The PPPC has begun to resemble the PNC

Feb 12, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – During the recent Budget debate, the PPPC reached back into history. It invoked the name of Forbes Burnham.

It spoke of his political viciousness. It reminded the Opposition, and especially the WPA, of a dark time. It reminded them that Burnham did not merely defeat his opponents. He sought to crush them.

The WPA knew that wrath. Its leaders were openly threatened. Burnham is recorded as telling WPA leaders to make their wills. That was not a metaphor. It was a warning. The political climate was tense and dangerous. The country was under tight control. The state watched its critics. The Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney laid out disturbing facts. The report found that Rodney was killed by an explosive device on June 13, 1980. The device was given to him by Gregory Smith, a sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force. The Commission concluded that Smith acted with the knowledge and support of senior state officials. It found that there was a climate of hostility against Rodney and the WPA. It spoke of surveillance, intimidation, and state harassment.

The report detailed how the WPA and its members were constantly monitored. Their meetings were infiltrated. Their phones were tapped. Their movements were tracked. Their homes were searched. The state used its security apparatus to keep the party under pressure. WPA activists, whether prominent or obscure, were targets. Some lost their jobs. Some were transferred to remote interior locations. Others were denied opportunities. Even those loosely associated with the party felt the squeeze of the state.

The Commission described a pattern. It was not an isolated act of violence. It was part of a broader campaign to silence dissent. Rodney was seen as a threat. He was brilliant. He was persuasive. He appealed to ordinary people. The state viewed him as dangerous. The atmosphere was one of fear.

That history was raised in the National Assembly. The younger generation needed to hear it. Many young Guyanese do not know those events in detail. Some have only heard fragments. Others have grown up in a different era and assume that such things belong to another world. But history does not disappear. It lingers. If it is not studied, it is repeated.

The irony today is heavy. The PPPC now uses Burnham’s record to rebuke the WPA, which sits within APNU. Yet the PPPC has begun to resemble what it condemns. Reports have surfaced about the treatment of the Mohamed family and persons associated with the WIN party. There are claims of harassment. There are claims of pressure. There are claims of victimisation.

The pattern sounds familiar. The Mohameds are under threat. Associates feel the heat. Public accusations by the Mohameds are followed by state action. Supporters of the PPPC government dismiss the complaints. They say the law is taking its course. But WIN, the party of the Mohameds, say the law is being used as a weapon. Walter Rodney offered two responses to dictatorship. The first was moral appeal. He appealed to the conscience of the people. He believed that ordinary citizens, in sufficient numbers, could protect the oppressed. He believed that solidarity could check power. He hoped that people would see injustice and refuse to accept it.

But Guyana was divided. Many PNC supporters did not come to the aid of those targeted. They remained silent. Some believed the propaganda. Some feared consequences. Some simply did not care. The state moved against its rivals with little resistance from its base.

The second tactic Rodney embraced was exposure. He believed in naming wrongdoing. He called for the exposure of the dictatorship and its agents. He spoke pointed to the lackeys and footstools of the Burnham dictatorship who carried out the dirty work. He believed that sunlight could weaken tyranny. He believed that truth, once widely known, could mobilize the nation.

Today, the Mohameds have begun to make public claims of corruption and misconduct within the PPPC. With each allegation, there is response by the State. With each exposure, there is also retaliation, at least in perception. The cycle is familiar. The danger is not in strong government. The danger is in unchecked government. The danger is when supporters excuse everything done in their party’s name. The danger is when citizens forget that power can corrupt any group.

The story of Burnham and the WPA is not ancient history. It is a warning. The Commission of Inquiry documented the consequences of a state that turned against its critics. It documented the fatal cost of political intolerance. It showed how surveillance, harassment, and intimidation can end in tragedy.

Guyanese must remember those dark and deadly days. If we forget, we drift. If we excuse today what we condemned yesterday, we invite the same outcome. History is not a weapon. It is a teacher. Those who ignore it are condemned to relive it. Guyana has paid too high a price for political vendettas. We should not return to those days. The PPPC is taking us back there.

(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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• Forbes Burnham, Peeping Tom, PNC, PPPC, WPA

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