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October 13, 2002: One of the arguments that the PNC clings to with tenacious ferocity says that forty two percent in an election result is not four percent. Forty two percent is indeed an impressive showing in an election. The PNC goes on to tell Guyanese listeners that Guyana can go nowhere if the government of the day refuses to relate meaningfully to an opposition that has won that percentage of the popular vote. A majority of Guyanese citizens, Caribbean people and both the National Democratic Institute and the Carter Centre believe that Guyana's path to implosion and explosion can only be avoided if there is shared governance whereby the ruling party and the opposition PNC with its massive and strategic ensconement in the Guyanese social structure work out a formula of substantial and sustained interaction.
If the volume of the PNC's percentage brings an obligation by others to recognize a role for the PNC in Guyana's governance, then by the same argument that percentage obliges the PNC to pursue a policy of service and responsibility to the citizens of Guyana. Mr. Hoyte's position in a speech on Thursday evening in Buxton that the PNC will not discuss the crime situation because that is the turf of the government of the day is dangerous politics. It is frightening for two reasons. First, a political party has a moral and philosophical duty to see its constituents are not abused and simultaneously not abuse others. This debate is so old that it needs no expansion. A good example is that of a trade union; it must fight for its members but have to denounce its members if they steal company property. What the PNC then told the people of Buxton is that the PNC was there to see that they get a welfare system in place but their illegal behaviour is for the government to deal with. This is giving the criminal section a blank queue. Secondly, it is hair-raising when an opposition party can tell its constituents that crime-fighting policy is the jurisdiction of the government only. But the PNC cannot eat its cake and have it too. If crime-fighting and crime solution are within the exclusive zone of the government then why did the PNC reject the four anti-crime laws recently passed and why did the PNC say that its ongoing relation with the civil society broker group will be suspended because of the laws? Something either strange or perverse is going on in the PNC at the moment.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. At the Thursday Buxton meeting, Mr. Hoyte called for the allocation of about a quarter of a million dollars for the social and physical revival of Buxton and plans to ask the government for its approval. This suggestion borders on the absurd. Here is a village which in terms of denial and poverty is far better off that hundreds , maybe thousands, of other villages in Guyana. I have seen villages in Guyana whose lack of infrastructural facilities make Buxton look like a fruit garden where the Greek gods get their ambrosia. Yet these villages have not gone on a reign of semi-civilized terror where old men, little kids and helpless women are beaten, robbed and killed with sadistic pleasure as what currently obtains in Buxton since the start of 2002. Buxton has damaged the credibility of Guyana in the eyes of the world. Buxton has done to Guyana in six months what race riots and political violence have not done in fifty years. Buxton is literally destroying Guyana. Bestial criminals are being protected by countless citizens whose basic sense of human values are being erased with each passing day. It may be possible that some people in Buxton at the moment are coming under the scrutiny of the International Criminal Court because what is going on there is close to crimes against humanity.
The horrible, horrific and perverted tales paint a picture of a den of sadism where killers kill for pleasure. Buxton is out of control and spinning fast towards a sea of human atrocity, the kind we see in movies. At the moment, the citizens of Guyana are afraid to pass through Buxton. In any other country, where the deputy head of the anti-narcotics is gunned down at the rise of dawn in public view, that hamlet would have been invaded by the state with guns and men bigger than the world's tallest building in Malaysia. A majority of African and Indo-Guyanese are sickened by the beastly acts of violence in Buxton. Some of the Buxtonians' relentless pursuit of violence is so nauseating that it has alienated 99.99 percent of the people of this country (hopefully this percent includes the PNC's leadership). Yes, Indian people are being targeted but African Guyanese are disgusted. I simply refuse to judge African Guyanese on the basis of what a tiny speck of land is doing to Guyana. And this is the real tragedy of Buxton. The savage rampage of Buxton is making for an unwanted stereotyping of African Guyanese not only in Guyana but in the international community. And this is where the PNC, ACDA and others have an urgent task to pursue. The question that must be asked is why should this country allow Buxton to hurt Guyana's revolutionary tradition of which African Guyanese played the greatest part?
In the midst of this mountain of vicious brutalities, the PNC holds a big public meeting in this village and remains silent on the rising tide of inhumanity that Buxton has become. On the contrary, Mr. Hoyte told his Buxtonian audience that their cause is just. The question is which cause? Because at the moment, a big section of Buxton feels that they have a just cause to rob, beat and kill their fellow human beings. The responses to Mr. Hoyte's speech will determine if this country is going to survive. Mr. Hoyte's speech is a strong indication that Guyana is heading, or has already headed for mind-boggling calamity. Then came the denouement - a request for a quarter of a million dollars for social rehabilitation for Buxton. For the government to agree to this, it marks the end of Guyana as a country. This is tantamount to paying Dracula to suck people's blood. If Buxton is given that money then disintegration is inevitable. Den Amstel wants a few million dollars for improvement, then kill some old folks, burn some babies, shoot some policemen, and give an assurance you will behave when the money comes. Then Rose Hall gets annoyed. It says its police station is smaller than some Georgetowners' dog kennels. It says Buxton people went on a Bosnian killing spree and got paid for it. So it murders a few dozens policemen, shoot dead some rice farmers, butcher some children to death, and ask for money to save the village from extinction. It says it will give the assurance to behave when the money comes. Then the disease becomes endemic. Deep in the interior, the thing catches on, and the Amerindians get into the act. They badly need some money, so they burn up the GDF planes, hijack some private cessna aircrafts and burn the passengers. They demand money for infrastructural work, and give the assurance that things will stop when the finance rolls in from the government. But something is missing here. The other crazy villages have given the promise to stop the killings when the cheques start rolling in. Will Buxton do the same?