Why the PPP bears the biggest blame for what happened at Agricola 

Dear Editor,
The blame game is afoot. While all the political parties can be blamed there are some miscreants who refuse to admit certain compelling truths. They affix blame only on one group or only on the political opposition without being decent enough to provide a fulsome analysis of the truth.

If the police cold-bloodedly kill a young man in a community, should the people not protest? The PPP had no problems with people ‘rumbling’ when the ballot box martyrs were killed in 1973 at No. 63 Village.  It is a sickening double standard that is being practiced when it comes to legitimate protest against police violence, the kind of senseless violence that cripples all Guyanese. At the end of the day, the police have guns and cannot kill unarmed citizens even when they are suspects without due process.

If a rambling geriatric calls on a grieving community incensed at the PPP’s lack of punishment and unwillingness to attach culpability to ‘rumble’ in a provocative manner, what do the one-sided charlatans expect? People will tend to ‘rumble’ to protest the nastiness of the provocative statement. Could the PPP agent provocateurs who are playing the fool on this issue tell us what is the purpose of the opposition when these acts occur? When the PPP organized protests during the PNC reign for far less, did these one-eyed miscreants condemn the PPP for doing what they were supposed to do – protest wrongdoing by the PNC government?

This claim that the PNC/APNU and AFC organized the violence at Agricola has to be one of the most egregiously ignorant, foolish and brazenly inciting assertions in recent history. I am no fan of the PNC/APNU as readers know but if anything, the PNC/APNU and moreso the AFC have called loudly for restraint from protesters.

They have plainly told protesters to behave as the PPP is desperately trying to paint legitimate protest action in sick terms to advance fear-politics. It has failed as the PPP support continues to decline even after Linden and Agricola.

The fact that protests will get out of control cannot be raised to remove the right of opposition and government to protest. The opposition could not deny the PPP’s budget cuts protests. The right to protest wrongdoing is fundamental to democracy.

The PPP fought for that right during the PNC reign. If some groups refuse to protest wrongdoing for whatever reasons, it is their right but those groups cannot categorically condemn other groups exercising their right to protest in a country where there is no rule of law and protest is often the only outlet left to pursue to get government to act like human beings. Words and actions do contribute to protesters acting violently but killing a youth in cold blood in the first place and then foot dragging on reprimanding the policemen and further, making inciting ‘rumbling’ statements led to the protest, regardless of what the opposition said or did.

Let’s not forget that the police failed to protect commuters despite the fact they were present on the East Bank corridor when commuters were attacked.

The police were manhandled by a small bunch of people. I hear no vilification of the incompetence of the police force, controlled by the PPP. I hear no scathing outrage over the PPP’s continued mismanagement and ineptitude of the police force and its inability to protect Guyanese and those attacked, including Indians who likely voted for the PPP.

One would think that after Linden the GPF would be better prepared and equipped to deal with citizens and to handle protest. Again, it was exposed at Agricola for its senseless actions and its frailties in dealing with protest stemming from its senselessness. The mooks will keep blaming the PNC/APNU and the AFC while refusing to point the blame gun squarely at the PPP which is the real culprit here. The PPP’s failure to reform the police even after the Linden debacle continues to expose Guyanese and its own Indian constituency. The PPP again failed to control a protest and to protect Guyanese.

The PPP started this fire by failing to fix the police force after the Linden killings by the police. The PPP’s arrogance continues to draw blood with its own citizenry. Its heartlessness and barbarian tendencies lead to these painful repercussions. I have maintained the PPP is a threat to Guyanese and more particularly for the PPP to Indian security and safety. It is somehow right for the PPP to protest every action of the opposition by running to the courts and other strong-arm tactics but the people whom they oppress must stay silent.

This vast blasting of the Guyanese people’s right to protest is the PPP’s way to destroy resistance to its wrongs whether in Linden or in the sugar belt where sugar workers are locked in a serious struggle against the PPP which has destroyed their industry while fattening a few at the top.

Finally, while I unequivocally condemn the attacks on citizens at Agricola, I wonder why did some citizens ventured into villages knowing there was risk of being attacked there and knowing the police was incapable of protecting them?

M. Maxwel