Dear Editor,
The words and actions of Dr Clive Thomas during the period 2016-17 remind me of a term first coined by Afro-American thinker, Dr Cornel West – “lumpen bourgeoisie”. Dr West described the lumpen bourgeoisie as a certain segment of the academic elite who damage their reputation by using their intellect to foster their ambition rather than their moral conviction.
When it comes to the academic world, no one can question Dr Thomas’s writings. That is why he has the potential to be one of the best Presidential Advisors on Economic Affairs ever in the history of Guyana. He is a talk and write man, not an action man.
However, it is quite a tragedy that this recognized distinguished academic has allowed himself to be used and abused by lesser minds today, to the extent that his academic legacy will forever be compromised.
If you observe the actions of Dr Thomas some 30 years ago and his actions today, you can see he has transformed into a master artist at smoke and mirrors. Here is a man who was in the forefront of the struggle to free Guyana from the ruling dictatorial bourgeoisie some 30 years ago. But today with power in his hands, he has actually metamorphosed into an employee of an incompetent and confused cabal of oppressive bourgeoisie.
What we are seeing today from Dr Thomas is poor leadership on the sugar belt that will accelerate the destruction of the lives of thousands of rural Guyanese from all races. People will not remember him for how many academic papers he wrote because a very small segment of the population reads those. The masses will remember him for being the man that placed the final nail in the coffin of the sugar belt.
How can Dr Thomas publicly display such a callous indifference to the totality of state theft, which was fostered by all sides before 1992, after 1992 and after May 2015? Why has SARU not investigated the D’Urban Park Project and the Sussex Street bond?
I want to leave Dr Thomas with a quote from an African leader whom I value very much, Nelson Mandela. He said, “The time is always right to do right”.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
