Dear Editor,
Since Mr Hamilton Green, in his initial letter to “Kaieteur News”, exhorted us to learn lessons from a massacre of African-Americans, I kept my reply to him contained to a racial massacre here at home.
To clarify a point of fact: the “Sun Chapman” explosion was fully investigated by the then colonial Police, and there was no conclusive evidence as to its cause. Mr Green and the PNC continue to try and lay the blame at the PPP’s feet, when there is no evidence to support their propaganda.
Their continued effort to try and justify the horrors of the Wismar Massacre with the “Sun Chapman” explosion by way of tit-for-tat reasoning does raise questions as to how much collateral damage cold-blooded politicians would undertake in order to gain a political advantage.
Mr Green and the PNC have mostly never shied away from showing themselves as the proud perpetrators of the various methods of home-grown terrorism to which they continue to subscribe in their continued attempts to leverage political power at any cost.
Now that he has waded in with a diatribe (letters, June 15, 2021) that takes in other atrocities in an attempt to still whitewash the horrific human rights record of his political party, we can remind him of: the race riots of the 1960s; the political assassination of Father Darke and Dr Walter Rodney; the riot of 1992 to try to overturn a legitimate election after nearly 30 years of PNC dictatorship; Hoyte’s “slow fyah, mo fyah” campaign; the Buxton-centred terrorism to try and overturn a legitimate PPP Government; and the PNC’s anti-democratic antics of election riggery, and their targeted attacks on Indian-Guyanese just last year.
Since the PNC continue to exhibit such behaviour, it is safe to conclude that neither Mr Green nor his political colleagues have learned any lessons from all the atrocities perpetrated here in over 60 years.
Why then does Mr Green think he should get away with taking us all the way to a massacre in the United States, and to sermonise to us from a moralistic high ground as if he were the victim?
It is not surprising that he feels the need for prayer, but too much is known about his role in Guyana’s history of violence that stands in his way of achieving redemption, at least not without a public apology for the role he has played in his party’s terrorism, and a public request for forgiveness.
And whoever was doing whatever violations in the past, it is only Mr Green who has taken it on himself to ask us to learn lessons from a US massacre, while ignoring all the homegrown terroristic atrocities committed here, and of which he admits he is fully aware.
Since he is armed with so much information and appears willing to talk, he should now furnish us with full details of the death of Ms Shirley Field Ridley and Vincent Teekah, and the attempted murder of UG lecturer Dr Joshua Ramsammy.
His attempt to cover himself in the glory of God is reprehensible, and serving up religious quotes only sullies the great religions and the moral decency for which they stand.
Since we are fellow Guyanese, it pains me to say to Mr Green that I have been warned, by several people who are very afraid for my safety, of the danger of writing to criticise him. He has built up a reputation that follows him about.
Sincerely,
Ryhaan Shah
