Dear Editor,
This is the nature of the beast that Guyanese have to contend with in the modern era that is 2013.
The article ‘After several demands… Former Army Chief Norman Mc Lean sues for $7.9 million gratuity’ in the Chronicle of Wednesday, February 13, 2013 by veteran journalist George Barclay, smacks you in the face and in your conscience.
I personally hold no brief for retired Major McLean, for he presided over every arm of the repressive apparatus of the state that incarcerated me personally, on every pretext, so many times during those years, that I have lost count. However, on migrating I took with me a copy of a photograph of the Albion Police Station which primarily, over those years, served as my second home along with No 51, Fort Wellington, Vigilance and Brickdam Police Stations.
During one such incarceration a police corporal on stripping me of my leather belt and shoes at the Albion lockups, was about to call me “Comrade Peters” but he halted, and in his next breath blurted out, “No, you not a Comrade, you are a Jaganite.“
However, the retired Major General served his masters with distinction, including in his civilian life, with his service to sport, etc. At the end of his service he expected to receive, without hindrance, his gratuity entitlements for the period January 1991-January 1993, but various administrations have all denied the good gentleman his well-deserved entitlement.
Astonishingly, this was not the first instance of the stubborn refusal of a Guyana administration to honour its duty to pay a public servant at the highest level. There is the well-established example of Balram Singh Rai, former Minister of Education and later Home Affairs Minister under governments headed by Cheddi Jagan in 1957-1962.
In discussing this letter with a Guyanese social scientist here in New York, he questioned my interest in writing about McLean or Rai and suggested that I concentrate on more topical and current issues such as Plastic City and the plight of women, NICIL, the Marriott Hotel, the speciality hospital, the airport project, the Berbice River Bridge and its draconian toll structure, the Amaila Falls project and all the myriad other burning issues confronting the oppressed Guyanese nation.
I retorted with the argument that the McLean and Rai issues are relevant to all Guyanese because an injustice against any Guyanese is an injustice against me personally, and that is the principle by which I have lived my life and set my life’s examples. It is more particularly relevant to us in the light of the unrestricted, unlimited, monthly, multi-million dollar, golden handshake pension passed by our Parliament for Mr Bharrat Jagdeo.
This is a regime that has come to be characterised by the self-imposed belief that it does no wrong, can do no wrong, is incapable of wrongdoing and is above board.
And so unfolds the sad and regrettable history and narrative of my beloved country, Guyana!
Yours faithfully,
Lionel Peters
