Dear Editor,
I have noticed that Ruel Johnson has decided to use his Facebook page to respond to my letter on the President’s approach to corruption in his government which appeared in SN of May 12, 2019 `Not even the President appears to be aware of normalization of corruption, incompetence’.
Ruel Johnson’s description of my reference to corruption in the PPP as being inevitable simply will not do. While the PPP is nominally a Marxist party, several of its leaders lead and control important Hindu organizations and institutions. I have come to this conclusion based on a study of the Hindu religion and an analysis of the impact of the Hindu religion on the PPP as set out in my book Sacred Duty: Hinduism and Violence in Guyana. An example of this is the pejorative reference to anything black in the Hindu scriptures. Dr. Cheddi Jagan in a statement which he thought would have remained secret and confidential, when he spoke at the Travel Lodge hotel in Canada in 1996 stated: “Because as we know, Black people are at the lowest scale of the social ladder.”
Maybe Ruel Johnson does not understand that the Presidency in Guyana is a prepotent institution. What therefore can constrain the President from cracking down on corruption or incompetence in his Cabinet and in Guyana? Corruption is a serious matter. The World Bank has stated that countries like Guyana lose up to 40% of their revenues from corrupt practices. I am sure the President would agree with me that corruption needs to be stamped out so that his government would have resources to give a good life to the disadvantaged, pensioners and youths. Or is it that Mr. Johnson is saying that the President is not fully in control of his Party and his government?
Yours faithfully,
Professor Kean Gibson
