Dear Editor,
Those who have contacted me since President Ramotar announced the date for national elections as May 11, with many questions about who I believe will win, must understand that my concern is more about who will lose.
I have been very critical of the PNC/APNU’s leadership, both under Robert Corbin and David Granger. My condemnation, I believe, had found justification in those leaders’ unwillingness to confront the PPP with very serious actions to halt the excesses of a regime that caused Guyana to sink to its deepest in the pits of corruption and poverty.
I have also been very critical in my views of the similar ways the AFC, under the leadership of Khemraj Ramjattan and Raphael Trotman, had operated in the context of not using active resistance to halt those excesses.
Myself and other activists at home and abroad have made calls for massive street protests and demonstrations if the distribution of our nation’s wealth were not shared equitably. Many of us became enraged, and rightly so, by the barefaced, racially oriented and disrespectful manner in which the PPP was managing the affairs of our country.
The atrocities and monstrosities were glaring and became everyday occurrences by the state and its apparatchiks. Corruption and the plundering of the country’s resources became somewhat of a norm.
The PPP was agitating for a response and reaction from the APNU and AFC that would cause widespread fear amongst our Indian brothers and sisters. This strategy did not work and the signs of disaffection that engulfed our society were clear enough for all to recognise as the doings of the PPP/C.
The world looked on as African politicians in the APNU and Indian and African politicians in the AFC held their heads high and continued a dignified parliamentary struggle to restore democracy and the rule of law in Guyana.
We called David Granger weak and a disgrace for not carrying out extra-parliamentary exercises that may have resulted in disorder.
The British and Americans looked on with respect and even more respect when President Ramotar prorogued Parliament which was the PPP’s greatest attempt to test the patience and infuriate our opposition leaders to act in a manner that could have fractured and created irreparable damage to the racial unity and peace that exists in Guyana.
The international community witnessed the dignified efforts of politicians whose underlying efforts were to maintain a one Guyana in the face of extreme provocation from the PPP to divide Guyanese along racial lines for their single and selfish purpose of maintaining rulership of Guyana.
We are at the crossroads, and it is clear for all to see beyond the prisms of racial lenses, that truth will take precedence over everything else.
We can no longer live that old lie that the PPP purports to be truth. There can be no genuine Indian fear that come May 11, should the PPP be handed marching orders into political oblivion, that Indians will be targeted and hurt by an AFC/APNU government.
And so I urge us to hold hands with our Indian brothers and sisters and say we shall overcome our fear of each other; that fear which was politically motivated and instilled by those in the seat of power.
May 11 must be a victory for all Guyanese, because frankly, as the world advances rapidly we are all becoming tired of the ghost of old nonsense that keeps us divided and unproductive.
The struggle continues and let us remain vigilant and supportive of one another.
Yours faithfully,
Norman Browne
London
