiteration of allegations is deliberately facilitated by the Chronicle as part of its smear campaign of the People’s Progressive Party in a shameless abuse of state resources and also detracts from the genuine calls for impartial inquiries.
I engaged in an extensive search for information about this (CGID) organization. Far from being an ‘institute’ of any kind, CGID represents the views of one individual over a period of two decades. Festus Brotherson Jr. swore to an affidavit in which he proclaimed the CGID a PNC front, whatever its genesis. CGID produces nothing but vacuous missives via its president, Rickford Burke.
There are no records of any other type of activity usually associated with an organization that bills itself as a ‘think-tank’. Recently, Stabroek News published a letter of Burke’s with the Editor’s note,“This letter has been published primarily because of its attack on this newspaper. It has been edited.”
This is not an attack on the messenger to distract from the message; it is facing the reality that at some point, credibility of a source must be examined. The recent ‘brouhaha’ created by fake news outlet Guyanaguardian.com demands that we make these examinations.
CGID does not withstand scrutiny as a credible organization.
I have previously examined the dossier and found it packed with falsehoods including names of massacre victims listed alongside their killers to give this document gravitas. Burke and his ilk do not seek justice, they seek opportunities to repeat and perpetuate this big lie; a lie that is now exposed for what it is, an odious propaganda aimed at electoral manipulation.
Burke states, “If needs be, GCID is prepared to take this fight all the way to the 2020 general election”. I can assure Burke that given the reluctance of the Granger administration to facilitate a ‘Truth Commission’, I too will be fighting for justice and truth, well beyond 2020.
As Elvis Presley said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”
Respectfully
Robin Singh
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