Dear Editor,
The Sunday Stabroek editorial of Sunday May 18, 2008 captioned ‘Normality?’ is opportunistic, anti-PNCR, against the interests of Guyanese and primarily of the impoverished people of the country and is a disservice to all of Guyana. It is a clever attempt on the part of Sunday Stabroek to bail the PPP/C out of the hot water it has consciously placed itself in and in doing so, it attempted to make a case against the PNCR for what it deemed as that party’s “irresponsible” behaviour.
In commenting on the editorial the first point I wish to make is that it seems to me that whenever strong action is taken by representatives of certain segments of people in the country the working class, the impoverished, the poor and the powerless and those deprived of justice, you will always hear objections raised in the society by the privileged few who are not affected at that particular time, in their attempts to put down the genuine aspirations of those who are disadvantaged. Some nonsense is always put forward by those who can easily ride the tide about the usefulness of parliament when they are fully aware that the representatives of people in parliament are frustrated by the recalcitrant behaviour of the PPP/C in that forum. Yet they continue to argue, when it suits their purpose to do so, that the struggle for the rights of the disadvantaged should be confined to the corridors of parliament.
However, when these same persons are affected in some way or the other, they will move hell and high water to ensure that they gain justice. The recent experience of SN in its struggle with the government for the return of advertisements is a case in point about the inadequacy of parliament as an institution for the resolution of problems in Guyana, and should have been instructive to the publisher of that paper and his editorial staff. They should recall that it took a lot of extra-parliamentary action including a picket demonstration of an international media conference outside of the conference centre, and international lobbing before government was moved to reinstitute the advertisements. The question that I wish to pose to SN is what do you hope to achieve in your attempts to discredit Corbin and the PNCR who are attempting to bring relief to the sufferers in Guyana? It is difficult to escape the feeling that this editorial is an attempt by SN to ingratiate itself with the rulers.