Dear Editor,
I was very disgusted with President Jagdeo’s call to the PPP faithful at Babu John to educate the young people about the ills of the PNC going back 30 years so that they can keep looking backwards, thinking backwards and voting blindly for the PPP. If this is such a major PPP strategy that it makes the cut in such an important speech, then Mr Jagdeo needs to hang his head in shame. Those words, at the graveside of a man who would never utter them, are repugnant and repulsive and should be condemned.
The President and his administration have very little to brag about, with the failures we have seen across the board these past years. So I guess he is falling back on the old tricks – invoke the memory of the dark days under the PNC, and peddle the negative politics of fear. Well, the PPP flock has been waking up. They are not buying that line any more. He is out of touch.
Furthermore his call to the PPP faithful to boycott media which he deems unfriendly to the PPP is equally insulting and degrading to the memory of a leader like Dr Jagan who spent much of his life fighting the PNC for press freedom, which, after it was won, Mr Jagdeo subsequently trampled on, just like the PNC did many years ago.
To say these things as the President of Guyana is bad enough. To say them as the leader of the PPP at the graveside of Dr Jagan, is sad and inexcusable.
How much lower can the President stoop? Is that all he has? To poison the minds of the young people and boycott television stations? If he has nothing positive to say to the voters about the future the PPP has to offer, then he should just not say anything. He should not sow the seeds of poison by telling young people to dig up the wounds from over 30 years ago, or show how desperate and bankrupt the PPP is for ideas by calling on people to boycott certain media.
What would Dr Jagan say if he was listening? He does not have to answer that. People will answer at the polling booth later this year. People are ready, and change is coming.
Yours faithfully,
Oma Sewhdat
Malaysia
