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Send For Mandela Now! By Dr. Frederick Kissoon |
October 14, 2002: The speech by Mr. Hoyte at the PNC's Buxton meeting has cast a dark, long shadow over this nation. As an analyst, the speech was logical and I will explain its raison d'etre. As a citizen, I believe the speech has cast a pessimistic cloud over every household in Guyana. The Buxton delivery shows a hardened PNC that may have reached the point of immutability, and therefore may have exhausted its capacity for compromise within the Guyana context. After Thursday night, I would suggest, the business community, the civil society broker group, the churches in Guyana, and the totality of NGOs call a meeting among themselves and immediately press the government into an imploration that Nelson Mandela be brought to this co
untry
immediately.Why did Mr. Hoyte carefully avoid mention of the unmitigated atrocities that have been committed by some (and some here does not mean a handful, but quite a lot) people in Buxton since February? Let's for the sake of argument say that the PNC sees a political justification for Buxtonian attacks on symbols of the state. Lets say that the PNC believes that CANU's deputy head, Mr. Innis was killed over a drug conspiracy. How do you explain, the unashamed criminal attacks on innocent businessmen, pedestrians, mini-bus passengers and other citizens whose only crime for being near Buxton is that they must pass through the village to get to where they are going? Gangs of inhuman elements are using Buxton as a base to attack, rob and rape villagers who reside in close physical proximity to Buxton/Friendship. The gang that pulverized, robbed then burned Haroon Rasheed alive ran into Buxton after the savagery was over. The criminals who perpetuate this mayhem are based in Buxton and are protected by other Buxtonians. To argue against this is to push an open door.
This doesn't mean that the entire collection of citizenry in Buxton is guilty of the ongoing infamy. This doesn't mean that the majority of people in Buxton are not decent. They are but they are afraid. Mrs. Chester didn't proclaim political loyalty to the PPP and that is why she and her family faced a Buxtonian version of the KKK that burned down her house and made attempts to kill her, her family and relatives including little children. Mrs. Chester was physically devastated by a group of people in Buxton who were incensed that she spoke out against a criminal attack in which robbery was the motive and she denounced those who did it. What has civilization come to at the beginning of a new century when a citizen can witness a petty robbery and because she spoke out her entire family and her dwelling house and other physical assets could become the target of those who were annoyed? Mind you, no one was charged for the robbery that Mrs. Chester witnessed. To think that in this modern world, there are politicians who want us to vote for them so they can lead a rich, large country in the Caribbean yet refuse to denounce the Buxtonian KKK assault that Mrs. Chester and her family endured. To think that there are human beings that will actually vote for such politicians. What has the world come to?
The point about Buxton is that no one is safe. Tomorrow it could be the leader of the REFORM wing of the PNC, Jerome Khan. Mr. Khan is calling for Vincent Alexander to be disciplined by the PNC leadership for saying that out of the aggressive assault on Indians will come something good in the future. It is clear from his insistence that Mr. Khan is under pressure from his constituents to reject Mr. Alexander's perception. But Mr. Alexander's sin is nothing compared to the refusal by many PNC leaders to denounce the unspeakable bombardment by Buxtonian elements on innocent Guyanese. Tomorrow it could be the Vice-Chairman of the PNC'youth wing, Mr. Artie Ricknauth and his Russian wife. The point about mindless, psychotic violence is that it has no logic and no sacred cows. Just as PPP people, just as WPA people could be trapped in Buxton, so too could be the families of Jerome Khan and Artie Ricknauth. Mr. Khan must have internalized this lesson because the Regent Street fire that followed the 2001 election controversy destroyed his father-in-law's business and by some miracle stopped right in front of Mr. Khan's business place in Robb Street.
The importance of rejecting the Buxtonian madness lies in the implication this insanity has for the ubiquity of the criminal explosion. Buxton symbolizes to many criminals the lawlessness that Guyana has falling into. Many criminals feel that Guyana has gone out of control, that Buxton has lead the way, and they are chipping in too. In other words, they see a strategic advantage because of the protection that presently surrounds the criminal culture that comes out of Buxton. If you are going to confront this ubiquity, then if the symbol is removed, deterrence results. It was for this reason, a majority of Guyanese felt that a PNC presence in Buxton was a requirement that had to be begged for. And the nation begged for it. Two PNC executives wrote a beautiful letter to the press after the nation asked for the PNC to go there. Sherwood Lowe and James Mc Allister rightfully argued that if the PNC goes into Buxton and advocated a cessation of attacks, the PNC risks collateral damage to the party if Buxtonians get nothing in exchange or if Buxtonians see the PNC as urging them to stop yet the PPP gives the PNC nothing for its heroic effort. This is indeed practical politics. We come now to our answer. Mr. Hoyte had to go to talk to Buxtonians, he had to address them on their problems, he had to placate them. And the reason is because since 1992, the PNC has lost touch with many of its historical constituencies. In these regions, the lunatic fringe has moved in. The Thursday night meeting is the beginning of a reclamation exercise. And within the framework of the Lowe/Mc Allister theory, Hoyte promised the villagers a few hundred millions. But just as he had an obligation to Buxton, he had a bigger obligation to the suffering people of Guyana. Moral and patriotic obligation dictated that Mr. Hoyte castigate Buxton for its insane, inhuman viciousness against poor Guyanese citizens.
But the PNC went in, said nothing about the pathology of violence that the village spews, and in fact praise the village for its revolutionary stand and urge them to continue with their fighting spirit. Well, the great revolutionary thinkers must be turning in their graves. Since when robbing old men and burning them alive, then raping their women folks in front of them is revolution? Since when attacking and robbing poor market vendors who have small children to feed is revolution? To tell Buxtonians that their cause is just is to justify the mindless, wanton violence that some Buxtonians have used against the poorer folks of Guyana. Either the world is mad, Guyana is mad, or the PNC has gone mad. You the readers decide which one it is.
Dr. Frederick Kissoon is a lecturer in the Department of Government and International Afairs, University of Guyana.