Responding to Hamilton Green

Sep 20, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

As someone who has lived during the entirety of the PNC dictatorship, it is always painful and frustrating to read Hamilton Green’s column. Many Guyanese saw him as a thug and a henchman of a diabolical PNC regime.

In his prolonged quest to resuscitate himself, he now massages his image and benevolently calls himself ‘Elder’. In Friday’s newspaper, he had the unmitigated gall to offer commentary on the nonsensical proposal of “emerging apartheid in Guyana.”

For many years, Mr. Green’s party demanded a PNC party card before an applicant would receive a job. Indians were forced to send their daughters to national service in the jungle before they were considered for a scholarship, which invariably went to PNC supporters. Contracts were given to the supporters of the ruling party. Supporters of the PNC were given plum civil service jobs, a relic which is evident in the workforce even today. Food supplies and other goods that were required and necessary by the opposition party supporters were banned, etc.

Without traction or relevance, the Opposition party has now resorted to grotesque accusations of “emerging apartheid”. Their penchant for mud-slinging and pettiness has finally reached the Elder’s desk. Elections have consequences. There is no country in the world where the victorious Government rules and drafts policies that are of identical merit and value, between the ruling party and the opposition. Guyana is no different, and has existed this way since independence. Perhaps our ‘Elder’ could educate us, specifically how this current Government is different or worse from the one he served. Mr. Green would never do that, for the simple reason he cannot!

Regards,
Chitrakha Persaud