Dear Editor,
From the absurd to the ridiculous! This is what came to mind as I read Freddie Kissoon’s article in Kaieteur News of Monday, November 17.
First, in his articles, he was telling us about “elected dictatorship,” an absurd allegation about the PPP/C government and after coming off this, he is now telling us, among other things, that “since the PPP has come into power, the record of violations has been mountainous,” and further, that “ it is only from around 2002, we began taking note of egregious decisions by the PPP Government. Before that, the PPP Government got away with some unbearable wrongs.”
In other words, he is telling us that the PPP was able to do a lot of things for the years after 1992, without being challenged and criticized, because everyone wanted to give the PPP a chance to function, because of “goodwill.”
This is absolute rubbish and is not borne out by the facts and history, as the PPP was under constant threats and challenge from 1992. Every election to office of the PPP from 1992 was not accepted by the main opposition party, the PNC, until the most recent election in 2006.
In 1992, it took international pressure to compel President Hoyte to bring the elections to a conclusion. The then elections’ building was stormed by PNC supporters, egged on by their leaders, with many being bussed in from outside Georgetown with supplies of bricks in the vehicles.
Every window in the building was reportedly broken and attempts made to gain entrance and get at the computers. Many of those protesting that they were not allowed to vote, were observed to have had their right index fingers stained with voters’ ink. Eventually, with no alternative left to him, President Hoyte conceded victory to the PPP/C. But this did not mean peace and calm.
He however said that the PPP/C would not last more than two years in office, and the PNC continued with, what was in effect, political campaigning. Many observed that since 1992, elections never appeared to come to an end, as constant efforts were made by the PNC and their acolytes, especially in certain sections of the media to engineer the overthrow of a democratically elected government.
We had the increased turmoil after the 1997 elections when Mrs Janet Jagan was elected President, with the many so-called ‘peaceful’ street marches and rallies, when many innocent people were beaten and robbed, businesses looted and burnt down, with threats of “slow fire/more fire,” all with the declared intention of making the country “ungovernable.” Appeals were made to their “kith and kin” in the police force, whose officers and ranks were performing at the highest levels of professionalism to maintain safety and peace, and to whom, President Jagdeo said, we all owe a debt of gratitude.
Then there was the Guyana Public Service Union strike in 1999, closing down government ministries and agencies, a strike that was clearly politically motivated and directed. Violent protests also followed the 2001 elections when President Jagdeo was elected President. It was only after the 2006 elections, when the PPP/C again won, that the results were accepted peacefully, which was a great achievement for the people, political parties and country.
If Freddie Kissoon and others are seeking to rewrite history as recent as during the last sixteen years, then what are they going to do with the history before 1992 ? Are they going to rewrite it, to whitewash the record of the PNC regime and make them look good, so they can then continue to vilify the PPP/C government to fit in with their political, personal and selfish agendas?
Yours faithfully,
John Da Silva
John daSilva is married and faithful to the PPP. Whilst GUARD and others forced the PNC for reform, the toothless PPP barked behind fences. The PPP has turned to be just like the PNC. lots of corrupt practices, lots of financial scandals and the gross incompetence in managing the affairs of a resources rich country. Because of people without vision, Guyana will forever remain a backwater. It is for this reason Guyanese continue to flee.
Well said. I have a slight disagreement with your comparison of the PPP and PNC. The PPP is worse than the PNC. The corruption and incompetence has managed to bring Guyana international attention. At least under the PNC, we only had Jonestown!!!!!
Please stop your foolish PNC postings VIJAY SINGH (sic).
Do you really think that Guyana under your mentor dictatior Burnham was as good as the current situation?
What is it about the US? It is perhaps faulty thinking like yours which caused your idotic President Bush(wacked!) to attack Iraq illegally.
Ever heard of “PPP the John’s Baptiste?”
We should all work very hard to deny the foolish Freddie Kissoon the oxygen of publicity.
John Da Silva has fallen into Kissoon’s trap by repeating Kissoon’s rantings in this discussion forum.
An old saying comes to mind: IF YOU SEE A DONKEY GOING DOWN THE ROAD AND YOU FOLLOW THAT DONKEY, THEN WHO REALLY IS THE DONKEY.
