MY, MY! How bitter and irrational one can become when frustration replaces a capacity for rational thinking and behaviour!
This appears to be the case of the well-known Guyanese academic and political activist, Dr. David Hinds, who has been virtually foaming at the mouth over last week’s official visit to Buxton by President Bharrat Jagdeo to discuss problems affecting Buxtonians.
Indeed, such is the depth of his anger that the Guyana Head of State should have been warmly welcomed by Buxtonians in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere to discuss their problems, that Dr Hinds, a Buxtonian by birth, could not restrain himself from resorting to verbal abuse.
In an article posted on his ‘GuyanaCaribbeanPolitics’ website, and substantially reprinted in yesterday’s Stabroek News’, the lecture at Arizona State University in the USA and a leading representative of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), chose to accuse Buxtonians of having “sold out their dignity…”
Further, he felt so “betrayed” by their reception of, and engagement with, President Jagdeo, that he has decided to discontinue having any further association with them. What arrogance from a ‘native villager’!
Some may liken this to a display of childish tantrums by the lecturer in America on Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies.
Be that as it may, Hinds, undoubtedly familiar with the history, politics and culture of Guyana, could only have been driven by a sad, deep-rooted political bitterness to view as an unforgiveable sin by Buxtonians their engagement in civilised dialogue with a democratically elected Guyanese Head of State.
On the contrary, that was “accommodationist attitude” for Hinds, who delights in referencing his “commitment” to Buxton. Perhaps, for all his own ‘sweet-talk’, ‘comrade’ Hinds prefers a confrontational approach; hence, his claim that President Jagdeo was merely “looking for votes” in his meeting with Buxtonians.
And that seems to have sparked his righteous indignation — the thought that these could well prove more “African votes” for the governing party.
If so, what’s the worry?  Once the votes are freely cast and correctly counted for official declaration, which has been the normal pattern since 1992, when electoral democracy returned to Guyana after 24 long years under successive regimes of the People’s National Congress.
Have not segments of the multi-ethnic Guyanese population been freely doing just this, across party lines, to varying extent at successive free and fair national elections since 1992?
Come now, Dr Hinds! Be reasonable in your chastisement of the villagers of Buxton! They have simply been showing an alternative approach by matured, goodwill behaviour in meeting with President Jagdeo to discuss THEIR problems.
Having responded to calls from various parties and individuals, including yourself, to turn their backs on terrorist gangs and spreading murders and violence during a tragic period in our history, the pity is that they should now be abused with language of a learned academic, though evidently a rather frustrated political activist.
That meeting organised and hosted by Buxtonians in Buxton with President Jagdeo seems to have stuck like a bone in the throat for others as well  Therefore, Dr Hinds, take some comfort in the reality that you have company in your moment of rage against what you have chosen to describe as “betrayal” by well-meaning Buxtonians. Just cool it!