Dear Editor,

I had the opportunity to watch a news item via Capitol News which featured President Bharrat Jagdeo’s visit and address to the villagers of Buxton.

In his speech the President’s main point was a call to the residents to forget what had happened in the past in the village, and called on them to focus on the future and how to generate economic activities to produce employment.

Mr Jagdeo’s position confirmed that he is not an enlightened leader. He is well aware that in the annals of human history, individuals, groups, states or nations have often resorted to the old trick of calling on those they subdue to forget the past. Buxtonians are being asked by the ruler to erase their historical memory and embrace the regime which is responsible for the plight they are faced with in order to ensure economic development. The question which follows is what will happen to Buxton and by extension Buxtonians if Jagdeo’s call goes unheeded?

Mr Jagdeo descended on Buxton like a victor extending the olive branch to a defeated people on his terms. He was devoid of any self criticism of his and his government’s actions which negatively affected the village before and after 2006. One cannot escape the feeling that this is a case of a ruler demanding from his subjects a new beginning and they are expected to fall in line.

The people of Buxton are well advised that it is the duty of people to keep and cherish their historical memory and use it to inform their present and future actions. They should seek to ensure that the errors of the past are not repeated and the trap the rulers are setting for them is not sprung. They should note that President Jagdeo is yet to make a similar appeal to his own supporters to forget the past. Instead he and the PPP/C do the opposite. They call on their constituents not to forget the 28 years of PNC rule and events following the jailbreak in 2002. That being the case why then should Buxtonians forget that it is this same administration which ordered the destruction of the farmlands in Buxton in the quest to manners Buxtonians?

Let me remind Mr Jagdeo and the ‘misdirected new activists’ of Buxton of the saying, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’

Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye