IN a letter in Stabroek News  (July 4) , PNC apologist Ruel Johnson attacked me and a response was not published. Johnson has been attacking the PPP government, Prof Churaumanie  Bissundyal and the Caribbean Press without merit.

I do not wish to dignify Johnson’s unprovoked attack on me as there is no relevance of inserting my name in the dispute he has with the PPP and the Caribbean Press and/or  Dr  Churaumanie and others regarding the rejection of his manuscript for publication. But his misinformation needs correction.

Let me state categorically that I have never been an apologist for the PPP or any political outfit anywhere in the world unlike Johnson who, I have been informed, has been a known apologist and defender of the PNC and Burnhamism.

I have also been told that Johnson supported the PNC’s policy of persecution of non-supporters and the banning of goods and foods used by certain ethnic groups during the ethnic dictatorship.

I am on record as opposing ethnic persecution of any group anywhere in the world and denying them their cultural and religious diets.

Let me note that I am not a member or supporter of the PPP although I do concede that the PPP benefited from my struggle against the PNC dictatorship and from my financial contributions (as indeed all the other then opposition parties including WPA, UF, DLM, URP, NRP, etc,  and the PCD) during the darkest days of the opposition struggle to restore democratic rule in my beloved country.

Unlike Johnson who supported and defended the ethnic dictatorship, it is public knowledge that myself, Chuaraumanie, Kwayana, etc, opposed the dictatorship. I also concede that when I was not even a teenager as yet, I went around with Jagat Persaud and his brother Ganesh, both from Port Mourant, peddling the Mirror newspaper on Sundays in the  late 1960s.

But that does not make me a PPP apologist. Assisting in the distribution of the Mirror was not done for political reasons but for the fun of visiting communities and to help speed up the distribution process so Ganesh and I could go and play cricket, our main form of entertainment at that time, as soon as distribution was completed.

Instead of attacking me or Dr. Churaumanie, Johnson should have heaped praises on us for contributing to the struggle to liberate Guyana from the throes of press censorship and ethnic persecution. Johnson’s kinds of writings were not permitted during the dictatorship. It is public knowledge that many people disappeared or suffered for stating less. Today, Johnson is free to write anything he wishes against the PPP government without having to worry about his personal safety or other consequences.

We were not so lucky during the PNC dictatorship, as we are all aware of what happened to people such as Father Bernard Darke, Dr. Walter Rodney, and others who championed a free press.

My advice to Mr. Ruel Johnson is to stop grinding axes and waging war with the Caribbean Press and those writers whose works were published because of their value, competence, integrity, merit, etc. I did not hear protestations and cries when Churaumanie was denied support by Johnson’s political party.

As someone penned, Churaumanie took his rejection in stride and did not allow it to ruin his literary talent. He has been determined to succeed and not to complain about the success of others.

Churaumanie has remained focused on his goals and working on his ideals.  Rejections have helped to strengthen his faith and fortitude, all the while devoting his energies to uplifting and enhancing literary techniques. He did not go around attacking anyone.

When he was denied a job at UG, ironically by Johnson’s PNC friends, he did not attack Johnson’s party or even Johnson himself or the PPP. He took it in stride and pursued his ambitions elsewhere. He made his way to Fiji as a Professor. It is to be noted that Churaumanie has done great things, as others have noted, through squalor and hunger and in the process is attaining the status of a respected literary genius. He is not blowing his own trumpet like Johnson. He has humbled himself and has acted respectfully by not attacking others. He is not engrossed and fortified in hate, envy, jealousy and gluttony and he has not gone around attacking anyone for being an apologist for a political party. Johnson should take a lesson from Dr. Bissundyal and don’t make extraneous insertions of names to buttress weak arguments.