Dear Editor,
Please allow me to respond to Mr Tacuma Ogunseye’s missive which was directed to me: ‘No need to speak to Dr Thomas” (SN, Jul 2). Mr Ogunseye is engaged in polemics, language machinations, and parsing error by incorrectly restating some of my comments and drawing incorrect and illogical conclusions. The SN editor butchered my reply to him in my letter published on June 28, that addressed some of the issues he raised subsequently and did not publish another response to his rebuke of Manzoor Nadir.
Mr Ogunseye interpreted my magnanimous act (to promote multi-party governance in seeking to get the WPA to join the PPP administration) as a defence of the PPP. His shortsightedness causes him to fail to see my involvement as promoting multi-racial governance and power-sharing, which he had once advocated.
Mr Ogunseye incorrectly restated what I penned regarding my relationship with Dr Jagan. I never penned that PPP elements conveyed politically sensitive information to me. What I stated was that Dr Jagan (not the PPP or its elements) asked me to speak with Dr Thomas to accept various offers (PM, Finance, Planning).
On Mr Ogunseye’s machinations and parsing of language regarding his allegation about my defence of the PPP, what I penned was having won free and fair elections, I defended the PPP’s right to rule when there was an onslaught of violence against it.
If Mr Ogunseye believes in democracy, he should have done the same. And my defence was in the context of violent elements that sought to overturn the will of the electorate right after democratic elections. In a democracy, a party that wins a free and fair election should be allowed to execute its mandate. The PNC had not won a free and fair election, but had it won, I would also have defended its right to govern.
Mr Ogunseye says it is to exploit the ethnic card when writing that there were individuals who threatened violence against the PPP. How can those conclusions be logically formed? Were my statements false? Was there not violence against the PPP administration?
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
