Dear Editor,
I have always wondered why Mr David Granger has not been campaigning equally for a public inquiry into the murder of Professor Walter Rodney, Ms Shirley Field-Ridley, and Mr Vincent Teekah, the former Minister of Education in the Forbes Burnham government, who defected from the People‘s Progressive Party.
Many of us need answers to all these questions and we will be asking him and others in his position to pledge that the appropriate fora will be set up when a new government comes into being. We need to know the truth about how these persons and hundreds of other men and women met their death under mysterious circumstances in the past and during the lifetime of this regime. The perpetrators of these crimes must be brought to justice. This is the first step towards any reconciliation. The rigging of the general elections for decades cannot be dismissed as mere history. There must be an undertaking that under no circumstances will the army and any section of the security forces intervene in any future elections.
Mr Granger may not be aware that he is perceived as behaving in many ways just like those who are currently in power. He needs to show how he will be made accountable by explaining in detail how structures of accountability will be put in place at the national and local levels to curb corruption and mismanagement. I agree with Mr Granger that we need to go back to the Westminster parliamentary system, where there is a ceremonial president like some of the Carib-bean countries. The prime minister will then be directly accountable to our parliament and to the electorate.
In the end, David Granger needs a very serious political facelift. He appears extremely arrogant, even though the opposite might be the truth. He needs to show that he is completely different from those in power. He has to genuinely cross the race barrier by going into the non-traditional areas of support. His close relationship with his ex-army colleagues sends the wrong message. He must know that Guyana is a very small place and everyone knows what everyone says and does. We hope to see dramatic changes in his personal demeanor and political outlook appropriate to all Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Jinnah Rahman
