In the Diaspora, in the incredible mind, in Guyana

Jan 06, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – I emphasised in several columns that once the election rigging game was over, Guyana will see vast areas of the incredible mind at work. In my first column for 2022, I wrote these words: “This country has people with some of the most disturbing character substance you don’t find elsewhere. It is impossible to find words to describe this possession. 2019, 2020 and 2021 in Guyana have produced some of the worst traits in the human character.”
Many times, I pen these observations and as time passes, I am simply dumbfounded how easily Guyanese behaviour could be predicted. I did several columns condemning the weekly page in the Stabroek News titled “In the Diaspora” (ITD) for not featuring even one column on the year-long denial of the ruling party of the 2018 no confidence vote (NCV) and the five months of election rigging.
Here is a quote from my column, “There has to be a yardstick by which you judge people in a crisis of Tuesday, November 3, 2020: “The impending disaster showed how deeply shattered is the psyche of sections of this country. Do you know the column, “In the Diaspora” never devoted even a paragraph on the election rigging which went on for five consecutive months?”
Here is what I wrote in my column titled, “In the diaspora, in the diaschisma, in the diathesis,” of Friday, November 19, 2021: “After one year of failure by the leadership of APNU+AFC to hold general elections after the no-confidence motion (NCM) was passed, ITD did not do even one column on the controversy… 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 five months of rigging was so conspicuous and graphic in a world of smart phones that it had to be criticised?
The latest edition of ITD (January 3) is devoted to a condemnation of the Natural Resource Fund Act (NRFA). Do you see how human behaviour in the Guyanese nationality can be predicted? Nothing on the NCV, nothing on 34 is a majority of 65, nothing on five months of election rigging, nothing on the most disgraceful act of political hooliganism ever seen in a CARICOM parliament in the history of the West Indies but the NRFA is an exigent matter for discussion.
Let’s quote from ITD for January 3, written by an obscure group in Guyana named Policy Forum (PF) that 99.99 percent of the Guyanese people do not know about, and that consists of the usual suspects with an overt political agenda: “Indeed, all those who rightly fought for political democracy during the 2020 elections should be as vociferous about defending the Guyanese people’s right to have a say over their resources.”
Any decent mind reading this quote from PF will be compelled to ask where was PF when a ruling party refused to accept defeat in an NCV arguing that it will stay in power because a majority in the 65 member House is 34 and not 33?
Where was PF when the country almost imploded when David Granger and Joseph Harmon made inflammatory speeches that led to mayhem in Region Five in September 2020? Where was PF between March and July 2020 when we were close to returning to Burnhamism?
It is quite surprising that the editor of ITD, Dr. Alissa Trotz who lives in Canada did not remove the words: “those who rightly fought for political democracy during the 2020 elections.” Does Dr. Trotz believe that there was a reason to fight for democracy in the 2020 elections?
Now read this part of the column of PF: “Another major aspect (of the NRFA) is the exclusion of Parliamentary and civil society involvement in the management of this Fund.” One can understand parliamentarians being involved in a say on the administration of the fund. But who or what is civil society in Guyana? Who determines who is selected?
The same day PF wrote its piece in ITD, the Stabroek News ran an editorial on the NRFA and observed: “The private sector is sufficiently peopled with overt supporters of the ruling party to raise concerns as to whether any of its nominees would be considered truly independent…we remain convinced that the private sector should have no representation on this board.” Well, well, this cannot be a good start to 2022. The Stabroek News does not want the private sector on the board of directors of the fund. So who decides who goes on it?
(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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