No government will ever succeed if its agenda is to neutralise its opposition

Dear Editor,

I was in a conversation with my PNC friend the other day when I asked the pointed question, look at how yuh Boy Granger treat the Stabroek Vendors? The reply was “don’t get tie up, Granger gat to do that for the 50th anniversary, but dem people going back right deh.”

In fact he gave me a specific date, he said, “everything was going back to normal by May 28 after the celebrations.” Now I could not fathom the logic of his statement, reasons being, why should the City Council go through all the pain, shame and publicity to remove those vendors only to have them go right back there?

I could not figure this out. So, the investigative spirit in me caused me to spike the conversation on a little further by asking another question. I said, then, what do you think is going to happen with the squatters at Timehri when the airport is to be expanded, there are a number of squatters there in the direct line of the airport’s improvement and modernization? My friend answered “With that, he is going to find place for them before he move in on them… so there wouldn’t be anything like Stabroek.” He continued, “Granger like he people, yeh and he aint going to do anything to hurt them.”

Now, when you carefully analyse my friend’s statement, the following scenario readily comes to mind: The Wales Estate closure that is set for this yearend, and if my recollection goes further, the LBI Estate is on that list also.

At the announced closure of Wales I vividly remember when those workers protested in Georgetown some of those same displaced vendors were sent there to break up the protest. Those vendors hurled expletives at the protesters, in one instance even assaulting a worker. She did this to show her ardent support for Granger and the PNC-led Coalition.

So where am I going with this? The point is Wales would be shut down – no doubt about that – and Granger is hoping that the public does not use this as an act of racism or partiality.

You see, most of the workers at Wales are mainly of a particular race and presumed to be PPP/C supporters. So, brutally throw them out of a livelihood then turn around and say that you are an even-handed administration, you have done a fair job at governance, when we all know that this is not the case.

There is a hidden agenda in all of this government’s actions, be it the rice industry, sugar, forestry, gold mining, in education, you name it and there is that hidden agenda of crass partiality written all over it. The real aim is to decimate, and when I use the term I am using it in its truest sense, they are out to decimate the PPP/C. Break up the party’s support base and rule unhindered.

This is their real objective. This is not really a new phenomenon when discussing the various moves made by this government.

The pattern of their fabric that they are cut out from is old PNC tactics, Burnhamite in creation and perpetuated by his acolytes in the PNC-dominated Coalition. But before I get carried away by this narrow, myopic and backward move by this administration let me get back to the main idea.

I hasten to a close by saying this: no government will ever succeed if its agenda is to neutralise its opposition. We have seen this foolishness manifesting itself right here in Guyana in the 28 years reign of the PNC and in other backward states of the world.

We have seen the catastrophically dire consequences derived from such moves, some of which are already here in Guyana.

Simply put, it will not work. It will only result in the retrogression of the entire nation we call Guyana.

Neil Adams