Dear Editor,
The fish is rotting from the head. There can be no real representation coming from a united opposition because in my opinion there isn’t a functioning opposition. I feel personally responsible and once again regret the part I played in causing our supporters to be left alone. I swear it is not intentional on my part.
I have been in social and political activism ever since my mid twenties and have courageously weathered the storms of problems and difficulties in the world of politics. I lost friends, made enemies; many of whom I never met, my life was threatened and I was asked to resign a local government job because of my activism.
I kept myself together and soldiered on knowing full well that providence more than people allowed me a space to have a voice and I made a promise that I shall speak as long as I live. As long as there is oppression, the trampling of rights, brutality and excesses and naked power in the hands of racists and tyrants, my pen must write and my voice must rise in defence of the voiceless and those who face hell every day in their own country.
Nothing, I repeat nothing as ever affected me more in this sojourn than witnessing Black leadership’s betrayal of the suffering masses. This is something that leaves me bazzadee; I am unable to think straight and my mind becomes enveloped in a sort of darkness that makes night as we know it appears to be early sunrise. I become depressed.
When the new leadership of the PNC came to be, I was proud that it encompassed racial, youth and gender equality. The elections went well and we presented to the whole country an executive body to be proud of; what went wrong so quickly? There is no functioning executive body, currently. Miss Volda Lawrence runs the entire party; she performs the functions of Vice Chairman, General Secretary and everyone else. She calls the shots. Those that our members and supporters voted for became mere window dressings; powerless and irrelevant on the inside. The power resides in the advisor and her guard, Carol. The guard’s remarks of constant disrespect leave an unpleasant odour in the once mighty Congress Place.
Irfaan can continue to speak to our local leaders as he wishes because the PPP has the intelligence of what is going on in our party and opposition. My duty is to tell our supporters across the country the truth. You can take it, leave it or do something about it. The truth sets us free. I am free. I want our people to be free from the tyranny of the present government but the fish continues to rot from the head. We must find a solution and save the party of Burnham.
Sincerely yours,
Norman Browne
