Dear Editor,
Amidst the swirl and fury of the Linden shooting deaths, I detect that the PPP government has decided on a particular approach to address its current minority status in parliament. I caution that this approach is dangerous and highly irresponsible.
First, the new President announced to the world that his party was robbed in the November general elections. In reality, he was speaking directly, through a coded message, to supporters, the Indian base, to rub raw old fears, and to rekindle sub-surface animosities. In local dialect “deh bak to de usual tricks. Is de same ole story fuh cheat ahyuh dese.”
Second, there was the blatantly racist editorial of July 3 in the Guyana Chronicle, which said all that is ugly and divisive, and with an Indian audience in mind. This time, it can be translated to read “deh always out fuh get yuh. Is how deh stay.” More fear generation, and more paranoia. In my mind, the PPP is bent on provoking the political opposition to reckless action, to fall into their trap.
Third, there followed the specious defence of said inflammatory editorial, which spoke of factual basis for its contents and thrust. When the fluff is discarded, this so-called factual basis amounted to nothing less than heaping the combustible upon the inflammatory.
Now, after these calculated probes and postures of the PPP, come the Linden shootings and deaths. Any thinking individual, any responsible government, would – should – anticipate serious tension given the issue and the adversarial parties. Yet there would seem to be live ammunition and an apparent willingness to use. Nothing has been learned from the previous rubber pellet incident at the Square of the Revolution involving opposition leaders and supporters. More pointedly, it appears that elements in the government and party are determined to push the envelope to unleash retaliatory violence, with a view to moving stubborn fence-sitting supporters back into the PPP’s voting stable.
When taken together, I strongly believe that the above is a strategic continuum – a relentless, uncaring strategic escalation – at work: Claiming election robbery, editorializing racial stereotypes (then defending same), and the shootings in Linden are all designed to trigger a specific response from a society never far from the brink. The hoped for goal is the perpetuation of power.
It is of desperate men willing to implement desperate measures, then doing so in very public, and most convincing, fashion. Men who will go to any extent to distract from, and cover up, corruption and other crimes; to reestablish the prior dominant power equation.
In the meantime, I call upon all Guyanese to not allow the machinations of the desperate to take root, to succeed. They must be seen for what they are, and thwarted at every corner, every step, and every calculation. The only way that this could be achieved would be through responsibility and maturity. And patience.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
