Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 24, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
I respond to Freddie Kissoon’s, “A man and his dilemmas”(Kaieteur News 9-09-09) in which he labeled Rhyaan Shaw a side kick of Ravi Dev, painted the Indian ethnic security as a game invented by Dev, and pronounced that the PPP had been feverishly working on removing the basis the Indian ethnic security dilemma and that that task had been completed. Firstly I shall comment on the insult to Ryhan Shaw.
I have known Rhyaan for quite a few years now and I can assure Freddie that she has never been and will never be anyone’s side kick.
She arose as a fearless leader in the aftermath of the political violence that was unleashed on Indians in the late 1990’s and which was intensified in the early 2000’s (when the PPP leaders were denying that Indians were being beaten and would later dub those shot and killed as drug dealers).
She on multiple occasions risked her life visiting scores of victims on the East Coast in the midst of the PPP/PNC war. Freddie should be ashamed of himself and he should apologise to Rhyaan.
Secondly it was rather disingenuous of Freddie to refer to the Indian ethnic security dilemma as a game invented by Dev.
It certainly has been the pillar of bottom house electioneering for the PPP, but it was and remains a very serious issue for many of us who championed the hapless Indians from 1998 to 2006.
We were correct then and we are correct now with the thesis of ethnic security dilemmas. It is this dilemma that the PPP has consistently used to sow fear and distrust amongst Indians thus causing them to vote en mass for the PPP.
This is a dilemma that the PPP will never get rid of. It is the party’s only tool of winning elections.
So it was profoundly anti intellectual of Freddie to state that the PPP had removed the basis of the Indian ethnic security dilemma .It means then that Indians are now supporting the PPP not out of racial fears but because of the superb economic and social policies of the government that has ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity!! Freddie is confusing the regime’s political control of the heads of the army and police with ethnic balance of the security forces which remains predominantly African spheres.
The Indian ethnic security dilemma remains. One major factor might cause the uninformed to think that Indians are now secure.
That factor is Freddie’s pet subject: elected dictatorship. And yes Freddie is right. Any fragmented society with a major ethnic vote bank such as Guyana will only produce an elected dictatorship.
The Jagdeo dictatorship is secure. Some newly rich and the carpetbaggers feel secure. The mass of Indians do not feel secure and whilst they vote PPP “to keep the ‘blackman’ out” they flee to prosperous and well governed small “black” countries like Barbados to eke out a living. This is a phenomenon that Messrs Randy Persaud, Prem Misir, and Vishnu Bisram should explain to the world. Maybe Bisram can “write up” a poll on this.
I think Freddie is ashamed that the Indian intellectual and middle classes have not yet arisen to confront a dictatorship just as their African counterparts did in the 1970’s against Burnham’s PNC and he is trying desperately to goad them into action to stop a third term for Jagdeo.
Malcolm Harripaul
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