This is mud offered to mess with our minds

Dear Editor,

I refer to a letter titled, “Why did Buxton reject the 2017 prison escapee?” by Mr. Frederick Kissoon (July 24, 2017, KN). In it, Mr Kissoon made a number of questionable statements.

First, he is attempting to create an impression that the 2002 escapees had big support from drug lords, when he says: “The 2002 escapees also had drug connections and were helped by those drug lords to embed themselves in Buxton.”

I sincerely doubt this to be true. It may be true that some small-time dealers became ensnared in the 2002 escapees’ web of violence; or the escapees used drugs or had worked for drug lord before; and maybe drugs were used as part of their payment for crimes committed.

But as far as popular opinion went, persons commonly referred to as drug lords in Guyana did not, arguably, offer support for the escapees. If anything, they fought them. The public should be careful about any attempt to replace the political support that the escapees received, with some story about support from drug lords. This is mud offered to mess with our minds.

Secondly, the escapees were “embedded” in Buxton because they received strong political support from a certain section of our political community. Mr Kissoon is saying very little when he states: “Two Cabinet Ministers in the present government had contacts with the gunmen, one of them more than the other. This was the extent of the connection between politics and the Buxton conspirators.”

That’s all, really? If two Cabinet ministers dealt with gunmen, why isn’t Mr Kissoon asking for their resignation? Why this great media silence about politicians who helped the escapees?

Who are they? They are those persons who never won a free election on their own since they formed a political party in 1957. Their top political leader then said that Buxton had no criminals. They did nothing for about seven months as Guyanese, including their own supporters, were being pommeled by the escapees, and then said that if they are to help stop the violence, they must first get political concessions.

Truth be told, the escapees’ political agenda almost succeeded. They compromised the army and left the police demoralised with some 2 dozen members dead. But the escapees and their politician friends were still beaten. They did not anticipate the rise of the phantom – they invented their own war and then lost it.

This partially explains the silence in the media about the friends of the 2002 escapees (but we hear about laptop computers repeatedly). One primary political leader referred to this loss as the “Troubles” in one of his books. That’s it? The “Troubles”? How about a failed attempt to overthrow a legitimate government? Because the media refuses to talk about the 2002 escapees’ political friends, we have the new group of escapees.

Finally, if people listen to Mr Kissoon and think the “July 2017 jail break marauders are long gone” and “may be heading for foreign territory,” and “do not have Georgetown-based political connections,” then good luck to them.

Sincerely,

Rakesh Rampertab