KISSOON IS THE DEFINITIVE EMPTY VESSEL AND HE DOES MAKE A LOT OF USELESS NOISE.
Satish! Please name and or comment on one article that Mr. Kissoon has written that you consider useless. Note, if you say that you don’t read his works, then you are in no position to criticize the columinist.
Give Freddie a Govt. position and he will sing a different tune.
DaSilva should therefore counteract Fredddy by writing his own version of history, for history is frequently written by fortunate ‘winners’, rarely by unfortunate ‘losers’. Winners are not necessarily those who have won a war or an election or were conquerors, but also include those – even losers of wars or elections – who managed to record history as they viewed it and were able to make their record an ineffaceable part of their culture. Winners, in other words, are those who are prolific writers, publishers and disseminators of history as they view it. Losers are those who failed to write down history as they saw it or had their records effaced/hijacked by the winners. If DaSilva doesn’t want to be a loser in the long term, he should write, write, and write. Right or wrong, Freddy is writing and long after he is gone and all the rest of us are gone, his words will still be in print- hard copies and electronic copies. Let’s not forget that.
In high schools, students who do history are taught that it is the ‘study of the past’. They use ‘approved’ books with the assumption that what is written in them are ‘true facts’. The questions of who wrote those books, under what circumstances they were written, what were the authors’ motivation and biases, who approved them and how ‘true’ are the ‘facts’ they chronicle are never addressed. These students grow up into adults assuming that what they were taught are the ‘true facts of history’; any variation, no matter how logical, reasonable and supported by irrefutable evidence, is branded as ‘heresy’ or ‘revisionism’ in an effort to suppress another view of history.
A very worthwhile and studious comment from you Hackett.
DaSilva does not have to write his own version of history. The truth is already in print!
Please go to Amazon.com and order the excellent book:
The Flour Convoy written by Chaitram Singh
http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Convoy-CHAITRAM-SINGH/dp/193194847X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227703002&sr=1-1
There you will find the REAL TRUTH ABOUT DICTATOR BURNHAM and nothing that Kisoon or anyone else can try and whitewash can change as you say …
THE PRINTED WORD
Every so often, now and then, I keep seeing comments from this John Da Silva dude in the letter to the editor sections of the news papers, where he’s defending the PPP administration in terms of governing. This is fine, I suppose, until he gets to accusing some folks of whitewashing the record of the PNC regime to make them (PNC) look good, while vilifying the PPP.
My question here is, why is it that, everytime there is any legitimate criticism of this PPP administration’s performance today, folks, nevertheless, see fit to reference these performances against the Burnham/Hoyte regimes of the past?? C’mon dude if we continue looking back in Guyanese fashion, then there is no room for growth only empty continuous argument.
Yesterday’s issues are primarily dealing with QUALITY, which takes us down the road to criticism and finger pointing but not solutions. However, today’s and tomorrow’s issues are of QUANTITY, which involves discussions about growth and numbers. This is where the game of nationalism is being played.
Balgobind-Hackett’s comments above about winners and losers are appropriate and very insightful to the Guyanese’s discussion of past and present regimes and their history.
This is another attempt by the PPP to silence voices of reason or dissent to present history through their blinkered view. Freddie, keep on writing, don’t be silent or deterred by John DaSilva, the PPP, Satish and others
relax satish, and dont get all stressed out because someone has a negative opion(according to you) about your party we know that the pnc was bad and truthfully the ppp is even worst, the thing is they are not perfect and stand to be criticisd, if they were BETTER THAN the former then guyana would not be in it’s present state,
The truth, yes, but, the FULL truth? Definitely NO! For example, I can add my own truth to the flour convoy story. We all have our own truths and we must learn to appreciate the other person’s truths, though it might differ from our own. Guyanese are yet to learn that. Because of our biases, prejudices and ego-centrism we see the same things in different ways. We all have our version of history and your version is as valid to you as is my version is valid to me and vice versa.
Please check my posting again Hackett.
I did not say FULL TRUTH.
I said REAL TRUTH. There is a difference.
so ‘real’ is not equal to ‘truth’?
what’s the difference?
There’s more truth that what we are told. Even by our own.