HAMILTON Green’s track record in Guyana needs no elucidation here, because it is amply recorded; but Town Clerk Carol Sooba’s fear is justified, given the propensity of the PNC in general, and Green in particular, for using violence to get their own way.

The bomb scare that rocked City Hall at the height of a Statutory Meeting but left City Councillors unmoved is a case in point, because this was psychological warfare. However, it is a forewarning of great danger to the embattled Ms. Sooba, because she is drying up the funds previously enjoyed by what Dr. Cheddi Jagan once described as “…a bunch of rascals.”

The profligacy and dishonest acts at City Hall are being addressed, and checks and balances are being put in place to forestall, if not altogether eliminate, further acts of corruption which have been entrenched for so long in the Georgetown municipality that they has left this country reeling.

And Royston King has been fingered in a massive allegedly fraudulent act of recent times, which should have him behind bars instead of posturing as Town Clerk, after he had been illegally installed by the opposition combo of councillors, most decrepit derelicts like Green, who are fighting tooth (even if false, like his utterances) and nail to retain his own position.

The forced ouster of Sooba from the Council meeting was a prelude to forcing her to completely vacate her office by the mayor and his lackeys; which they temporarily succeeded in doing by creating chaos and confusion at the City Hall last Monday afternoon, when they issued a warning that a bomb had been planted on the premises, even though they themselves displayed no fear, leaving the discerning to conclude that it was a ploy aimed at terrorising Ms Sooba, which is a chilling warning portending dire consequences if she continues to occupy her office and prevent further theft of resources by the corrupt municipality cabal.

According to the Chronicle, “The rumour, which made the rounds shortly after acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba entered City Hall’s Chamber, forced her to vacate the premises, but surprisingly, a Statutory Meeting of the Mayor & City Council (M&CC) which was in progress at the time continued as per normal, as if nothing was amiss.”

As the report went on to say, “Councillor Kamla Devi Ross told this newspaper that Sooba arrived at the meeting to find PRO Royston King occupying her seat. As such, she placed another chair in front of the one he was occupying, and commenced conducting the meeting.

“On seeing this, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green reportedly advanced upon Sooba and grabbed the microphone and Town Clerk designation tag, which had been placed on the desk that Sooba was using. This precipitated a scuffle between Ross and Chase-Green, as Ross “refused to allow bullyism to prevail.

“You can’t ridicule the Town Clerk just like that! How dare you all do that? You all playing bully! You can’t bring anyone and do as you like! They appeal the case; wait until the decision is finished! Why is it that you are jumping the gun?” Ross reportedly admonished.

This physical attack on Sooba should have had Chase-Green arrested for assault of a public official; but instead, her spurious and obviously lying excuse that “visitors who came to listen to the public meeting were not allowed to go through that door, they had to use the Chambers door; and for security, I tried to get to the microphone (Sooba’s microphone) to say to them that we are trying to get the door open,” was accepted, because Chase-Green did not have to resort to wresting away Sooba’s microphone from her, as she had access to one immediately close to her.
Chase-Green’s actions were therefore assault with violence committed on the person of Ms. Sooba, and should have legal consequences. The bomb threat was intimidatory in nature; and, given the track record of the thuggish — even murderous — behaviour of the PNC, Ms. Sooba needs to take this threat on her life seriously.

One woman, Gaumattie Singh, who exposed the reality of another opposition party, was disfigured for life, with acid having been thrown in her face. Sooba has also been warned of such an action if she continues to thwart the “bunch of rascals” at City Hall.

And one wonders at the thunderous silence of women’s and human rights’ bodies that are always clamouring for justice for women; such as the GHRA, WPA/APNU’s women’s arm, Red Thread, et al. Or do they only champion the causes of the criminal cabal and child rapists?

The physical wresting of the name tag from Sooba, and the verbally abusive threats that forced her to vacate the chambers should be investigated, and if any councillor is found to have transgressed the laws of the land, that councillor should be charged and taken before the courts; because the laws of the land should protect public officials as well as ordinary citizens from criminal elements who are accustomed to get their own way through intimidation, violence, and bullying actions.

This should not end here with no redress, because next will be a real bomb; because that is what the PNC knows best. And if one needs a reminder of what the PNC are capable of, the reports being submitted to the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry should serve as a chilling reminder of the PNC’s track record of visiting death and destruction on those they perceive to be enemies standing in their way.

Their steel is sharp indeed, even out of Government; and one does not even have to re-visit the annals of our history, but just heed the reality as evidenced by recent events with their Buxton resistance, Buxton and Agricola gangs, the Bartica and Lusignan massacres, the Linden and Agricola protests, the intermittent violent crime waves a la “slow fiah, mo fiah” infamy, a strategy that is an ever-extant reality in the Guyanese society.

Guyana seems cursed with a perennial cross to bear, and that is the bullyism and violence of the PNC, members of which party are adept at wresting the rights and lives of law-abiding citizens and public officials from them through violent means.