Dear Editor,
I am driven once again to write to you on a lingering matter. The specific thread of communications concerns the issues at the University of Guyana, and specifically the way the Vice Chancellor was treated. A reader, Neil Adams, chose to respond in an inappropriate way and there has since been two additional letters. I am now reacting to the latest letter from Mr Adams and it pains me that my communication at this point will not deal with the issue that started this discussion. Consequently, this will be my last communication in the thread.
I wish to first state the observation that every letter from Mr Adams on this matter was published in the Guyana Chronicle, while the same paper has published none of my letters. I wonder if I have the wrong email address or if it’s something else, because I have directed all my communications to an address provided by persons who send releases to the press frequently and have them published in that paper. I am not in journalism, but I think there is something unethical and unprincipled about a newspaper refusing to publish one person’s views on a subject but publishing the reactions of another to those views. And consider who owns the paper.
Secondly, when I first saw Mr Adams’ reaction to my letter published on 16 February 2012 in the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, I had little idea who he was. As I would ordinarily do in such a case, I began a search on the internet and in other places to find out more. All I could find was a trail of letters to the editor and no public profiles beyond this. I encouraged greater disclosure from Mr. Adams in my last communication, but he was not favourably disposed to the idea it seems. His reaction was however more revealing than he would have wanted it to be.
My third point has to do with Mr Adams’ response to my letter published in the Kaieteur News on 21 February 2012 in which he revealed interesting things about himself and his lack of knowledge of who I am beyond my open disclosure of office and affiliation to the University of Guyana. I will start by saying that in a conversation last week after reading Mr Adams’ missive, I had to concede that I am likely now considered in some circles as ‘political’ and worse yet in others as partisan. The argument held that if I have an opinion on a matter of national interest and I decide to share it with the Guyanese public then I am political. Further, if my opinion is against the positions and actions of one group then I am considered to be for the other group(s) and therefore partisan. If this argument is truly reflective of the mentality of the Guyanese population then I would be ashamed of my intimate association with these people. I am a citizen of Guyana and I am entitled to an opinion on a matter of national interest, and to share that opinion without being placed in a box with others to whom I pledge no allegiance.
Mr Adams has indicated that he thinks my affiliation with the late Deryck Bernard was of relevance to what he was saying in his letter. What he was saying is that the PNC has a dark record of victimization. Logical thinking tells me that Mr Adams assumes that my connection to Deryck also mean a connection to the PNC/R. On that ground he exposes the ‘principled practice’ of victimization PNC style. His motive was obvious. I had argued that he needs to properly introduce himself to the reading public to establish that he is a valid contributor to the discourse on the matter pertaining to the University of Guyana and, worthy of being heard by the public. He in turn seems to be arguing that I am not a valid contributor worthy of being heard because, I most likely have links to a regime which is guilty of the same and perhaps in his mind worse atrocities.
Permit me therefore ease Mr Adams out of his state of partial ignorance. I am related to the late Deryck Bernard, and proudly so. I therefore find Mr Adams’ assault on Deryck’s record as his way of getting to me extremely debauched. They say dead men tell no tales, so Mr Adams knows that Deryck cannot answer him. He believes that he can say whatever he wants about something which he claims the man, now deceased, did over twenty years ago and there will be no recourse. Mr Adams should recognize that the burden of proof is on him, and if the family decided to haul him into court on the matter, I will be chief among the supporters of the action.
On the matter of the PNC as a party, Mr Adams exposes once again that he is unprepared for the engagement that he has placed himself into. A minor amount of homework would reveal to him that I have no affiliation to the party nor do I hold their record as something to be proud of. In a communication to the editors of local newspapers, published in the Stabroek News on 12 October 2011 and the Kaieteur News on 13 October 2011, I referred to the two major parties as ‘monstrous machines set in their own ways’. In a previous communication I wrote ‘Despite my name (surname that is) I have always been apolitical, and I am happy to remain that way. To me, it means I can speak freely without thought of loyalty to anything but my country.’ I would add that my loyalties include God above my country.
As I close on this communication I am driven to share something further of myself. I read a letter in the press from a former colleague in which he revealed that he heeded the advice of another and returned to North America after a brief stint at the University of Guyana. He had returned to serve Guyana through the UG and having realized the magnitude of the issues facing the institution he engaged others in a bid to drive a change. One of his politically affiliated friends advised him to return to his family because if he got involved it could cost him a lot because he had no political cover. Well, I too have no political cover, and I require none because my cover comes from my Heavenly Father and I go with his advice to ‘… fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’
God Bless Guyana!
Yours faithfully,
C. R. Bernard
Lecturer II
Department of Biology/ Centre
for the Study of Biological Diversity
Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Guyana
