Dear Editor,
The letter by Mr. Lincoln Lewis on December 31 in SN should be read by all Guyanese, wherever they live because the points he makes are very critical to Guyana’s future. The present leaders of Guyana should pay attention to Mr. Lewis’ letter and while praising the late President James Carter, the PPP leadership should remember its failure to implement Carter’s vision that power should be shared in Guyana; my father, President Cheddi shared Carter’s vision and on many occasions committed to the notion that after national elections, the “winner does not take all” in Guyana’s political landscape. The present PPP administration obviously ignores the missives of Carter and Jagan which will lead to resistance by the masses as Lewis explained in his letter.
Editor, the only weakness in Mr. Lewis’ letter is that he should have mentioned our founding father and his resistance to the Dutch slave masters in Berbice way back in 1763 when Holland was forced to gather troops from all parts of their slave empire to overcome Cuffy (Cuffij) and his comrades. Just as Lewis stated, the Berbice rebellion was sudden and like an electric shock to the Dutch, just as it will be in modern times, if our governments don’t change their ways and serve the Guyanese people with humility, humbleness and honesty and not with political bribery ($100,000), false prophets and squandermania, the benchmark of our daily lives.
Yes, Editor, Mr. Lewis’ analysis is on the button and the button of resistance started with Cuffy and led to the resistance of Jagan to the British overlords – the DNA of resistance still resides in the bones of every Guyanese so those in power should stop and think rationally of new approaches to help the suffering poor people of Guyana – drop the consumption tax, bring a flat tax at customs, cancel duty-free items, privatize water and electricity, warm lunches for all children and many other areas of relief for the poor to bring more of our population into the middle classes. The public should pay attention to what Mr. Lewis had to say in his letter and we should remember that in eleven days, the Assad regime was ousted in Syria.
Yours sincerely,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)