Dear Editor,
The Minister of Health has accused certain sections of the media of sensationalizing the revelations made by Selwyn Vaughn during his recent testimony in a New York court. He is obviously incapable of recognizing a sensational story when he sees one. This is not something that the media made up. This is a case where a witness in a court of law is describing, under oath, details of actual murders committed in our country allegedly ordered by a local drug lord.
The Minister shows his contempt for the Guyanese people by suggesting to local journalists that this is not a story they should be pursuing. What he really means is that the Guyanese public should be denied the details of Vaughn’s testimony and the local media should not attempt to determine its accuracy. He would do well in North Korea.
The President has also been speaking his mind, claiming not to lose any sleep when rival criminal gangs execute each other’s members with no innocent loss of life. Neither do I. However, I do lose sleep when the authorities just sit back and allow this to take place. I lose even more sleep when I realize that this might be their master-plan.
There are increasing indications that certain senior Government officials went a step further and collaborated with criminal gangs. For those who feel this was okay I wish to draw a comparison with those who, by an equally convoluted logic, felt it was okay for the government to rig elections back in the seventies. It is never ‘okay’ for governments to act illegally.
A government that does so forfeits the moral authority necessary to maintain law and order, resulting in lawlessness at all levels within the society and its national institutions. This is already clear to see in Guyana.
Finally, in response to the testimony emerging from the Simels trial, the AFC decided it would not attend parliament last Thursday. Former minister Ms Gail Texeira during a lop-sided panel discussion aired on NCN TV over the weekend remarked that the AFC is an outgrowth of the PNC. This was immediately followed by an accusation from Dr Roger Luncheon that the AFC is attempting to provoke violent demonstrations by engaging in “extra-parliamentary” activities.
This was a desperate attempt to discredit the AFC by using the threat of violence and linking it to that violence. The fact is that the AFC has succeeded in drawing moderate supporters from both the PNC and PPP.
The bulk of AFC membership and support, however, come from Guyanese not affiliated with either of these two parties but sufficiently disgusted with the way in which they have allowed their political rivalry to take precedence over national development.
Both the PPP and the PNC have engaged in and been associated with acts of violence in the past. The AFC has not.
Yours faithfully,
Dominic Gaskin
