Dear Editor,
Living outside Guyana Mr Norman Browne is best anchored with good reason to make his case writing in the SN of July 10 titled ‘Break the anvil of PPP, PNC witchcraft politics.’
“Any person with an iota of common sense will agree that if you ask, request or beg someone a favour, or for something they have in their possession that may be rightfully yours and he/she finds excuses on more than one occasion not to grant it, then maybe that person has no intention of yielding positively to that request.” Adding to his case, he writes, “First, the logical thinker must analyze the situation and ask the question, ‘why’?
“Why doesn’t he/she want to grant me that favour or return what is rightfully mine? The answers will inevitably spring from the question, why,” he says. The former Lindener does write with a lot of passion and emotional conviction to knock one over. What will enhance such a case are his several additional reasons which can buttress reconciliation of his personal assumption that just to “ask, request or beg someone a favour, or for something they have in their possession
that may be rightfully yours” must get priority automatic compliance.
Care must be taken to ensure that those many others among us, perhaps those other Lindeners or others from Parika all across Guyana are not subjected to any reverse discrimination due to their support of the status quo. Even Mr Browne will admit there is a pervasive mindset that the government discriminates. In which case a third party, in our case the judiciary by its independence and impartiality is the best way to ensure justice by the rule of law.
Civilization with its laws, rules and regulations does not sanction ‘wrong and strong’ especially if everyone were to act with impunity to enforce their individual opinions. It is still the hidden virus most alive and well which we must avoid. In a democracy all Guyanese are still entitled to be provided with, evaluate and then sanction or not, all those persuasive excellent reasons which actually conclude and direct that “ownership” of the right of government is not devolved through “common sense” alone. By abiding patience readers can then await production of the many other overriding reasons that actually inspire Mr Browne.
In his reminder of a tryst with politics he wrote, “more than 15 years ago, I made a pitch to become the chief citizen of Linden. It was a direct challenge to remove local power from the PPP and PNC and to hand that power to the people through a non-partisan group or organization.” For any politician to assert they plan to fight for and then hand over power is certain to be found laughable. Insistence on one’s democratic rights is most understandable, but all also have the same equal rights to the exclusion of none. Making a simple claim on the entire body politic does not automatically transfer it because of prior occupancy by a former favoured tenant. Any inheritances, any associations, any entitlement, any promises or whatever may be beyond reflection other than this response, to affect legitimate transfer and authenticity to secure what is desired, must first become established. Neither the PNC nor PPP possesses exclusive ownership of Lindeners to lose them, or otherwise. Hitching one’s wagon to one or the other rather than rejecting them outright does no good for Lindeners. The electricity subsidy to Lindeners continues as legal discrimination against the rest of Guyanese nationwide who get none. It was boldly championed by full PMC/AFC support. Any justification by which previous tenancy in government in a democracy becomes automatic conversion into ownership and inheritance of said government to confer and guarantee jurisdictional associative management to the rest of the entire kit and caboodle within, must be unalterably grounded beyond challenge even in law. The previous PNC tenant who overstayed their welcome of four years (1964-1968) remained for another 24 (1968-1992) years and completely destroyed the habitat. A reminder to all that the 28 year tenant was specifically imposed and only removed by the intervention of foreign judges experienced in such matters.
Mr Browne’s resolve of reclaiming what he feels was unfairly lost by democracy‘s free and fair elections must have however brought much good tidings of comfort and joy to many. Should our Amerindians who invited no one to Guyana to lord it over them reclaim their land? Not only have they been conquered but they are on the short road to cultural extinction. They alone possess immense superior rights to demand all interlopers leave Guyana. Who speaks for them can only be by the precedent Mr Browne advocates or not. Failure to hold local government elections in Guyana for some 17 years has apparently eclipsed fried plantains as a best seller, but it cannot be due to its ‘Made in USA’ production label. It should have been held earlier.
Those demands are not in compliance with established PNC tradition as followed by both Presidents Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte’s well-known record of imbibing the usual ‘Made in USA’ shipped ‘special products.’ It’s the horrific details at the Rodney Commission of Inquiry (RCOI) which are inflicting a massacre on the PNC’s image and the local government elections chatter is the counter attack to deflect attention from their sins.
Convinced he is absolutely right by his own common sense reasoning Mr Browne adamantly reasserts that “I refuse to beg for something that rightfully belongs to me. I refuse to hear your ‘no,’ more than once, to my request for what is rightfully mine.” For Mr Browne to toss caution to the wind may open a Pandora volcano of misery for everyone.
Any claim that he assumes as his right also legitimizes ‘outsiders’ claims as well. Alcan’s Demba and Bookers would be most entitled to totally retrieve their properties which they built and developed in Guyana. The Cheddi Jagan Timehri Airport, long ago Atkinson Airport was
once US property courtesy of Britain to America. Maybe it’s only overzealous youthfulness which motivates such assertions by Mr Browne. To be fair to him it cannot be assumed that he is setting the stage for British or Americans warships to invade and overrun Guyana as in 1953. The idea of Chinese gunboats sailing up the muddy Demerara River to rescue their laundromats, restaurants and fellow Chinese is too much to imagine. Those across the border who actually believe three-fifths of Guyana belongs to them, ever vigilant, could also become emboldened to make their move while we do our usual brawls. No Guyanese obeah, jahray, jadoo, cumfa or voodoo are any match for such external firepower.
Mr Browne’s earlier aspiration to be chief citizen of Linden is most commendable. With sincere advertisement to hand over power and by good fortune’s aid he could elevate himself as the next AFC leader, just for the asking if they permit. That party’s commitment not to “break the anvil of PPP and PNC witchcraft politics and take local power outside of their control… [and significantly continue]… taking national power and ridding the country of the two politically destructive entities that gave nothing but a life of misery for half of a century” is a swansong which still has many fans even as it is on the wane.
Yours faithfully,
Sultan Mohamed
