THE shocking disclosure by the Ministry of Home Affairs that a sinister plan is afoot by Opposition politicians aimed at creating public disorder and disharmony and destabilising the government is indeed frightening and alarming but not surprising, especially if one were to look back at our political history.

The ministry, in a statement on Thursday, said:
“It has come to the attention of the Ministry of Home Affairs that recently a Conference was held at ACDA’s Headquarters at Thomas Lands, Georgetown.
The Conference was sponsored by ACDA, the Ghana Day Committee and the Cuffy 250 Committee.
Among the participants at the Conference were David Granger, Aubrey Norton, Sharma Solomon, Carl Greenidge, Hamilton Green, David Hinds, Nigel Hughes, Lincoln Lewis and Mark Benschop.
According to reports received at the Ministry, the Conference participants heard presentations from persons above-mentioned.
According to the said reports, the presentations were laced with racial hostility towards the Government of the day, self-flagellations, attacks against the Guyana Police Force and the PPP/C Administration. Above all, the Conference formulated a series of protest actions aimed at creating public disorder and disharmony in the country.”
Among the protest actions slated were public meetings, picketing exercises, and protest walks. No assurances were given that these intended protest actions would be peaceful.
At a public meeting styled ‘Save the City’ held at the City Hall compound where a number of APNU and WPA activists were present,  David Hinds is reported to have said: “If Sooba is not removed (as Town Clerk) we will take to the streets and shut down the City of Georgetown. Get ready to fight! Get ready to battle!”
The names and the type of statements and sentiments contained in the Ministry’s release are all too familiar and are simply a regurgitation of them in different words of what were being uttered by members of the Opposition camp for some time now.
What is notable is that, during different periods of our political history, the objectives of the current Opposition remained the same, but different issues were used as the springboard to achieve their objectives.
Going back to 1953, when the PPP won a landslide victory at the first elections that were held under Adult Suffrage (one man-one vote) the Western powers in collaboration used the communist bogeyman suspending the constitution and dislodging the PPP government after it was in office for only 133 days. PPP leaders, including Dr Chedi Jagan and his wife Mrs. Janet Jagan were jailed.
By the time the next election was held in 1957, the PPP, through external and internal intrigues, was split which gave birth to the PNC led by power hungry Forbes Burnham. Again the PPP won an overwhelming victory as well as in the 1961 election, despite the anti-communist hysteria which was whipped up during this period.
The local reactionaries and their foreign bosses became furious and decided a way must be found to remove the PPP. And they did find a way. The election system was changed from First Past the Post to Proportional Representation (PR) and also another part – the United Force led by business magnate Peter D’aguiar – paving the way for the formation of a coalition government in the 1964 election. It was during 1961 and 1964 the local reactionaries led by Burnham , D’aguiar, Richard Ishmael, Dr Balwant Singh and others supported by foreign intelligence agencies and international trade union organisations unleashed terror and mayhem in their quest for political power. It was also during this period the infamous X-13 plan was hatched with its objective of exterminating PPP leaders and supporters through violence, mayhem and terror. A surviving political figure of that era who holds a leading position at City Hall today, was a major player in that plan. Today, that individual has the fortitude to speak about moral and spiritual revival.
Between 1964 and 1992 we all know the story of rigged elections, economic mismanagement, corruption, violence, murder and terror unleashed on political opponents in order to maintain political power.
Finally, when free and fair elections were held for the first time in 1992, the PPP won a convincing victory at the historic October 5 polls, despite a last ditch effort by the PNC, through orchestrated violence, to prevent the PPP from taking office.

After it failed from preventing the PPP to take office, the PNC went into its scare tactics and violence to undermine and bring down the government. Residents of Farm, East Bank Essequibo were incited and spurred on by the PNC to violently seize co-operative society lands purportedly belonging to them. Fortunately, that eventually became a damp squib.
In the 1997 election, Mrs. Jagan’s ethnicity and nationality were used as the springboard for reigning terror and mayhem on the Guyanese people forcing her to concede two years of her elected term and calling fresh elections in 2001 which the PPP won convincingly again. This time around the PNC’s song was discrimination and ethnic marginalisation. And so in 2002, the infamous February jailbreak was engineered and the criminals in collaboration with certain politicians unleashed another reign of terror, murder and violence through what was described by Opposition politicians as the Buxton resistance. Members of this gang of criminals were referred to as “freedom fighters.”

Currently, the illegal vending issue is being used as the springboard for whipping up hysteria and laying the platform for unleashing violence and terror in the Opposition’s unquenchable thirst for political power, reminding one of the old adage: “A leopard never changes its spots.”
Doing the hard work is not the Opposition’s way of gaining political power. They want to do so by short cut methods. However, they must always remember that power lies in the hands of the people and no amount of terror, violence or threat of it will ever change that.