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Mitwah

Is there a racist underpinning in the calls for a PNC apology?

June 15, 2014 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters

Dear Editor, I refer to a letter by Dolly Hassan in the Stabroek News of June 11 headlined, “The PNC should concede that certain mistakes were during its tenure.” I find the contents with its assessments offensive. But more egregiously, I detect a racist underpinning in Hassan’s arguments. It is one thing for a Guyanese to ask the PNC for an apology but it is a completely different sphere of thought when in the same breath you deny similar mistakes by the present PPP regime, cast the PPP administration as a democratic government and obnoxiously blame the PNC for the horrible mistakes in Guyana as Ms. Hassan did with the garbage ubiquity. An analyst can decide that there is a Freudian racist drive in such a position. I believe when an East Indian demands an apology from the PNC for its authoritarian days in power and barefacedly classify the 22 years of PPP rule as democratic and mistake-free, then that Indian can and will open him/her to accusations of racism. I am making that insinuation against Dolly Hassan It is crass and insensitive for an Indian to openly declare that an African-dominated government must say sorry for its mistakes from 1968 -1985 but an Indian dominated regime from 1992 to 2014 is excused from the same politically decadent, socially depraved and culturally reprehensible pathway. Words cannot describe the disgust and abomination I feel when people like Dolly Hassan write the utter miasma that passes for honest opinions. There is nothing honest about such behaviour. Here is a graphic example from Hassan’s pro-PPP stance. “Mayor Hamilton Green exemplifies how we can decay as a nation when we are governed by race-based politics… the stench of Green’s Georgetown is a metaphor for the nation.” There is so much that is morally corrupt about such a perception and it truly sickens one to the core. Why is Georgetown Green’s Georgetown and not Jagdeo’s Georgetown? Mayor Green has had less power and control over Georgetown from 1999 to 2011. That was the period when Bharrat Jagdeo was President. Mr. Jagdeo was an executive president. The mayor of Georgetown never had executive power within the City Council Who is Dolly Hassan and where has she been living for all these years. I am told this is a person in her sixties or touching her sixties. Surely from those years (Abraham Lincoln once said it is not the years in your life that mater but the life in your years), Hassan must know that our fundamental problem since the PPP imploded in the fifties is that we have lived with race based politics from Jagan in the fifties as Premier through the long years of PNC rule right up to the present. Here is the part of Hassan’s letter that is extremist in its repellence and it compels you to see this woman as a very foolish, nonsensical person, or a paid PPP propagandist. She writes; “If I were to cast my ballot today (thank God Dolly Hassan does not vote in our general elections) It would not be for the PNC or the AFC. They have not yet developed the wisdom and the maturity or wisdom to govern.” Can you believe this is a person asking for the PNC to apologize? Can you imagine what will happen to PNC leaders at town hall meetings across the country when they consult with their supporters about apologizing and someone gets up and reads out aloud the June 11 letter of Dolly Hassan? Dolly Hassan’s letter has realized our worst fear – Indian racists will not stop at demonizing the PNC and openly deifying the PPP. For this reason, I am boycotting the Rodney Commission, and I think the PNC, WPA and others should do the same. How can anyone say that the PNC and AFC haven’t got leaders with the capacity to govern but the PPP has? Isn’t that the expression of a very nasty mind? I close with the assertion that any research into the abuse of power between the Burnham junta and the Jagdeo cabal would find that Burnham was the lesser of the two evils. I end on a personal note. Mr. Burnham never tried to harm me physically even though I was a harsh critic of his rule. Twice since 1992, there were attempts on my life. I know who sent my assaulters Frederick Kissoon

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Former Member

SAD POSTURING BY MR. GRANGER

June 14, 2014

THERE SEEMS to be no dull moment in political antics, at times most bizarre, with retired GDF Brigadier David Ganger as leader of the People’s National Congress and chairman of what contested the last general elections as A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).Revealing signs as a political leader under stress, perhaps resulting from personality conflicts among party ‘comrades,’ Mr. Granger only recently came forward with the ridiculous statement to the media that he would do whatever possible within his power to defend the good name of the PNC.
That unsolicited assurance, incidentally, came against the background of the PNC’s refusal to appear before the current independent Commission of Inquiry into the killing of Dr. Walter Rodney on the night of June 13, 1980 amid the height of nation-wide political protests against what was known as the “dictatorship” of the Forbes Burnham-led PNC.
Evidently stunned by the decision of APNU’s junior partner, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), to somersault on an earlier position to boycott the COI, as originally reported in the media, Granger was obviously growing increasingly worried over some of the very distressing, sensational information emerging from sittings of the Commission.
His option of a warning to do all that’s within his power to defend the PNC–apparently against the reported links being made with testimonies before the COI about the murder of Rodney, a co-leader of the WPA—remains a pathetic substitute for boycotting the independent probe currently underway into the circumstances of Rodney’s death. More on this later.
For now, without any known public provocation, the PNC’s Granger, who had won the party’s leadership by the narrow margin of merely 15 votes ahead of the 2011 general elections, told a press conference on Friday that his party has no intention of issuing any “blanket apology” for what he termed “alleged wrongdoings” during its 28 years in government.
Who made such a call, and when, for any “blanket apology”? The probe into the killing of Rodney, a courageous national hero of Guyana, is still unfinished business.
However, if the revelations coming out of the three-member COI are understandably too disturbing for Granger and the PNC, including linkages made with elements of the GDF and the notorious House of Israel, then his declaration against offering of any “blanket apology” for wrongdoings during the PNC’s 28 years in government is a matter entirely for resolution by the party he leads.
The PNC’s abysmal record in the mis-governance of Guyana, which it had reduced to the status of one of the poorest and most highly indebted nations of the world, cannot be expediently erased by the amusing political posturing of David Granger—whether speaking as PNC leader; APNU’s chairman, or Opposition Leader. There is too much of a credibility gap.
For, apart from its unique, shameful record of recurring electoral riggings to maintain state power for 28 years, the PNC simply cannot expect even otherwise informed segments among its declining membership to forget, or ignore, the organised waves of political criminality.
They included the documented infamous “X-13 Plan” and the wave of blood-letting disturbances during which period the best known victim—nationally, regionally and internationally- was Dr. Walter Rodney.
It is sad indeed to revisit that tragic, turbulent period in Guyana’s history. The preference, instead, should be for structured dialogue between the government and parliamentary opposition in Guyana’s national interest. We commend this approach for consideration by President Donald Ramotar and Opposition Leader David Granger, for a start.

