Mrs. Holder-Cush and thousands like her must put country first

Mar 22, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News-Last Saturday morning, as I entered my car just outside the entrance to Massey Supermarket, and turned on the ignition, a former student of mine, Mrs. Dawn Holder-Cush (HC), engaged me. Mrs. HC was the director of the Consumer Affairs Commission in the APNU+AFC government.
She had an intestinal smile when she told me that I had written about her. She was obviously referring to my column of Saturday, October 17, 2020, “Where are Dawn Cush, Karen Abrams and Mellissa Ifill?” Just in case you missed that piece, it commented adversely on the three names listed above in support of GECOM chairperson, Claudette Singh. I also did make reference to the action of these ladies in two more columns.
Still with the narrow smile, she made a cynical yet subtle statement. I know where she was coming from and where she was coming from was fundamentally flawed and showed complete lack of understanding of why people put country above personalised feelings.
The implication of her statement appeared in front of me larger than the 83,000 square miles of Guyana. Once more I was confronted with the question faced since 2015 when I saw the disintegration of the APNU+AFC on the horizon and began to condemn the APNU+AFC for being more corrupt that the previous government.
Mrs. HC is not the first and will not be the last to be confused as to how I could have been mistreated so badly by the PPP yet took the stance I did from March 2020. Let me delineate a theoretical position here which I will defend intellectually in front of the world’s most learned scholars. There is no connection between the role of the PPP government and the condemnation of rigged elections. A theory that argues for such a connection cannot hold and will be easily demolished.
I told Mrs. HC that what I did in March was for my daughter and people of her age; in other words, my country. It is about the right to vote. My voice was beginning to rise when I told her, I lived under rigged election and I don’t want that back again in Guyana. I remember telling her I am unapologetic about my stance during the five months of election rigging and I will gladly do it again.
Then I said something to Mrs. HC that got her annoyed. It was a mistake I made before (I have written it in my column) and senior reporter at Kaieteur News, Kiana Wilburg, spoke to me about it and I apologised to her. I am apologising to Mrs. HC. I know she reads me so she will see the withdrawal of the emanation.
I conveyed to her what I think could have been her reason for supporting a rigged election. I told her maybe it was the race factor. She showed annoyance about that. She walked away telling me as a media person, I need to get my facts right. There are hundreds of reasons why someone on March 4 wanted Mingo to be successful in rigging the election.
To my mind, ethnic domination tops the list. I make no apologies for saying that such a mind-set came out with pellucid largeness in persons like David Hinds, Eusi Kwayana, etc. Mrs. HC did not write about the elections in the same vein as Hinds, and others. So I accept that I cannot say race was her reason. But I think in the short conversation we had, I used the word, “maybe.”
The human mind is complex and humans have esoteric ways of behaving. Maybe a person simply wanted Granger to be president. Maybe someone didn’t care about race but didn’t want the PPP back in power. I know from the way my own mind operates, race does not feature. I confess that I would like to see President Ali do good in his quest to change Guyana and leave a legacy in the league of the top historical figures of the past.
The President is Indian. I am Indian. But my attitude to him is completely devoid of ethnic input. I simply have no reason to wish that he falls. He won power after five months of failed rigging by the APNU+AFC. Let us give him a chance. When Bharrat Jagdeo became president, Eusi Kwayana wrote a letter in the newspapers urging Guyanese to give him a chance. In closing let me repeat for the benefit of people like Mrs. HC. On the night of March 4, 2020 when Mingo’s intention became Draculean, thoughts of what the PPP did to me were never evoked. Saving my country from permanent power became my obsession.
(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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