The PPP may regret its lack of energy on this front

Oct 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – We are a cultural neighbour of the United States which leads the world in “big tech technology.” And this neighbour has pioneered the influence of social media. Guyanese copy from the US all the time. Guyanese are influenced by the way social media operates in the US.
I, myself while recognising how gigantic the role of social media is, am not on social media. That is an eccentric choice of mine that maybe could change though I doubt it at my age. The ruling party cannot be that naïve not to understand that social media has dangerous propagandists in Guyana. The government should counter them with its outputs and it should start doing it ASAP.
Someone like Bryan McIntosh who during the election rigging was part of the Guardians For Democracy grouping, could host a lively Facebook programme. He is a host that could match the outpourings of the propagandists. There are many like him and the PPP should start talking to them. The person who does his Facebook programme under the name, “Critic” is one of them.
The reply to this viewpoint here from actors within the PPP circles is that people like Sherod Duncan, Kidackie Amsterdam, David Hinds, Mark Benschop and others of their ilk preach to the converted so they are unable to reach beyond their controlled boundaries. I do not agree.
The leading light of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, said it is easier to acquire power than to maintain it. This is a good starting point for those within the PPP circles to start thinking of countering the Facebook programmes of some dangerous people out there on the internet.
I will never, I repeat never, agree with anti-government critics not being allowed space. There must always be pens and voices to highlight the mistakes of decision-makers. I believe Burnham was stopped from horrible levels of barbarism because the PPP, WPA and civil society did not cease confronting him. There must be available space for dissenters to operate.
I see nothing wrong with anti-government critics criticising the budget, the administration’s policies, the level of health delivery, the level of crime response, the amount of old age pension, poor state service, etc. What I see as egregious, frightening and life-threatening is the poisonous amounts of deceit and fictions on anti-government Facebook platforms that cry out for rejectionist arguments.
I am not satisfied that there were astute devastations of Amanza Walton-Desir’s theory of PPP brain-washing of African minds. Not every African Guyanese believe what she, Hinds and company sprout. There are countless African Guyanese who can put logical interpretations to logical points raised by supporters of democracy. I met four like those at Colin Smith’s funeral last Friday.
There were too many intellectual latitudes that could have been used to torpedo Walton-Desir’s credibility among decent African minds. If the PPP brainwashes Indians, there are millions of examples to show how the PNC of which Walton-Desir is a leading figure has been brainwashing African Guyanese from the 1950s and still doing it. It was Walter Rodney that effectively stopped that process only to be assassinated for his exposure.
There is huge scope for countering the Facebook propagandists and the earlier the PPP starts its fight back, it will pose problems for these haters. Some subjects will destroy them. I alerted the world through released US classified documents shared by Walter Rodney’s daughter that a certain anti-PPP big wig of the WPA that constantly “cusses” down the PPP government was considered to be a spy for the Burnham government.
People should know that a current Facebook host that hates the PPP was an agent for the American government right here in Guyana about 10 years ago and was handsomely bankrolled. I have information on a certain Facebook host who did something so terrible that if Black people in Guyana know, they would banish him to a place named Hades where in Greek mythology you suffer permanent mental torture. I would probably release that information to two African Guyanese whom I firmly believe would not endanger my life through its release – Nigel Hughes and Norman Brown.
Decent African Guyanese should know that these Facebook propagandists are no friends of Black people. I end with the importance of the PPP having a counter programme. I don’t have a smart-phone to be interviewed but I would borrow one so I can be the guest to tell the nation that the cheap bed my wife and I have been sleeping on was bought since 1989. I didn’t go to Ashley’s Furniture to buy a bed worth half a million dollars just for my office with taxpayers’ money. That money could have been put to better use in African villages.
(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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