The arrest on suspicion of linkages to terrorist groups of visiting US Muslim Cleric, Akbar Muhammad, has frightening overtones for the peace , stability and the future of Guyana; because one cannot help but recall that rabid PNCR parliamentarian from Linden, Abdul Kadir, was jailed in the USA for plotting terrorism in that country, and Guyana has had a long history of political unrest, especially when the PNC is seeking the corridors of power through whatever means possible, and propagating violence has historically been their trademark tool and strategy to force the PPP to its knees.  It cannot be a co-incidence that Akbar Muhammad was slated to be a primary participant at a rally organized by black activists in Linden.  The implications of this development on the eve of General Elections in Guyana should send off alarm bells for those in authority.
Tacuma Ogunseye’s pronouncements on unleashing violence against PPP supporters and his call for “kith and kin” support from the security services was not strategically timely for the opposition bodies, thus forcing a public recantation, repudiation, and condemnation.  However, no one is fooled, because the architects of the X-13 Plan –who unleashed a wave of violence in the land in the 1960s, and the “Slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah” strategies, as well as the “Buxton Uprising”-are alive and kicking.  The pictures of prominent ACDA member and great supporter of the “Buxton Uprising”, Ronald Waddell, with a bucket going toward the government gas station as Regent Street burnt is a chilling reminder of past events.
The heightened crime wave targeting mainly members of one community is not a coincidence, because it provides an election platform for presidential candidates to promise reduced crime if elected.  These persons have in the past proven that they are not averse to brutally taking innocent lives, without any compunction or mercy whatsoever, in their quest for power; a past they are vehemently denying and trying to suppress.  Witness the virulent condemnation of President Jagdeo’s reference to that past at Babu John earlier this year at the most appropriate venue for such recollections; because it was in memory of the greatest victims of these violent and murderous opposition strategies – the Jagan patriarch and matriarch- who were this nation’s greatest freedom fighters.
During an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, PPP General-Secretary, Donald Ramotar, spoke at length of the struggles of that party in pre and post-independence periods to achieve freedom for Guyana and the Guyanese people, in which he played a pivotal part.  However, he disclaimed any heroism on his part, because he said that every party member braved the violent opposition of the day.  He admitted to being afraid, but still helped to organize and attended political meetings, while knowing that the meetings would inevitably attract attacks by what he termed “PNC goons”, mainly operating through the House of Israel and US criminal Rabbi Washington.
He said that PPP meetings were almost always violently broken up.  He recalled the 1973 period, when he was in one really dangerous situation at Golden Grove on the East Coast, where the thugs badly beat some members and smashed members’ vehicles.  He was not seriously injured enough to cause hospitalisation, but Harrinarine Nawbatt and some others were very badly beaten up, and this was a normal occurrence at PPP meetings.
“Dr. Jagan himself was injured during an invasion by “PNC thugs” on a platform at the Parade Ground, where he had been invited to speak in protest at the expulsion from Jamaica of Clive Thomas and other academics from the West Indies,” Ramotar recalled .
“We were afraid but we were engaged in a struggle that we realised could not have been abandoned. I was a boy when a bomb killed Michael Forde at Freedom House, but somehow Dr. Jagan had this ability to inspire the confidence of his supporters in his vision and persons to pursue the goals he aspired to for the country, and although we knew that the situations that existed at times were life-threatening, we had unswerving faith in him, because his message was a national one, and he always appealed for national unity.  Somehow I always was convinced that we would prevail in our struggles, despite many supporters eventually giving up and migrating.  I had many such opportunities, but I could not abandon this dream of a better Guyana where all Guyanese could live in unity and achieve prosperity.  I have never had any doubt that Dr. Jagan’s dream of peace and prosperity for this nation would one day prevail or I would never have remained in Guyana or in the PPP.”
But that dream and the emerging peace and prosperity of this nation that has catapulted socio-economic growth in the face of a global financial meltdown could once more be derailed if the likes of Ogunseye and other opposition leaders could once more have their way and successfully unleash their dogs of war in the nation.
Ramotar is adamant that the PPP’s leadership will, as it has done in the past, reject any suggestion of retaliation against its attackers, opting instead to carry a constant message of unity in the nation as the only pathway to progress.  Although the violence perpetrated against the PPP and its members were sometimes overwhelming, Ramotar stressed that retaliation was never considered  an option, because Dr. Jagan felt that would have defeated the purpose that he intended and the course pursued by the PPP in its unrelenting struggles for justice, equality and unity in Guyana.  He is convinced that Dr. Jagan’s dream of uniting Guyana and achieving prosperity for the Guyanese people is well on the way to fructifying, despite the best efforts of the opposition elements to cast doubts on the PPP/C government’s commitment to this ideal, and its strategies and programmes planned and initiated to achieve this eventuality.