extracted from the Guyana Chronicle

6/16/147:09 AM

MitwahSenior Member

It is one thing for a Guyanese to ask the PNC for an apology but it is a completely different sphere of thought when in the same breath you deny similar mistakes by the present PPP regime, cast the PPP administration as a democratic government and obnoxiously blame the PNC for the horrible mistakes in Guyana as Ms. Hassan did with the garbage ubiquity. An analyst can decide that there is a Freudian racist drive in such a position. I believe when an East Indian demands an apology from the PNC for its authoritarian days in power and barefacedly classify the 22 years of PPP rule as democratic and mistake-free, then that Indian can and will open him/her to accusations of racism. I am making that insinuation against Dolly Hassan It is crass and insensitive for an Indian to openly declare that an African-dominated government must say sorry for its mistakes from 1968 -1985 but an Indian dominated regime from 1992 to 2014 is excused from the same politically decadent, socially depraved and culturally reprehensible pathway.

6/16/148:10 AM

NehruBig Mouth Member

bHAI mITHWA, iF YOU WANT TO REMAIN RELEVANT AND taken seriously, PLEASE dont post Freddy Kruger as a source. Dont embarras yourself Bhai.

6/16/1410:33 AM

Former Member

Originally Posted by Nehru:

bHAI mITHWA, iF YOU WANT TO REMAIN RELEVANT AND taken seriously, PLEASE dont post Freddy Kruger as a source. Dont embarras yourself Bhai.

Why you dont write something let Mr Mitwah post?

6/16/1410:34 AM

Former Member

Freddie Kruger Kisman-soon is a TOXIC and destructive and un-intelligent wanna be political commentator.

All he is interested is being in the headlines and himself. No better than Jagdeohoe.

6/16/1412:11 PM

MitwahSenior Member

Originally Posted by Nehru:

bHAI mITHWA, iF YOU WANT TO REMAIN RELEVANT AND taken seriously, PLEASE dont post Freddy Kruger as a source. Dont embarras yourself Bhai.

Do you know Dolly Hassan and Mike Persaud? I am no fan of Freddy. Anyway look at the insinuation he is making.

6/16/1412:25 PM

KariSenior Member

I know Mike Persaud and Dolly Hassan. I've been in serious discussions with both.

Mike Persaud and Dolly Hassan both start from the basic understanding that this PPP is rotten to the core, undemocratic, inimical to Guyana's development and engage in racial fear. Both seek a multi-racial and multi-ethnic harmonious fabric to Guyana's politics and civil discourse.

When both address what the PNC should or should not do it is with one end-game in mind - rid Guyana of the PPP at the helm.

Frederick Kissoon completely mis-states Dolly Hassan’s position.

It is one thing for a Guyanese to ask the PNC for an apology but it is a completely different sphere of thought when in the same breath you deny similar mistakes by the present PPP regime, cast the PPP administration as a democratic government and obnoxiously blame the PNC for the horrible mistakes in Guyana as Ms. Hassan did with the garbage ubiquity.

Dolly Hassan is not one who deny similar mistakes by the present PPP regime.

Dolly Hassan is not one who cast the PPP administration as a democratic government.

Frederick Kissoon cannot deny the PNC for the horrible mistakes in Guyana

I believe when an East Indian demands an apology from the PNC for its authoritarian days in power and barefacedly classify the 22 years of PPP rule as democratic and mistake-free, then that Indian can and will open him/her to accusations of racism.

Dolly Hassan is not one who barefacedly classify the 22 years of PPP rule as democratic and mistake-free

It is crass and insensitive for an Indian to openly declare that an African-dominated government must say sorry for its mistakes from 1968 -1985 but an Indian dominated regime from 1992 to 2014 is excused from the same politically decadent, socially depraved and culturally reprehensible pathway.

Dolly Hassan is not one who says an Indian dominated regime from 1992 to 2014 is excused from the same politically decadent, socially depraved and culturally reprehensible pathway.

C’mon Frederick Kissoon, where are these assertions and opinions of Dolly Hassan? It would be helpful to produce these and I’ll shut up.

Dolly Hassan states that if she were to cast a ballot …..It would not be for the PNC or the AFC……. because “They have not yet developed the wisdom and the maturity or wisdom to govern.” This is an opinion that Frederick Kissoon cannot detect a racist underpinning in Hassan’s arguments or find that is extremist in its repellence and it compels you to see this woman as a very foolish, nonsensical person, or a paid PPP propagandist.

Bottom line Frederick Kissoon, this is totally off-base, dishonest and disingenuous - Dolly Hassan’s letter has realized our worst fear – Indian racists will not stop at demonizing the PNC and openly deifying the PPP.

6/16/144:10 PM

MarsSenior Member

Of course there's a racist underpinning behind the cry for an apology. Even the ones who pretend that they are race neutral, exposed their racist ways to justify the apology. It's ingrained in their mentality so when push comes to shove they close ranks and show their true colors.

6/16/1410:37 PM

Former Member

Originally Posted by Kari: