PRESIDENT  Jagdeo has said that he has no apology to make for the arrest of Nation of Islam cleric, Akbar Muhammad, which has evoked contrasting responses from various individuals and organizations, depending on their orientation or political affiliation.
One Mark Archer, writing in the Stabroek News yesterday, posited that great men and great nations apologize for their actions, and that saying ‘sorry’ shows strength.
Of course they do, when that action is erroneous, and that apology is merited; and of course saying sorry shows strength. However, so does upholding the sovereignty of the state the leader heads and the dignity of law-enforcement officials who are merely carrying out their duties.
However, Presidents and leaders have responsibilities that they cannot abdicate, and the security factor is of paramount importance, especially in a country such as Guyana, where the violence factor is ramped up by opposition forces prior and subsequent to every general election held in this country.
American law enforcement bodies act on their intelligence and allow no deterrent in acting on their mandate to ensure that nation’s security.
The arrest on suspicion of linkages to terrorist groups of the visiting US Muslim Cleric has frightening overtones for the peace, stability and the future of Guyana, because one cannot help but recall that rabid PNC parliamentarian from Linden, Abdul Kadir.
Kadir was jailed in the United States 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 coincidence that Akbar Muhammad was slated to be a primary participant at a rally organized by PNC/ACDA 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 about unleashing violence against PPP supporters and his call for “kith and kin” support from the security services were 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 – which 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 heightened crime wave targeting mainly members of one community is not a coincidence, because it provides an election platform for presidential candidates to promise a reduced crime rate 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 Jaan 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, pre and post-independence, 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 hospitalization, 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 of the expulsion from Jamaica of Clive Thomas and other academics from the West Indies”, Ramotar reminisced.
“We were afraid but we were engaged in a struggle that we realized 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 have 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 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 as an option, because Dr. Jagan felt that would have defeated the purpose that he had 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.
“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.
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 knows 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. But the road to that peace is paved with the thorny issues of security in the nation.
Muhammad said that he came to Guyana to teach Guyanese youths how to live well and address the issue of unemployment in the country.
But first he needs to address those very issues in his own country, because their unemployment records cannot bear scrutiny. Also, their criminal youth population is so overwhelming that it records multiple murders by youths in educational institutions and elsewhere.
Even more, the publication of his own Nation of Islam organization has labeled him as a criminal convicted of fraud and other crimes. So on what moral premise could he teach Guyanese youths about morals?
Guyana has a plethora of morally-upright religious leaders who are addressing issues of youth empowerment and development in partnership with the Government, and they do not have a history of fraudulent conduct and a criminal record.
As Head-of-State of Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo has upheld the dignity of our sovereign nation through an unapologetic refusal to apologize to Muhammad.