THINGS happen in this country that you will never see in any other country on Planet Earth, now or forever. In which country will you find one of the leading newspapers condemning the use of traffic signals? Traffic signals are to civilised society what water is to plants.

The Stabroek News wrote an editorial in which it dismissed the value of traffic lights. Google my column of Tuesday, February 22, 2022, titled, “Traffic lights criticism: Guyana is a disappearing wilderness,” for more of this crazy country. In which country will you find a president that has a weekly television programme and he stays completely away from any mention of any aspect of his five- year reign?

Former President, David Granger hosts a programme named “The Public Interest” and avoids making reference to his presidency – 2015-2020. You will never, I repeat never, see that in another country. The former presidents that do what Granger does will reflect about their time in government. It is the same eerie tale with Professor Clive Thomas. He and Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine eventually took the WPA in power. Formed since 1976, the WPA eventually got state power in 2015.

Dr. Thomas, since his party lost power in 2020, has been penning a weekly column in the Stabroek News but never is there even one word about his tenure in government -2015 -2020. Thomas and Granger have been joined by Dr. Vincent Adams. He just published a letter, one of many since 2020. But the missive is on the current PPP/C government. Nothing is contributed to history because Adams does not inform us about the nature of the APNU-AFC regime that he worked for at a senior level.

Adams begins his letter by referring to President Obama as great. Adams is not a historian so he will not damage his credibility but if he was, I’m sure he would be laughed at. After eight years as President of the US, what are in those eight years to have made Obama a great man? On the contrary, Obama has left no legacy and 40 years from now, when historians write about transformational American presidents, Obama will get footnote mention. I suggest Adams read an incisive brilliant piece on Obama by Sankaran Khrisna titled, “Manhunt presidency: Obama, Race and the Third World” and “Violence and the Third World in International Relations” edited by our own Professor Randolph Persaud.

Moving from Obama, Adams went on to inform us that the Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN) and himself are people “with decades of extensive international credentials in academia and industry dedicated to the solemn duty of giving back to our native land.” An in-depth examination of this statement would reveal that Adams has learnt nothing about the art of propaganda.
Propaganda to be effective has to be intellectually well laid out with language that is so shaped that it comes across as appealing even though the facts are fictions. Adams ends up being an incompetent propagandist because he uses shapeless words that are open to demolition. Let’s do the demolition job on Adams’ propaganda.

Firstly, if people like Adams and those in OGGN have “extensive international credentials” then those endowments were not shared with Guyanese in Guyana. Adams himself only made his presence felt when the APNU+AFC came to power in 2015. Prior to 2015, he needs to tell about his “solemn duty” in giving back to his native land.

Secondly, an examination of OGGN will reveal that they are still to fulfill their “solemn duty” to their country. Dr. Janet Bulkan works in British Columbia teaching forestry while UG has vacancies for such skills. Dr. Andre Brandli rolled off his qualifications in a response to the Attorney General but he is still to put those qualifications in the service to Guyana. He has lived all his life in Germany. The rest of the OGGN folks are happy to serve the US, each having left Guyana decades ago.

Thirdly, if one sees one duty as solemn, then in deconstructing the word, “solemn” one would have expected the OGGN people to have been here years ago. Fourthly, in relation to Adams himself, he did come in 2015 but did he give back? His government lost the election of 2020, meaning that the electorate didn’t recognise his “charity” of giving back.

I will end with a question to Adams. At an AFC virtual meeting of its leaders in July 2020, one of them called for the racial partition of Guyana to which Adams himself objected and rejected the call. This AFC leader remains only the second politician in Guyana’s history to have done so. The question – will Adams write about that?