Truth needs no crutches, if it does it is a lie

THE Stabroek News Editorial of Monday February 2nd, 2015, titled ‘What Minister Edghill said at Lusignan’, is a replication of many published items in Opposition media that distorts actuality and is another, in the words of the latest victim, Bishop Juan Edghill, “…shameless attempt at creating hysteria in our country.”

It is a truth that the fact of evil perpetuating in any society is because the good people turn a blind eye, until the evil devours one after the other and eventually all are consumed.

There is indisputably a section of the Guyanese society that is consumed with hatred and perpetuates great acts of evil on others. Hence the Lusignan and other intermittent massacres in the country, as well as the multiplicity of violent episodes in Guyana proliferate the landscape of our socio-political history.

Sadly, while the actual perpetrators are sometimes caught, political opportunists and power-players orchestrate their escape from justice through various – sometimes even illegal ploys; as in the case of the killers of the Lusignan residents who were freed through manipulation of the jury system by someone aspiring to be Prime Minister or maybe even President of this country.

Media houses with seemingly ‘close affiliation’ to the Opposition collective, support this type of action and almost never condemn the perpetrators, even when they commit overtly criminal acts, because they have abandoned their allegiance to the noble profession of journalism and have joined in the political fray, thereby eschewing all journalistic ethics.

It is a known fact that, both in his personal life and through his former chair in the ERC, Bishop Edghill has always, in his own words, “… worked privately and publicly for the creation of an environment where there is racial security and harmonious relations.”

However, in the politically-charged environment of the various politically-engineered explosions of violence in the country, the Bishop, as a member of the human family who has always espoused the concepts of unity in diversity and dialogue and discussion, in good faith, has no qualms in denouncing the real villains who mastermind the sporadic outbreaks of violence against Guyanese citizens who do no-one any harm.

As he said at Lusignan, “… it was wrong, it is wrong, and it will always be wrong.”

And this does not sit well with the Opposition collective, which uses its media allies to whip up a frenzy and hysteria in the country to further perpetuate their agenda of destabilisation of the social dynamics. As a consequence, they hope persons will be disenchanted with the PPP/C Government.
If their strategems succeed – as they often do with the masses that do not seek the truth behind the Opposition media hype, then all is well and good; because it redounds to the benefit of their master puppeteers who initiate the groundwork for the violence and unrest in the country in efforts to augment their chances at the polls.

So the Opposition collective uses all the formidable weapons in its extensive arsenal, including a large section of the press that is hostile to the PPP/C Government, to destroy the credibility of those who have no fear in telling the truth.

Peacemakers in the land who condemn – not just the actions of the actual perpetrators of violence, but the masterminds behind the machiavellian plots are relentlessly vilified and ruthlessly pilloried and persecuted.

However, brave persons like Bishop Juan Edgehill are unafraid to speak out against evil, because eventually the entire nation would be consumed in the vitriol brewed in the many fracases created by the machiavellian monsters, who have no qualms in visiting untold agony and endless distress on the brotherhood of man, with victims being even the babies who were murdered while sleeping peacefully in their beds during the massacre at Lusignan.

The Bishop wrote, not needing defence, but for clarity: “For Stabroek News to take a few sentences of an entire presentation and to twist it to paint a picture of me fanning the flames of racism is not only disingenuous, but can best be described as yellow journalism.

“This ‘holier than thou’ approach by Stabroek News in sitting in judgment and questioning ‘What in Minister Edghill’s past would have given him the certitude to pronounce on the killings at Lusignan seven years ago’, seems to suggest that as a citizen or as a Minister of Government, that I am incapable of analysing the facts and circumstances. Be reminded that the killings at Lusignan were not an isolated event. Like the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and numerous other terrorist attacks around the world, they must be remembered in their particular context and prevailing environment.”

Indeed! Again quoting Bishop Edghill, “I don’t have a race card. It exists as a figment of the imagination of the editorial writer… I was not ‘carefully chosen by (his) Government to deliver this toxic message’ as alleged: Truth needs no crutches; if it does it is a lie.”

However, what about the continuum of lies that has no end in sight that is forever being spewed to embroil innocent people, such as in Freddie’s ‘miasmic matter’, in efforts to make the guilty look innocent and vice versa – a terminology coined by former President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo as ‘The Corbin Syndrome’?

The Bishop refuted the charges levelled against him, stating “I will not wear this suit tailored by Stabroek News. It will not fit. Try another candidate!”
Well, that candidate is the one making the charges against the Bishop.