Donald Ramotar and what he calls legions of others had absolute faith and were inspired by Dr. Jagan’s passion and conviction that they will be able to overcome the hatred and bring people together, because the party’s unwavering message was always a national one – an appeal for unity in the nation and a bridging of all the divides so that the country can achieve its optimum potential for growth and development.  He stated “… and again I say that I am not against power-sharing if this will heal the nation, but I am convinced that the current protagonists have no good intentions because of their track record, of which I am fully knowledgeable; and trust is an essential prerequisite for such a partnership.
“We have shared power with political opponents who have formerly strongly opposed us and they became part of the original PPP/C, with more joining the government as they begin to let go of their misconceptions and share the PPP visions for a peaceful and united Guyana.”
Ramotar continued: “Being in government is not merely about being in power, but it is primarily about taking the nation forward through development and growth that will benefit all the people of the country; and the PPP/C has been achieving much progress in incremental stages as money and resources become available.  We had to rebuild this country practically from scratch.  This young generation who walk the streets in freedom and could dress properly, buy anything they want from any store with freedom, and pursue tertiary education without the inconvenience and fear of breaking their studies midway to suffer in the Guyana National Service are mainly unconscious of the sacrifices some brave and committed people made to pave the way and enable them these freedoms.  We can only hope that they choose wisely in the next elections so as to continue this programme of progress that this government is facilitating, propagating and implementing in every area, every sector, and every community of this country.
“Apart from the crime wave, and the constant attacks on innocent persons, we have had some degree of relative peace in the recent past, and this has allowed our growth indices to climb and the economic configurations to stabilize, and even grow.  Unlike many first-world countries, Guyana’s macro-economic fundamentals are sound,” stressed Ramotar.
Ramotar drew a nexus between ACDA’s threats and PNC support of criminal gangs by addressing PNC proclivity , especially since their platform is security, to ramp up the crime wave – with the X-13 Plan, the slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah strategy, the Buxton Uprising being cases in point, as well as the sporadic murderous forays of breakaway criminal gangs, in attempts to derail successive PPP/C governments, Ramotar said that ACDA’s unambiguous call to racial insurrection and their threat to take to the streets to enforce shared governance on a PPP administration after 2011 elections have not come as a surprise.  He stated “From since the 2002 jailbreak, and even before that, also taking into consideration Blackie’s funeral, when the entire PNC apparatus was used in that funeral arrangement, and making him a hero, with the national flag placed on his coffin – all the patterns, suggested to me a very close link with the PNC and the criminal gangs.
“For instance, and there is no secret about this, when the five prison escapees went to Buxton and set up camp and established a base from which they made forays, the PNC was the only political party able to access Buxton during those times, and for the criminals to survive while holding that community under siege, because the criminals could not have survived without some level of political support given by the PNC, and this nexus needs to be drawn.
”Any unbiased analysis will come to the same conclusion, I’m sure.  This takes into account also the targeting of the police by the opposition PNC when they confronted the criminal gangs.  The police always came under tremendous attack by the PNC.  I am not necessarily defending the police, but anytime the police had any confrontation with the criminals, who were spawned by the five escapees, the police came under tremendous attack from the PNC.  The police never received any encouragement and support from the PNC in their dangerous fight against the criminal elements in our society; so if you examine the patterns of these periodic episodes, this latest threat by ACDA came as no surprise.  It is clear to me that there are shades of political influences working here.
“Clearly there is an opposition assumption and an analysis that if the criminal elements can make things very bad in the country, which will make us look bad, then their fortunes in the political arena will improve.  It is a very dangerous and destructive strategy.
“They are promising improved security, and it is said that ‘he who owns the dog can call off the dog’, but the dogs may be bulldogs, and once trained to attack can run amok and not even listen to its masters, which we have experienced a lot in this country.”  Decrying this strategy as being foolhardy, Ramotar said that the PPP cannot be threatened by those tactics, in the first instance; and in the second instance he is convinced that there can be no successful power-sharing that arises from blackmail to destroy the country.  “Our position is very clear”, stressed Ramotar, “and I reiterate, that power-sharing can only succeed if we break down suspicion and build trust in the society.  That is the only basis for power-sharing.  It cannot be otherwise, but unfortunately the PNC’s track-record leaves little room for the build-up of trust.”
Guyanese want peace, and only the foolhardy would support violent strategies to displace the PPP/C from the administrative corridors of the country, because the wise know that bombs and bullets do not have names of victims, and that the bodies lying on the streets if the violent opposition elements have their way could very well be their own, or that of their children; and the destroyed properties could just be their own homes.