Dear Editor,
In my political life I have run into a lot of trouble because I have denounced people including people of my own race for injustice to others of any race or gender. My mother taught me not to bow down to money and power. I pity those who feel bound to do so and wish them better health. I could have been what people consider to be ‘well off‘ today if I had bowed to the excesses of either Dr Jagan or Mr Burnham on issues of conscience. I would have no difficulty condemning Buxton youth present at the PPP meeting if their acts deserved it.
I am glad that the whole Buxton incident was very spirited, without violence. If there are cases of actual assault they should be named specifically. Branding people as a group is just as bad as the alleged offence.
There were two forms of response to the PPP/Civic speakers as far as I could make out. One was vigorous heckling. The other was a bonfire of gifts that the PPP so brazenly relies on, with its control of money and its power to buy a lot of people. I took pains to find out, and now know that the burning took place after the PPP had left, and that it took place on a spot where it could not offend or endanger any person, or put anyone within sight or hearing in fear. From thousands of miles away I appeal to all who become active in the elections to strike no one, and insult no one.
Those of us who have known the PPP know that it is now at the very lowest moral rating of its long life. It is cocky, arrogant, collectively corrupt, and ready to buy human beings. I rejoice that young people feel insulted by this approach and are taking steps to affirm their dignity. In my long political experience from 1947 I have never heard about or seen party tokens or gifts put in a heap and set on fire. This is what people will do when gifts come without respect.
Village people are very keen in spotting disrespect. There seems to be more and more official disrespect in the country, particularly at this time.
It is being reported that the PPP has gone on a campaign of abuse against Buxtonians because their meeting ran into a volley of unexpected heckling, and two rotten eggs. They are accusing the villagers in media where the villagers are powerless and have no right of reply.
I do not call people hooligans, because I know how the word is used in Guyana and where the word comes from. Self-righteous declarations from the PPP ladies and young men are quite out of place. I know personally of heckling and worse, from both old major parties.
When a President bans media and passes unpopular measures threatening people with losses, his admirers praise his bullyism as statesmanship. When some young people use the only space they have to silence what they do not want to hear and to affirm their dignity they are hooligans? Please let me know. As Chalkie says “I been in town too long.”
I also want to ask the PPP what right they have to denounce others as hecklers when they are, as I can prove, fully and equally able and known in their own areas to do all they are accusing others of. You can’t stay in town and know who all the hecklers are.
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
