I’ve been warning Guyana about revenge power

Dec 29, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Your friend has access to your house. You trust him. You ignore the fact that he stole a particular music CD. You thought it wasn’t important. On another occasion, he pinched an engraved pen. Again, you did not see this as something large.
The question is; what makes you think that one day, the temptation will not arise to steal a piece of jewellery? It will happen and it has happened countless time in life since civilization began. This is a law of life. I have continued to dismiss, and will continue to do so, the statement I have read from so many observers, including my own friends, that after four years, APNU+AFC leaders have not physically harmed opponents the way the PPP has done.
Such a statement cannot be a sound argument, because it has immense academic weaknesses. One can be harsh and say the point is childless. You have to judge power by the temperament of its holder, not by comparing and counting acts of violations between past and present governments.
Jagdeo and Ramotar ruled for fifteen years, so in four years, APNU+AFC would not have reached even a quarter of the violations and atrocities committed by the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabals. But there are sufficient acts of perversity in those four years to indicate a larger authoritarian trend is coming. The perversities and depravities are mounting up
These pages of mine were replete with warnings that if the PPP returned to power after the 2011 elections it would be more fascist. I was proven right. I was the first victim of Donald Ramotar after he became president. He was elected in November 2011. My UG contract was terminated in December 2011. I issued the identical warning during the 2015 elections. But the PPP lost.
Here is my unambiguous, pellucid prediction. If the PPP wins the 2020 poll, and with the maximum power Jagdeo will exert in the Irfaan Ali administration, the fascistization characteristic of the Jagdeo/Ramotar era will continue. The PPP’s leaders and the many others affiliated with them will ultimately destroy this nation.
Jagdeo will perpetuate revenge power on this nation. After Irfaan Ali is sworn in, his first act will be to turn off the street light outside my home. His second act will be to instruct that the part of the public trench outside my home not be cleaned. No one can convince me otherwise, that if the PPP returns to power, my daughter will not get employment with the state.
There are sufficient grounds to believe that there will be revenge politics if APNU+AFC wins in 2020. From May 2015 when they won, right up to this moment, that regime has showed the entire world it is the other side of the coin, the same coin that the PPP’s imprint is on.
APNU+AFC is as corrupt as the Jagdeo/Ramotar outfit. APNU+AFC is a practitioner of incestuous power, just as the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabals. APNU+AFC is as authoritarian as the Jagdeo/Ramotar bandwagon. APNU+AFC is as racially discriminatory as the Jagdeo/Ramotar oligarchy.
So what is the latest evidence that if APNU+AFC wins we are heading for revenge politics?
State advertisements to the Stabroek News continue to dwindle. Finance Minister Jordan has sued the Kaieteur News for libel. This is the very gentleman that shouted out at a Bartica rally of APNU+AFC that “war break” and the police and the ERC never interviewed him.
The Chronicle recently did an editorial openly advocating the return to power of APNU+AFC in the election in 2020, a monstrosity and depravity that even under the PPP did not occur. The latest is the attack by Carl Greenidge on the Kaieteur News, in which open racial motives can be seen. The Chronicle editorial and Greenidge outburst will be the subjects of forthcoming columns.
I am in no doubt whatsoever that if APNU+AFC returns in 2020, authoritarian power will run amok. There are little things that this government is doing to me that I am waiting for the election campaign to begin to expose. I have done one already – the street light outside my home. I will end with another one.
When the PPP was in power, no bigwig in that government ordered the National Park authorities to stop me leaving my bicycle in the park. Because of my criticism of APNU+AFC, I was asked to remove it. The letter was arrogant with threats of legal action. All of this for a bicycle left in the park for the past 15 years. I complained to Dr. Raquel Thomas, the board chairman and Ms Ndibi Schwiers, head of the Department of Environment. I was ignored. I believe either Joe Harmon or David Granger is behind this.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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