Dear Editor,
I read with keen interest Ravi Dev’s column of Sunday March 02, 2008 published in Kaieteur News under the caption, “Politics and Crime”. After reading the article I am forced to point out that the caption attached was misleading. Dev’s discussion of the issue lacked a national focus and was unbalanced. It was clear that Dev’s sole intention was to highlight what he perceives as the role of crime in the politics of African Guyanese.
In his attempt to demonstrate the evolution of this phenomenon Dev has deliberately played down the Indian Guyanese contribution to this problem. He has done so at a period in the nation’s history when only the dishonest would not publicly recognize the obvious. In Guyana, the crime security crisis is in a large part the results of the actions of the Indian leadership in the PPPC. Any objective analysis of politics and crime in the country cannot be separated from the criminalization of the state and the rulers known alliance with the drug lords, which is unprecedented in the history of the nation. This is too important an issue to warrant only the passing, cosmetic reference which Dev afforded it in his article.
As an Indian leader and intellectual, Dev’s services to his people and the nation would have been given greater recognition if he had chosen to handle this very sensitive subject in a more responsible manner. To press home my point he failed to mention the roles of our Portuguese and Amerindians in the phenomenon of politics and crime in Guyana. These are matters which a keen observer like Dev is fully aware of.
I am in no mood at this time to engage in tit for tat polemics, particularly on this sensitive and potentially explosive crime security situation in the country. In another period I would have outlined in some detail for Dev the Indian Guyanese contribution to this national problem. As tempting as it is to go in this direction I have refrained from doing so because, in light of the very volatile situation in the country, it will be politically irresponsible for me to do otherwise.
I have also noted Dev’s opportunistic use of my appeal to “Fineman” Rawlins’ to keep what has been alleged as his “word” not to target women and children. As usual, even as he quoted from my letter, Dev could not contain his habits of old and he twisted the intent of my appeal for his own benefit. He told his readers that I did not call on Fineman not to target men, inferring my approval of such attacks. All that this confirms is that even at the worst of times Dev’s low political antics continue to dominate his thinking. It is no wonder that the Guyana Third Force collapsed under the tenure of his Chairmanship.
Dev’s political machinations underscore the reason why I have withdrawn from polemics with Indian Guyanese political activists and letter writers and instead, I am content with concentrating on the leadership of the PPPC party and the government.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
