Dear Editor,
Mr. Clairmont Lye, who recently returned his Cacique Crown of Honour to the Office of the President in light of the spate of undemocratic, definitely authoritarian, moves by the Jagdeo administration, but especially its decision to withdraw state ads from the Stabroek News, should now use his decision a as catalyst to help re-launch the Guyanese Action for Reform and Democracy (GUARD).
I really cannot recall his name being associated with the movement, but I do recall when GUARD was launched and many high profile business and professional types – Yesu Persaud, Samuel Hinds and Ron Robinson readily come to mind – were in the forefront, seeking to help effect political, economic and social change in the direction Guyana was heading.
Not that the Desmond Hoyte administration was not already making positive changes, in principle, that were being seen and felt in the country, but the time was really ripe for the country to rejoin the fold of nations embracing free and fair elections as part of the broad democratic process.
Hoyte, in my mind, was disingenuous when he said that the elections he won in 1985 was ‘above board’, and because the political machinery that assured that ‘above board’ victory in 1985 was still in place in 1992, progressive minds began thinking outside the box and refused to take anything for granted. They took a stand and made their voices heard.
May God bless those men and women who took a stand and launched GUARD! It showed, and still shows, Guyana has people who are prepared to take a firm stand when it matters most!
And that is why Mr. Lye, once a member of the old GUARD, needs to use his recent decision to help launch a new GUARD. He certainly cannot be alone with this conviction that the PPP regime has sharply diverted from its originally stated goal of ushering in the ‘Dawn of a New Era’ in 1992. But does he still have the fire and desire in him to see Guyana become a truly working democracy?
He did mention two names once associated with GUARD – Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Dr. N. K. Gopaul – as now being part of the very process being engineered by the Jagdeo administration to take Guyana back to the seventies and eighties.
But where are the others who once made GUARD a powerful force to reckon with in the early 90s? Do these players now share Mr. Lye’s conviction that the PPP has literally chosen to walk the dictatorial path once beaten by its nemesis? Do they have it in them to take the fight to the PPP like they did take the fight to the PNC?
If a new GUARD ever gets launched, I want to caution any new player against playing into the hands of the old style politics. Look at what happened to Mr. Hinds after he was taken on board by the PPP as Cheddi Jagan’s running mate: he morphed from being the black man who would bridge the gap between his outnumbered African Guyanese brethren and the Indian-dominated PPP, to a man who is proudly draped in the party’s flag. A party, mind you, that has made corruption an integral part of governance.
To Prime Minister Hinds: whatever happened to those GUARD principles that guided your decision and actions to help bring about change? Are you truly convinced you are not now part of a growing problem rather than part of the solution you once fearlessly held out yourself to be in 1990 when, like now, circumstances dictated change was mandatory or else?
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin