Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 18, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
There is a frightening pattern of events that is occurring in Guyana. Anyone who speaks out against the PPP government or President Jagdeo is labeled an enemy, and the full weight of the state is used to destroy those individuals.
Companies whose executives fail to please the political elite are denied contracts; Corporations who do business or are thought to be aligned with the political opposition are economically strangled; areas that were the political strong-holds of the major political opposition are marginalised, the people of those townships and villages left to suffer, or as the ‘Bosses’ see it, taught a ‘lesson’.
News organisations like the two daily papers, the Kaieteur News and the SN, have been targeted by the President. The Kaieteur News was called an organ of the political opposition and government advertisements were pulled from its pages. Businesses were told to withdraw their support and party members encouraged to boycott the two major periodicals. A free press, vigorous opposition and an independent judiciary are three major pillars of a democracy, and any assault on anyone of these should be considered a direct attack on our freedoms and our democratic institutions.
Five years ago opposition activist Ronald Waddell was assassinated by state sponsored terrorists. Recently, journalists and political activists, Mark Benschop and columnists Freddie Kissoon were arrested for protesting the use of the La Repentier cemetery as a major garbage dump.
For what should have warranted a minor traffic citation, these two citizens were hauled off to jail, where they were denied bail and kept incarcerated for several days. A few days ago Benschop was arrested again, this time while executing his duties as a member of the press. Mr. Benschop was assaulted by a member of President Jagdeo’s administration. His personal property was stolen and his vehicle vandalized by this Public Servant, yet
Benschop was the one who went to jail while his assailant went home.
Last year several citizens were charged with treason, including a serving Army officer and his wife. Treason is a very serious charge and governments are very careful when they bring these charges. The threshold for treason is reserved for persons engaged in espionage; persons involved in military coups, or similar attempts to overthrow a government or impair the well being of the state to which that citizen owes allegiance; giving aid or comfort to the enemy in times of war.
Treason is a very grave charge with very serious consequences if one is found guilty. Yet the evidence presented by the prosecutor so far against these individuals has more to do with alleged arson (the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to a structure). It is apposite to note that five Afro-Guyanese have been charged with Treason since the Jagdeo Administration took office.
Meanwhile high ranking government officials commit crimes that go unpunished. Members of the political directorate are involved in fatal accidents and are released on their own recognizance; high officials are pulled over for driving drunk and are set free; Senior members of the government engage in pedophilia and other debauchery, spousal abuse and shameful public indecency and no one seems to care. A free press, vigorous opposition and an independent judiciary are three major pillars of a democracy; bad things happen to people who speak up, so if you are not part of the inner circle you had better be quiet. People are afraid to speak or show their support for opposition candidates because they fear their business contract would be taken away, their mini-buses targeted by the police or their pensions denied. This is the state of affairs in Guyana today, and the government emboldened by the silence of the populace and groups like the Trade Unions, the Clergy, Academia and the political opposition, ratchet up their fascist’s tactics on the powerless.
Martin Niemoller was an ardent German Nationalist; he was also an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler. Niemoller was jailed for his dissent but he continued to speak, jail bars did not silence him. His words somehow are very pertinent to what is happening today in Guyana, where the Police Force and a weak and compromised judiciary, along with an apathetic populace, have allowed a Fascists government to engage in the unlawful persecution of its citizenry;
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Socialist; Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Trade Unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.” The time for action is now; students, the clergy, presidential candidates and their parties and Trade Unions and the populace must let their voices be heard, if not they tacitly approve of the crimes and the criminals who commit them.
Mark A. Archer
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
Apr 20, 2024
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