…says it’s “an abhorrence and absolute falsification of Guyana’s political history”
Dear Editor,
Freddie Kissoon’s column in the Kaieteur News of December 12, 2017, headlined ‘Violent when in power, still violent when out of power’ is an abhorrence and absolute falsification of Guyana’s political history.
The Kaieteur News is the re-invented “New Nation” – the propaganda conduit of the PNC of the past, which became defunct when it could no longer bleed the Guyana Chronicle of the millions it owed that State-owned entity for publication, after Guyana became a democratic state post-1992 elections. The Editor-in-Chief is the same then and now.
The erstwhile publisher of this scandal rag is singing for his supper, having gained much from the Coalition government by way of concessions amounting to millions at the cost of taxpayers; as is Freddie Kissoon, who has proven to be a columnist who re-configures facts to fit into his narratives on various themes on which he professes to be knowledgeable, but which have proven, time and again, to be deficit of any credibility.
To accuse the PPP/C of tit-for-tat violent politics, when there is absolutely no veracity in his contentions, is heinous in his intent to paint the PPP/C with the same brush of the PNC and its affiliates – then and now.
One primary example of his discredited brand of journalism is his inference that it was through PPP’s revenge politics that caused the explosion aboard the ‘Son Chapman’. This was disputed by many persons. If one does a simple internet search, the letter by late PNC activist, A. Nedd, which appeared in the Chronicle on June 6, 2003, refutes Hamilton Green’s claims on the Son Chapman. According to Mr. Nedd, who had links to the PNC activists at that time and who seems to have been one himself, it was the PNC who caused the explosion, since it was the PNC that was transporting detonators up to Wismar for use by PNC operatives. Mr. Green did not respond to Mr. Nedd’s letter – an unusual detour from a debate for the mayor.
This is merely one of Kissoon’s fallacies woven ingenuously into a falsified narrative to brand the PPP/C, with the PNC’s unique X-13 Plan, purportedly crafted by Hamilton Green, in collaboration with external forces to force the first PPP Government out of office and coerce Dr. Cheddi Jagan to concede to their imposed electoral proportional representation system that enabled the Coalition of the PNC and UF parties to accede to the Government.
Then and now, down the years of PPP – and subsequently, the PPP/C their history of caring for and trying to unite the nation – all the Guyanese people, irrespective of any divide in the socio-political and cultural preferences of individuals and communities, has been their signature force for peace and progress, and bringing people together. It was PPP’s Brindley Benn who created Guyana’s national motto, which hallmarks the PPP’s legacy “One People, One Nation, (with) One Destiny.”
Conversely, the history of the PNC’s brand of politics has been one of constant warfare – in or out of government, against the nation – pitting Guyanese against each other – brother against brother, community against community, in their pursuit of self-aggrandisement, self-empowerment, and self-enrichment.
Throughout the years since Burnham engineered the split in the PPP in efforts to attain a primary leadership role in the country, the records of our country’s political dynamics would reveal that the X-13 Plan has been factored into their political norms, in one form or another.
The violence after General and Regional Elections, the death of Dr. Walter Rodney and the many other documented atrocities that have attracted widespread condemnation are incidents with their genesis in the halls of the PNC quarters.
Guyanese are not unaware that Burnham’s self-admitted student, now Guyana’s president, David Granger, has publicly announced (on several public platforms) that he is committed to restoring the socio-political landscape of this nation to reflect Burnham’s brand of dictatorial leadership, sustained by rigged elections over the almost three decades of PNC rule in this country.
Impartial scrutiny of Guyana’s history debunks the revisionist theories and false anecdotes, propagated by Kissoon and his ilk that impregnates our nation with a twinning of the political practices of the PNC and the PPP.
Enlightened and conscientious former PNC members and supporters, who are now staunchly opposing their violent and repressive brand of politics, whether individually or through being firmly ensconced in the PPP because of their conviction that this is the only party that can unite and heal this nation, leading the Guyanese people to bond into a nation that can achieve peace, progress and prosperity, are being vengefully targeted by the PNC. Bishop Juan Edghill is a prime example of this witch-hunt.
The PPP/C MPs who came under attack by the PNC-affiliated and controlled Speaker, time and time again, in a multiplicity of ways, were not perpetrators of violence in the National Assembly last Monday. They were instead attempting to divert violence against their fellow MP, against whom violent removal from the House was threatened – a fact that Freddie Kissoon and the other coalition cohorts were fully aware of, but which they choose to ignore, as they have ignored the constant assaults on the Guyanese people under the coalition government’s dictatorial rule.
All the subsequent violence against elected PPP/C members of the National Assembly at the instigation of Government functionaries and leaders are a mere microcosm of their ingrained anti-democratic predispositions.
Arresting Bishop Edghill, a private citizen, who has no criminal track record, out of the domain of the Parliament, at the behest of the Speaker, whose jurisdiction extends only to Parliament, is an excessive action that reflects the leadership qualities of vengeful and violent political practices, demonstrated in one form or another over the years by the PNC and its various affiliates.
And while Freddie Kissoon and his publisher and editor; as well as others, including Granger, are intent on re-inventing Guyana’s history, the facts are recorded for posterity in the annals of many publications and audio-visual recordings floating across the cyber world.
Zulfikar Mustapha,
Executive Secretary, People’s Progressive Party (PPP)
