President urged to hold political criminals accountable

Dear Editor,
President Irfaan Ali may wish to learn from the mistakes of previous administrations of the People’s Progressive Party, and hold accountable persons who have recently engaged in political crimes and previously advocated violence as an instrument of politics in Guyana.
Our history has been tarnished by these perpetrators, who have thus far been allowed to run free and hold Guyana to ransom.
Ethnic discrimination in our politics goes back to the fifties and sixties, when the colonial administration of the time sought to divide the national political force that the People’s Progressive Party had become. During that era, Forbes Burnham and Dr. Jagan acted in concert under the People’s Progressive Party, with Dr. Jagan as the party leader and Burnham as the party chairman.
The split was engineered in part because of what the British considered to be Dr. Jagan’s ultra-left socialist ideas, which forced the plantocracy to improve the conditions of sugar workers, which was not in keeping with the direction of the global politics of the day.
It should be observed that the sugar industry was premised on the idea of slavery/depressed wages, meaning that efforts to pay workers their fair wages was then, and will now, likely jeopardise the viability of sugar as a major crop.
Financial payoff of sugar workers, allotment of 5-10 acres of land, along with Government support to develop and maintain these lands for agricultural purposes in the near-to-medium term, could be an alternative consideration.
Other considerations include alternatives to the loss of sugar as a major foreign currency earner.
Unfortunately, Burnham took the bait, and began a programme of ridicule and ethnic character defamation of Dr Jagan and Indians on no basis other than that they had “straight hair”.
One of the major initial incidents of political violence was the recurring threats and ultimate bombing of the Son Chapman ferry, which served as a major transport facility to Linden. This triggered one of the first major spates of violence against Indians, as many at the time bought into the idea that the PPP was behind this attack.
Looking back at this incident, it doesn’t require much consideration to realise that there was no one within the PPP leadership at the time – certainly not Dr. Jagan himself, Ashton Chase, or Sydney King – who would have contemplated such an act, much less carried it out.
Dr Jagan himself worked tirelessly to unite Guyana at the time, including placing Burnham as the PPP party chairman, and all the rest of the PPP executive at the time were all concerned with securing better welfare and working conditions for Guyanese through the legislature.
Closer inspection of the demise of the ferry would realise that the principal beneficiaries of this heinous act were none other than Burnham and the People’s National Congress, this being to strengthen his political base and provide a platform for victimisation of Indian- Guyanese, which has lasted to this day. It is also without any doubt that they might have received some help.
Fast-forward to 1992, when the PNC dictatorship finally came to an internationally supervised end, President Cheddi Jagan and the PPP at the time never sought to hold accountable those responsible for previous fraudulent elections and political violence. Those individuals were left to operate freely, continuing their failed ideas of perpetuating ethnic insecurity and divisiveness.
The PPP’s reign from 1992 to 2015 was littered with charges of rigged elections. But contextually and culturally, even if elections had indeed been rigged, the PNC from 1968 to 1992 set the stage for rigged elections and rigging elections to become part of our culture and a matter of standard national practice.
This is not to say Guyanese have any more tolerance for rigged elections going forward; because, after more than 50 years, it is my opinion that we think rigged elections are criminal, a crime against the state, and not to be tolerated.
Finally feeling the heat of their previous folly, after they lost the elections in 2001, notable leaders within the PNC at the time: Raphael Trotman, Vincent Alexander, and none other than Desmond Hoyte himself, embarked on a criminal campaign of inciting violence as a means of ‘deposing’ the Government of the day, and to strengthen their negotiating position for ‘shared governance’.
Being approximately twenty-one years of age at that time, President Ali might find some of these memories close to heart. The Government of the day did not address the criminal actions of these PNC leaders directly, which they should have, but instead sought to address the result, this being combating the violence spawned by Alexander and company. This led to scores of deaths, hundreds of young Guyanese who became inspired by these PNC leaders.
Vincent Alexander had, at the time, observed that their deaths, the violence, was for ‘the greater good’. (See Stabroek News, August 14, 2002.) The undeniable fact (of which there is copious public documentation) is that the PNC leadership at the time was accountable for much, if not all, of the violence and consequent deaths of the hundreds of Guyanese youths, the perpetrators of which they promised to bring to justice during their recent failed Government, but never did, and never will.
Not directly addressing the source of criminality and violence in 2020, and previously also, will again leave these individuals free to continue dispensing their trade as none other than the criminals they are.
The President is encouraged to carefully consider his options, because Guyana has been systematically held to ransom by the PNC leadership, with our culture, our welfare, our livelihood, our economy bearing the brunt of their failed ideas on politics and Government.
What remains of APNU (at least two parties have disassociated themselves since the March 2020 elections) indicated that they will boycott the 2020 Budget presentation.
Perusing the contents of the 2020 Budget, it is obvious they wanted to spare themselves the political embarrassment of the utter folly of their five years of Government; as much, if not all, of their policy implementations on VAT and taxation, if not outright harassment of some sections of the productive sector, have been reversed.
Guyanese have to level with themselves that the performance of the PNC since March 02, 2020 has stripped itself of all claims of credibility as a political party fit to be entrusted with the governance of our nation. They are unlikely to win another election in our generation, if they last that long.
Guyanese in general are also encouraged to resist being drawn into well-coordinated ethnic violence, since they ultimately become fugitives from the law.
The President is once again encouraged to seriously consider the consequences of not addressing the source of political crimes: which have so bewildered us as a nation, and which will exact tremendous social and economic costs should they remain unaddressed.

Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester