Dear Editor,
I can just imagine the indignation on the face of our ancestors who were enslaved in the diaspora, if they were able to witness what was transpiring in the politics of Guyana today. If they were able to witness representatives of Nations whose economies were built on their chattel enslavement, whose babies were suckled and nourished by enslaved black women, threatening the party supported by their descendants and by extension and explicitly the well being of those descendants, with sanctions for not surrendering to a power mad former leader and the political organization he leads. For make no mistake about it, at the core of the seed from which the growth of political support is sprung and branches out in favor of Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP, is that sentiment that is ubiquitous across the globe and is blatantly obvious and transparent in the politics of Guyana. So do not be misled by the cunning art with which they package and deliver their messages and positions. After more than 4 centuries of inherited experience, no one, no group is more qualified than you are to recognize anti black racial prejudice.
Yes, there will be the usual uproar over these thoughts and positions that I lay down here. But if you have developed consciousness during your lifetime and your review of corresponding history during that period, and your attention span is not short circuited, you will recognize that the response you see is standard when one of us decide to make it plain. It matters not the era, the geography, or the group identity of the human repositories of that self serving sentiment. As it has always been, and continues to be, and is particularly resident in shaping positions on the issue in Guyana today, people of African descent seem to have no rights which others feel they have any obligation to respect. And the evidence that leads to this conclusion is irrefutable.
The world joined in unison to excoriate Sadaam Hussein for the violence he unleashed on the Kurds. The leaders of Cuba, Syria, et al face sanctions and are labeled as human rights criminals over allegations that they falsely imprison, torture and murder their political or ethnic opponents. What do you believe would be the response from those who present themselves as guardians of democracy, of human rights, of the rule of law, to a situation where armed gangs that publicly support a President and his Government were going around kidnapping, torturing and killing males culled from the ethnic support constituency of his political opponents. Well most likely they will raise hell, the only exception being if the victims happen to be black and the political and institutional power is led by people who are not. No one can challenge this because there is no historical record of the nations threatening the well being of African Guyanese today, on behalf of the very leader who is alleged to have supervised the program of lynching during his party’s tenure, ever reacting in those instances in the same fashion we see them reacting today.
Cassandra Jackson, the US Special Agent investigating Roger Khan and his Attorney Robert Simels informed the Court that. “ “Khan was ultimately able to control the cocaine industry in Guyana, in large part, because he was backed by a paramilitary squad that would murder, threaten, and intimidate others at Khan’s directive. Khan’s enforcers committed violent acts and murders on Khan’s orders that were directly in furtherance of Khan’s drug trafficking conspiracy.”
She further informed the Federal Court in Brooklyn that “..At home in Guyana, Khan seemed to enjoy a charmed existence of immunity from arrest and prosecution. His mistake, however, was to enter Suriname − a more law-abiding jurisdiction. There, his cocaine-constructed house of cards collapsed with his dramatic arrest in Paramaribo…”
Yes, a “..charmed existence..” in Guyana but he came a crupper when he entered Suriname, a more Law Abiding society. Imagine therefor the level of hypocrisy, arrogance, hubris and sense of privilege that define the personality make-up of the person under whose Government the notorious drug trafficker and leader of a vigilante gang led “a charmed existence immune from arrest and prosecution for his crimes”, labeling the current POG a dictator and his Government a dictatorship. I mean, when one whose performance history as national leader should go down in infamy can still count on partisan support from major countries, there is no extreme he won’t go to and African Guyanese understand what they are in for if he and those using their power and influence to grant him his way, are successful.
The gangs led by Khan and a serving member of the Government at the time were targeting African male Guyanese under the guise that they were criminal suspects. Throughout all of this there was never any public response by any member of the Government at the time as would have been expected in any functioning democracy. If anything close to this had occurred in the UK, in Canada, in the US and their responses were similar to that of President Jagdeo and his regime they would have been excoriated both by the press and by civil society. But again, these ostensible champions of human rights in Guyana who beat on their chests and pray loudly in the street when the PNC and now the APNU/AFC are in Government, were very tepid in their criticism during a period that represented the worse era in the independent history of Guyana.
Let us look at this comparison that graphically illustrate the bias and hypocrisy that inundate the positions being taken by the international community in this election issue. Because there is no doubt, not one, that the underlying motive is to hand this nation over to Jagdeo, with not a single thought about the concerns, the experience, the well being of Guyanese of African descent. Let us not mince words here.
In the 2000 US Presidential Elections issues similar to those causing the controversy in Guyana arose in the Florida leg of that process. Recall the controversy of “hanging chads” and other accusations of a corrupted vote count that emerged from Democrats. Can you recall how that was settled. Can you recall that the then Supreme Court voted to stop any recount on the basis that it would be unfair to the Candidate in the lead. Can you recall that while many on the left called on Al Gore not to concede, he did after that Supreme Court decisions. Compare that to today where these people are demanding that the POG ignore the decision by the Courts, ignore the constitution, and bend obsequiously to their demand and that of Jagdeo and the PPP. Yes, of course, you do not need a divining rod to determine the reasons and motives behind such demand.
Let us face it. This world in General and certain societies, including Guyana in particular, embraces the synthesized myths and racially conceived notions that people of African descent are inferior to all other human groups. For them evaluation of human groups is measured from where they are on a continuum of race and color, with white European at the end with highest value, and black African at the end with the lowest. And so when they have to examine, to analyze, to evaluate any issue involving black people and any other group right and wrong is determined by how far away each group is from that black end, and how close they are to the white end. And since every other group display a preference to be closer to the white end than they are to the black end, well proximity tend to breed a sense of fellowship.
Keith Williams
