Dear Editor,
Recently, President Jagdeo along with a few other members of the Government have sought to associate criticism and dissent by general members of the public to that of the modus operandi of the PNC/R, thus branding any and everyone who dares speak out against nefarious governance practiced by the Government and the consequential socioeconomic maladies for Guyana.
Three incidents in particular come to mind: (i) the unfounded prohibiting of Gordon Moseley from OP; (ii) the Stabroek News editorial captioned ‘Coming to Guyana’, (iii) the work of the independent media and (iv) Minister Rohee’s recent remarks about the Community Action Component (CAC) of the Citizen Security Programme during the commissioning of a Computer Training Centre at Eve Leary. I’ve included the latter issue because it’s in consonance with the nature of deceitful politics being expertly carried out by our Government, who along with members of the participating communities, NGOs and numerous other stakeholders played a critical role in the design (numerous locally-driven studies were carried out) of the CAC.
This is a dangerous precedent that imprisons and threatens freedom of expression, thought, many other human rights and our multilateral relations being exercised using simple but destructive connections/language/conjectures.
At its core it’s essentially saying that if you oppose our policies and/or practices, we will pronounce your actions/statements as blasphemy and deem you to be in bed with the opposition elements we perceive as attempting to de-stabilize a free and fairly elected government.
All in all, no Government is perfect; some are better than others due to the nature of their governance structures, practices and policies that span diverse sectors.
So, for our Government to be electioneering and politicking on the cheap seems to indicate deep seated intolerance of others’ views and perspectives and sends distorted messages strategically aimed at mis-informing the public to garner sympathy, support and place pressure where it (Government) directs its responses.
Yours faithfully,
(name and address provided)
