Dear Editor,
Within recent times the Stabroek News has justly won, in the region and beyond, a reputation for informed, balanced and objective editorials on a variety of subjects, such as the American primary elections, literary developments, and the local political and economic situation.
The editorial, in the Sunday May 18, 2008, issue of your newspaper, in the considered judgment of the PNCR, regrettably falls below that standard. That editorial betrays bias, as well as a fundamental misunderstanding of the local situation in Guyana and the current aims and objectives of the PNCR.
Although we respect your right to your point of view, it is instructive that the Stabroek News finds it helpful to deem the PNCR a ‘dinosaur,’ at the very a time when the party has demonstrated its capacity to bring large numbers of its supporters, well-wishers and other Guyanese, to peacefully protest, among other issues, the evident trend towards dictatorship by the Jagdeo regime, the crippling cost of living and, particularly, the socially destructive impact of the 16% VAT, the threat to press freedom and the fundamental right to freedom of expression and association which is enshrined in the Guyana Constitution. We do not believe that a dinosaur would understand, and be able to respond to, the extant situation in Guyana, by rallying thousands of people to protest, when the Jagdeo regime is using every possible repressive means, including the unlawful arrests and incarceration of the large numbers of Guyanese young people, primarily from areas, such as Albouystown, East Ruimveldt, East La Penitence and Tiger Bay, on the night prior to each planned march.