In the diaspora, in the diaschisma, in the diathesis

Nov 19, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – When the March 2020 election rigging continued way into April and the months began to go by with no GECOM declaration, I condemned several civil society groups and several Guyanese personalities in and out of Guyana for both their silence and embrace of electoral fraud.
I frequently condemned women rights activists and the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and the Guyana chapter of Transparency International (TIGI). I also focused on the weekly Stabroek News (SN) column, In The Diaspora (ITD).

I highlighted the fact that after one year of failure by the leadership of the APNU+AFC to hold general elections after the no-confidence motion (NCM) was passed, ITD did not do even one column on the controversy. This country suffered ignominy in the eyes of the world where a ruling party was chastised by the Caribbean Court of Justice for asking the court to rule that 34 is the majority number of 65.

Dominic Gaskin at the time of the election rigging, and who rejected the rigging, wrote on his Meta page of July 17, 2020: “While I empathise with many who do not wish to see the PPP return to power, the harm that will ensue can never justify what is contemplated.” What was contemplated? The rigging of elections to perpetuate permanent power.
What did the absurdity of 34 being the majority of 65 have to do with the PPP? Nothing! It was plainly an insult to human intelligence to tell humans that 34 was the majority of 65. ITD never did a column on the NCM or the five months of rigged elections.
ITD is edited by Dr. Alissa Trotz who is a leading figure in a group named Overseas Friends of the WPA. Is Dr. Trotz telling us in this wide world she could not find one educated soul, just one soul with academic standing to argue that 34 could not be the majority of 65 and that the five months of rigging was so conspicuous and graphic in a world of smart phones that it had to be criticised?
The introductory words that prefaced ITD go like this: “This is one of a series of weekly columns from Guyanese in the diaspora and others with an interest in issues related to Guyana and the Caribbean.”
Where was Mr. Ian McDonald, the chairman of the board of SN? Where was Ms. Isabelle DeCaires the daughter of the founder of SN? These persons are decent, widely recognised Guyanese. Mr. McDonald is a cultural icon. Ms. DeCaires writes passionately on wrong things on Guyana like the mistreatment of sugar workers and election riggings.
Why couldn’t they communicate with the editor-in-chief to summon Dr. Trotz to provide a columnist from some part of the world to offer an insight into what was taking place with the NCM and the March 2020 election? Importantly, why Dr. Trotz has not offered an explanation to the diaspora readers of SN for this lacuna?
Of all the online newspapers that originate from Guyana, SN is the only one, I repeat, the only one that is not free to read online. Diaspora Guyanese have to pay to read it. Surely, there must be some obligation to those readers to explain why ITD never carried a commentary on the NCM and the election rigging. It is not a legitimate question to ask if this was just an oversight. It is not a legitimate question to ask if Dr. Trotz should continue to edit ITD.
The current issue of ITD is on the Environmental Impact Assessment of ExxonMobil’s Yellowtail project. The column’s title is: “ExxonMobil’s Yellowtail Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Questions for which answers in writing are demanded.”
No one can deny that there are answers that should be offered on this issue. That is not the point. The point is this, is the EIA of more vital importance than a situation in a country in which the right of citizens to vote is taken away? Was the editor of ITD aware that the Chief Election Officer (CEO) had removed 115, 844 valid votes in his final submission. That was 25 percent of valid votes cast. After that removal, the compilation of the CEO showed that the APNU+AFC won the election. What would have become of this nation if on the basis of the rejection of 25 percent of the votes in the March election, an illegal government had come into being? To date ITD has never featured an analysis of this legal depravity. The GHRA and TIGI need to be ostracised by this nation. Dr. Trotz and SN must offer an explanation to its fee-paying subscribers.
(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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