Given Guyana’s history of violence preceding and in the wake of general elections, it is incumbent on all presidential aspirants to be careful with their rhetoric, so as to avoid  inciting violence as a strategy to wrest political advantages at the expense of peace and stability in the nation. In this regard, one needs to give Opposition Leader Robert Corbin credit for calling off the “dogs of war” so that the 2006 general elections were relatively peaceful and incident free, which has earned him disfavour with the more militant members of his constituency.  However, if nothing else, his refusal to take to the streets–a form of opposition protest that has ensued in much destruction to lives and property in the past, resulting in a downslide in business- has created an environment whereby law-abiding citizens are slowly beginning to walk the city streets without fear, except that of the proliferating thieves; and business people can conduct their business without trepidation in anticipation of riotous gangs burning, looting, and attacking their fellow Guyanese on the basis of their race and/or political persuasion.
Blaming government for the escalation of crime in the country is opportunistic politics and is no less than playing to the gallery in efforts to win votes.
It is not the government that has armed the nation’s young men and trained them in combat, then sent them to wantonly slay innocent persons countrywide, including babies in their sleep and a sitting minister of the Government.
It is not government that is constantly encouraging strong young persons to rob, even kill the unwary for their hard-earned possessions on the erroneous basis that they are “marginalised” and discriminated against, and calling criminals freedom-fighters, and their network of notorious gangs resistance soldiers, instead of encouraging them to make use of the state’s several initiatives for people-empowerment, educational mobility, and wealth-creation.
It is not the government that is clamouring for power-sharing, so that a few power-hungry people, who have consistently proven that they do not have Guyana and the Guyanese nation at heart, could traverse the corridors of powers as they once did; because the current governmental construct is formulated as an inclusionary body; and one only has to look at state-driven activities and events to recognize that Guyanese of all walks of life and across every divide are contributing significantly, in equal measure and in every sector, to the development of this country.
If the ramped-up crime wave is providing a platform for electioneering, then one is blinkered not to understand the genesis of the impetus to the escalation of violent crimes in the country.
This is the Guyanese tragedy that power-hungry bigots could call on their supporters to destroy national and private property, devastate lives, and create chaos and unrest in the land, merely in attempts to achieve the corridors of power.