A REVEALING conversation by a group of overseas-based Guyanese, who were returning after residing for many years away from their homeland, is indicative of the wrong impression being conveyed by Opposition Parties and their representatives in the Diaspora that Guyana is a destitute garbage-dump where people starve and go in want of basic essentials.

The Diasporeans marvelled at the true picture; the reality of current-day Guyana from the land of real despair, hopelessness, hunger and want, which Guyanese endured during their days living in the land of their birth.

And they lamented the politics that ensued in the murder and/or destruction of many innocent Guyanese; of many members of the Guyana Police Force and their families who survived the periodic Opposition reign of terror; of the business community, and of decent Guyanese of every ethnic extraction, who have been the victims of bandits; and of the PNC’s nefarious ‘X-13 Plan’ and ‘slow fire, more fire” strategy that was intended to wrest power, at any cost to the nation.

They also discussed the real threat of a continuation of the crime-wave in this beloved land of their birth, and warned each other to be careful, because the members of the “resistance movement” need to survive; and most of them are not gainfully employed, preferring to wrest the wherewithal for their living with the force of the gun rather than from the sweat of their brows, despite the many opportunities currently prevailing through the several projects and systems implemented by the Government and other entities; and despite a steadily accelerating construction boom that has taken dynamic dimensions through the Government’s housing programme, and the extant entrepreneurial adventurism that has been facilitated by the Government’s free-market policy and the investment and divestment paradigm created by the liberation of the economy.

Incidentally, the overseas-based Guyanese alluded to are (or were) staunch PNC supporters in days of yore; and it was not until their visit home for the CPL Cricket that they were able to discover the difference between life under the PPP/C administration and that under the PNC regime of yesteryear, and drew a nexus between Opposition leaders and the bandits, which has been made evident many times, as in when they draped the coffin of notorious thief and murderer, Linden ‘Blackie’ London with the flag of Guyana, the symbol of our nation’s honour; and their openly championing the years of thieves, rapists and murderers without sparing a thought for the innocent persons, including babies and young women, slain and despoiled by these predators; and of those wantonly slain police officers who refused to respond to the “kith and kin” call, with their families and the nation left bereft and traumatised.

They now plan to tell the real Guyana story, when they return home, to friends and relatives in the Diaspora.