Dear Editor,
In a letter published in both SN and KN on May 20, 2020, authored by David Hinds, he accused the western powers to “have openly chosen a side in the current standoff- they have taken the PPP’s side”. He graciously cites me as an authority for his supposition. “Speaking on a Globespan 24/7programme, on Monday, May 18, Anil Nandlall boasted that the PPP has all the Diplomatic Community, including CARICOM, on its side,” he, poignantly, wrote.
While I am humbled by the reference, I am impelled to posit that Mr. Hinds yanked that singular assertion of mine from a one-hour live-streamed discourse, without any reference, whatsoever, to the conversational context in which it was proffered, but situates it, conveniently, in support of a hypothesis which he narrates. In the result, he attributes to my statement, a purport which I never intended.
In that discussion, immediately prior to the statement to which Hinds made reference, I said words to the effect: “this is not a fight of the PPP or a fight for the PPP. This is a fight for democracy, a fight for righteousness, a fight for the rule of law, a fight for the future of Guyana. In this fight, all of the Opposition parties, every major local organization, including, the private sector, the religious organizations, the labour movement, the diplomatic community and the governments that they represent, CARICOM, the Commonwealth and the OAS, are all on the same side.”
So Mr. Hinds, when I said subsequently on the programme that….“they are all on the side with (not on) the PPP”, it is the aforesaid to which I was referring.
In the circumstances, to hijack that lone contention of mine from the conversational cradle in which it was birthed to aid your postulation that the western powers are in collusion with the PPP, is as misconceived as the postulation itself.
Mr Hinds, at the risk of being presumptuous, perhaps a more beneficial use of your academic energy would be to analytically examine how and why, in the current electoral impasse, all of the local and international forces engaged, including, the political parties, are currently aligned one one side and only the APNU+AFC , in solitude, is on the other side.
Yours faithfully,
Mohabir Anil Nandlall
Attorney-at- law