Dear Editor,
Recently, I wrote a letter, namely, ‘Soldiers should remain professionals,’ published in the Stabroek News on December 31, 2013. Promptly on January 1, 2014, there was a response by one Sultan Mohamed. Now, not being a descendant of the demi-gods of the PPP, I do expect that if I say something in public I must expect counter views.
However, as regards this response, two factors surprised me. The first one was the speed of the response and the second was the shallowness of the writer.
I am indeed led to believe and with good reason that Sultan Mohamed is perhaps a ghost writer. I think in this case he has done a poor job and should be fired for his incompetence.
He spent approximately 60 per cent or about 30 lines of his response simply restating what I had written in my article. This was done simply to add length to his letter.
What I said in my first letter I still maintain. That is, there exists a relationship between the military and the politicians. I am convinced that Dr Luncheon knows this relationship very well. However, he has deliberately twisted things to suit his political objectives. At no time did I suggest military supremacy over the civilian authority. Mr Mohamed should go and check the meaning of the word ‘tirade’ and see if his word choice was in keeping with my statements.
I think that while Mr Mohamed mentioned Madiba twice in his response, he is as narrow a political opportunist as one could find. It seems to me that he is indeed a disciple of a certain resident of Region 3 who is permanently obsessed about ethnic balance in the armed forces. Well, we are interested in ethnic balance in land allocations. We are all interested in ethnic balance in the resources provided for agriculture.
We want ethnic balance in all government ministries. We want ethnic balance in Guyana’s foreign service.
We want ethnic balance on all the boards and corporations in the country. We want ethnic balance in the senior managerial staff on all the sugar estates. If I continue to demand ethnic balance I will perhaps be able to demand an entire page.
Yours faithfully,
Aubrey Retemyer
