A story in 2013 that Guyanese do not know about
I am not going to name the company, its territorial origin, and the kind of work it does in Guyana. I am not going to name the individual and the professional training. I have been requested not to mention these details. He is male and East Indian. He is someone I know very well because he was a student of mine at UG and someone with immense talent. I believe these people are Guyana’s future and we should be grateful that they choose to stay in Guyana. Last year, a foreign company setting up office here identified this person to be its CEO. At the time, the foreign company had not been given all the necessary legal papers to set up its offices, but that was just a matter of time. This young man was employed as the potential CEO and sent to Europe for training Then something happened. While arrangements were being made for final location in Guyana, the company was told that the government would not grant it a licence to operate if the identified CEO was allowed to continue. Guyanese will not believe the reason the Government acted this way. This young professional has no connection or affiliation with any opposition party, any protest group, or any anti-government organization. His crime, one assumes, was the civil society organization that he belonged to. That well known organization, though in way no politically-oriented, has had cause since its formation to cite examples of unacceptable behaviour originating within the Government. A few public statements did come from the pen of this person. The foreign company was told in no uncertain terms that it will not get a licence because the intended CEO is unacceptable to the Government because he is anti-government. I know this person very well. He is not engaged in anti-State activities. I can attest to that. Many prominent Guyanese know this young man and they know it is not true. The private media also knows this person because of the civil society organization with which he associated. In writing this column, I appealed to this gentleman to go public with what the Guyana Government did to him. But he refused and I was only permitted to offer the sparse details that are herein contained in the article.
Some people are like this. There are billions of different expressions of human nature. Not everyone wants to go public with the things the Guyana Government has done to them. They do not want to invite further vilification. They are afraid of nasty repercussions. They think of the implications for their family. There are quiet humans in this world that just move on with their lives. I will continue to request of him that we offer the public more details of how undemocratic is the PPP leadership, the very leadership that many of us thought in the seventies and eighties was better than the PNC Government.
Guyanese have now lived to regret those moments of misplaced admiration.
The story of this young man should be made public so the people of Berbice and Essequibo could be graphically shown who they voted for and should honestly face up to the fact that the PPP that they have chosen in five successive elections is far more undemocratic that when the PNC ruled. I find it hurtful that we cannot go to PPP constituencies and describe this story for them. Human beings are fundamentally decent people and I don’t believe the people of Berbice and Essequibo would take kindly to what the PPP did to this man who also has a family. This was just a horrible case of spite. This was just a terrible example of vindictiveness. This nationalistic Guyanese was denied employment simply because he belonged to a civil society organization the PPP cabal is hostile to. This government is one of the world’s most intolerant regimes and every Guyanese should internalize the lessons of this act of victimization. Just think of the poison the PPP leaders harbour for overt, energetic anti-government activists if they can show this kind of hostility to a professional who has no political past and is not engaged in opposition politics. What is frightening is that the situation is getting totally out of control. Guyanese did not know of this inhuman violation, but they know of the horror that visited Simona Broomes, one of Guyana’s leading human rights activists operating in the area of stopping trafficking in humans. Just months ago, Broomes was honoured by the US Government. But the PPP Government wanted to silence her. A terrible political storm is coming.
