Dear Editor,
Whenever I am playing music and have my headphones on, it is usual for me not to take calls. I can play tracks from my Amazon Music app for hours uninterrupted. Especially, when I am listening to Capleton, Anthony B or Agent Sasco’s recorded Live shows. I shut the world out momentarily and I am preset in the moment with them.
I am an avid reader of books and though today’s world is an electronic and technological one, I delve into my hardcover and immerse myself into the pages. The world around ceases to exist and I become a part of the story; I am in it. Monday, was different. I took every call that came through. People are concerned about the upcoming Local Government elections and the seeming inroads the PPP is making in our strongholds. I have been around politics for a mighty long time. I think I would die a natural physical death if I am removed from it. Politics have become a part of my essence.
Many of my callers are concerned to the point of worrying that the PPP will come out successful at the upcoming LGEs. I am not bothered because it will turn out to be the complete opposite. The indicators are there firmly rooted beneath the noise and celebrations and the public display of the false sense of impending triumph.
I am concerned at the fact that out of total disrespect for the tradition of good politics, the PPP is attempting to cross sacred lines that not even Jagan and Burnham crossed. Lines that will reduce the Guyanese people to political pawns void of rights and privacy and the very essence of being an individual free and trusted to make their own choices and political decisions.
I have correctly counted ten new supporters of the PPP at Linden. With that addition, it is yet to meet the one hundred mark. No amount of bribes for votes can erase the indignity of reducing citizens to marionettes that are whimsically operated for political gain. My greater concern is not with the PPP but my own party and the Opposition as a whole. However, I have no doubt that the rough will be made smooth at the appointed time. One of the calls I received on Monday evening came from the Leader of the Opposition. I was surprised. He was friendly and cheerful and there was warmth in his voice. That brief conversation ended with him saying, “we will talk”.
Sincerely yours,
Norman Browne
Social and Political Activist