Dear Editor,
The words and actions of Dr Clive Thomas during the period 2016/2017 remind me of a term first coined by Afro-American thinker Dr Cornel West: “lumpen bourgeoisie”. Dr West described the “lumpen bourgeoisie” as a certain segment of the academic elite who deliberately assassinate their reputation by using their intellect to foster their ruthless ambition rather than their moral conviction.
When he took the job as Chairman of GuySuCo, Dr Clive Thomas knew fully well that his track record as a business leader who has successfully ran any business, much less turned around an ailing one, could not stand up to scrutiny. The Globe Trust Bank is a clear example of this. We saw at that Bank how these “lumpen bourgeoisie” looted the assets of poor African-Guyanese.
When it comes to the task of Asset Recovery, Dr Thomas has again failed the nation. In the grand scheme of things, Dr Thomas is not even fit to chair a glorified cake shop, much less the largest state-owned corporation in Guyana, which has assets on its books worth more than Gy0 billion. However, when it comes to the academic world, no one can question his writings. That is why he has the potential to be one of the best ever Presidential Advisors on Economic Affairs in the history of Guyana. He is a talk-and-write man, not an action man. It is quite a tragedy that this recognized, distinguished academic has today allowed himself to be used and abused by lesser minds, to the extent that his academic legacy will forever be compromised. If you observe the actions of Dr Thomas some 30 years ago and compare them with his actions of today, you can see he has been transformed into a master artist at “smoke and mirrors”.
Here is a man who was in the forefront of the struggle to free Guyana from the ruling dictatorial bourgeoisie some 30 years ago. But today, with power in his hands, he has actually metamorphosed into an obsequious servant of an incompetent and confused cabal of oppressive bourgeoisie. What we are seeing today from Dr Thomas is that he actively facilitates knee-jerk decisions that have destroyed the lives of thousands of rural Guyanese from all races on the sugar belt. People will not remember him for how many academic papers he wrote, because a very small segment of the population has read those. The masses will remember him for being the man who had placed the final nail in the coffin of the sugar belt. The masses will also remember Thomas as the man who used the perfectly good principle of asset recovery to perpetuate a political witch-hunting exercise.
How can Thomas publicly display such a callous indifference to the totality of state theft, which was fostered by all sides before 1992, after 1992, and after May 2015? Why has SARA not investigated the Durban Park Project and the Sussex Street Bond?
I want to leave Dr Thomas with a quote that I value very much; it comes from an African Leader – my Madiba, Nelson Mandela. He said, “The time is always right to do right”. Do right by the people, Dr Thomas. Why are you killing the spirit of Dr Walter Rodney today, Dr. Clive Yolanda Thomas?
Regards,
Sase Singh
