I REFER to a Kaieteur News article of July 8th, 2013, titled “Let the pain of the past be used to propel us to peace and prosperity.”
The title of the article corresponded to words uttered by Opposition Leader, David Granger, as he offered his vision on moving forward from the tragedy known in Guyana as the ‘Son Chapman tragedy’

where, in July 1964 (before many of us were born – yet we remain entangled in the web of past intrigue), a bomb exploded on a passenger boat, the Son Chapman, travelling from Stabroek to Linden along the Demerara River, killing 43 innocent passengers and injuring many others.
A follow-up Kaieteur News article on July 9th, 2013 titled ‘50th anniversary memorial site for Son Chapman explosion’ concluded that “The explosion was caused by a bomb, but the persons responsible and the type of explosives used remain unknown.”
Yet, the July 8th article quoted the Opposition Leader thus: “Granger said that the communities of Mackenzie, Wismar and Christianburg had been targeted for terrorism by ‘the masterminds of terrorism’. They succeeded…as over 176 persons were killed during that dark period and thousands of buildings were burnt; sugar cane fields were burnt”.
Never before or after were there so many internal refugees in this country,” he declared, adding that all the acts of terrorism were orchestrated by the masterminds, to abort the General Elections of 1964.’

If the Opposition Leader is being quoted correctly, to whom is he referring? Who are the generic ‘masterminds of terrorism’? According to the history books and the oral stories, the 1964 General Elections in Guyana were pivotal for their triumph over the PPP by the introduction of proportional representation – a regime change scheme hatched by the United States Government, the CIA and British Government to prevent Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP from regaining power and to install the opportunist Forbes Burnham into office.
Clearly, Forbes Burnham did not wish to abort the General Elections of 1964; so is Mr. Granger accusing the PPP of blowing up this boat? If so, why does he not just say so? Is he really referring to the PPP as the ‘masterminds of terrorism?’ or is he speaking about the combination of the CIA, the then US and British Governments? It is fact, as Maurice Bishop lamented in his fiery speeches before his murder, that bombings were one methodology used by the CIA to introduce strife and division in Grenada. These bombings killed innocent civilians in Grenada.

Does Mr. Granger seriously believe that ‘peace and prosperity’ are ushered in by subterfuge and innuendos and the reconfiguration of history? If anyone ever had any hope that Mr. David Granger has any good intentions politically and any capacity for leading reconciliation, it has been shattered. Words are cheap. The attempt to distort history to poison the minds of the innocent today is unpardonable. We can stick in a line about ‘peace and prosperity and unity’ in our speeches any day; but it is difficult to walk the talk when these virtues have not taken root in the heart and the intention.

Real historians and politicians of the calibre of our own Dr. Walter Rodney and Dr. Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, walked their nation, especially among the African society, to educate the grassroots about truth and history. Guyana’s own Dr. Walter Rodney, it is told, used every opportunity to educate the masses in this country about history and international political economy; so passionate he was about truth, history and Guyanese working class unity, that it is told that he continued his ardent teachings on one occasion even while being chased by Burnham’s thugs in Linden, as he was in a hideout being hunted with threats to his life.

If Mr. David Granger thinks that this generation is foolish and ignorant, he had better start thinking again, because no politician in this country can stand up against the united, informed citizens of this nation. The people of this country are fair: we give everybody ample opportunity to prove themselves worthy of leadership.
But we refuse to be invisible and let our future be dictated by the likes of Mr. David Granger. We are present and untruths, distortions and ugly, vile, pathetic, atrocious attempts to divide this nation are not tolerated on our watch.

This war between and among politicians exists at that political level and not among the ordinary citizens of this nation; and we refuse to be used as fodder to feed the political machine and we refuse to be invisible while politicians – internal and external – attempt to distort the past, dictate the future and continue to wreck our country and our lives to further their own ambitions that have absolutely no connection to improving the well-being and prosperity of citizenry.

Enough is Enough. We are fed up of all politicians misrepresenting us and of external interference in the affairs of our nation using local opportunist elements to create strife and mayhem, including, it is alleged by Dr. Wazir Mohammed, external involvement in the assassination of our beloved Dr. Walter Rodney who was vocal in articulating and opposing the global neo-colonial agenda.

Mr. Granger is also reported to have said that sugar cane fields were burnt during the era of the Son Chapman sinking. It is also often told in this country that burning sugar cane fields was a popular method of resistance used by the PPP in those years. It seems clear where Mr. Granger’s fingers are pointing. As the saying goes, when we point one finger, we usually have three pointing back at us. There is one thing that everyone in this country knows, even Opposition supporters and his opponents and people neutral towards him, and that is that Dr. Cheddi Jagan was never an advocate of the use of violence. Murdering innocent people was never on Dr. Jagan’s agenda and he clearly and unambiguously rejected the use of violent means against citizens of the nation to achieve political ends; and he walked his talk for his entire political life, most spent in opposition.
So, the question remains, who blew up the boat? The pain of the past cannot propel us to peace and prosperity on a bedrock of lies, subterfuge and innuendos; it requires truth.

We, in this country, have never had the opportunity to stabilise and strengthen our Police Force to any kind of professional standards because our brand of politics is not mutually exclusive of crime. We never can investigate any major incident impartially. When subterfuge and ‘subterranean means’ are deployed by governments- foreign and local-just how much truth can we the people of this country ever know?

While all the farce transpires as politicians actively create strife in this nation, as we are seeing unfold before us with the Son Chapman commemoration activities, the people of this country suffer the consequences of poor internal security: the ordinary, hard-working, tax-paying people in this nation paying for political incompetence with their lives.

The politician with a united, progressive Guyana and the well-being of Guyanese on their agenda does not exist. The new breed of politicians, perhaps represented by the Regional Chairman of Linden asked Lindeners generically to not distance themselves from their fellow Guyanese and to forgive evil – who are these generic, evil people that must be forgiven? Do they look like me by any chance?

The problem in Guyana continues to be abject poverty in political leadership, a leadership problem disguised as a racial people problem. All the while the politicians are the ones creating strife and mayhem among friends and colleagues.

Our politicians have absolutely no idea how to, or intention of, uniting this nation. All talks of unity are farcical rhetoric and are subservient to their individual political agendas. These are days of Wikileaks. As their slogan goes, they open governments. And the people of the world, including Guyanese, are no longer ignorant of Government and political subterfuge, mainstream media schemes and international political agendas. I encourage all local politicians to visit the local Hare Krishna temples, find the Brahma Kumaris Centre, the Bahais, the Rastafarians and other enlightened groups in this country to learn about evolving their consciousness.

The people of this country live by peaceful means every single day and we are demanding a calibre of politician in alignment with our values. Surely, it is Ramadan once again and even if the politicians and spy agencies and schemers and plotters are in ignorance promoting strife, the rest of the country knows what the spirit of Ramadan demands and we are daily engaged in addressing our minds to developing ourselves and our country; not to dividing it and destroying it.

Politicians of 2013 and beyond have to get on board with our way of life or get lost.