Haiti’s situation is reminiscent of Guyana’s past

Dear Editor,
The violent, chaotic situation in Haiti is reminiscent of the way we were here in Guyana. I make that bold statement based on the traumatic experiences we went through in my own country, Guyana, for some years now. Those events were meant to create chaos and confusion, while at the same time set the stage for the political operatives to force an illegal government on the people.
We begin our analysis in the 1960s and the politically motivated riots of Burnham. It was a bloody affair that left scores of people dead and a certain race running for cover. Bloody memories such as the Abraham family being firebombed; The Sun Chapman tragedy; the killing of moderate blacks, like the Fairbain Liverpool mutilation, among others.
Amidst the blood cry, the Premier of the day, Dr Cheddi Jagan, and his wife were imprisoned, the aim of those riots was to drive fear in the populace and decimate the PPP. That divide-and-rule tactic did work, because the British suspended the constitution and ousted the PPP from office, ushering in the opportunistic Burnham and the PNC to power.
The stage was then set for the institution of a system of rigging and the authoritarian rule of the PNC. This was carried out for 28 years; however, at each turn that Burnham made, he was always haunted by the fact that he could not ever gain a majority vote from the people of this country, hence his rule became more and more repressive as the years wore on.
We were reminded of this by Hamilton Green, who stated that Burnham ruled this country because he had the brains to do it; meaning, his rigging formula was the reason that got him into power and kept him there. This fossilised human being wants us to return to that bloody and repressive system.
Burnham even added an occult touch to his dictatorship, similar to that of Papa Doc Duvalier’s Haitian Voodoo. In a subsequent letter, I shall give you a detailed study of his occultism.
It was 1992, and emancipation of the people of this country – a breath of fresh air, entered our atmosphere. For the first time in decades, the PNC became the Opposition. Hoyte was even worse, as he drove home the PNC dogma of fear and confusion. He openly supported criminals, stating in emphatic language that he “would make Guyana ungovernable.” For two long years, he created mayhem on the streets of Georgetown.
Hamilton Green called Hoyte a schoolboy for acceding to a free and fair electoral system. In essence, Green was saying Hoyte should have kept the system closed and save rigging intact, instead of opening up to a system which would eventually bring his downfall. It tells you how much this man has been stuck in his sins, and can never be delivered from that horrible past.
In his continued efforts to tribalise this country, Hoyte called the GPF and the army his “kith and kin.” This had a twofold meaning, in that he was demanding of the police not to intervene while his gangs were in the streets; and he was playing on the emotion of the armed forces to be loyal to “their own kind,” and to support the wanton ills of the race.
It was this fossil again, when businesses in Georgetown were going up in smoke, he forcibly dictated to the business community to pay up or face destruction by fire.
The point is that, like Haiti, the Opposition here would go the lengths to glorify crime, and work insidiously in every area of their influence to bring this country down. But that is not going to happen, we have long gone past the threats and voodoo violence of yesteryear, we are now in a new era.

Respectfully
submitted,
Neil Adams