GUYANA is a Paradise-like country. Except for some occasional minor flooding, it has no natural disasters, but abundant natural resources and breathtaking beauty, with a variety of natural wonders to rival, and even surpass, glorious landmarks in the rest of the world.But Guyana is plagued with one unrelenting curse; that is, politicians currently in the opposition, who are vainglorious, unpatriotic, so very relentless in their quest for power that they do not care if they destroy the country and the lives and standard of living of their constituents. The Chronicle will revisit one of their continuums of anti-national forays that left death and destruction in its wake.

This, it is hoped, will alert their supporters not to be swayed anymore by the travesty they present as leadership, and be persuaded to act rashly as a result of the Opposition combo’s fault-finding, with one objection after another, on spurious grounds, to the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney.

The following is meant to act as a timely reminder that it is not the political opportunists, but their supporters, who suffer from the combined opposition’s relentless, opportunistic politics.

In 2012, the Opposition, in collaboration with private media practitioners, riled up the Lindeners to begin a protest, buttressed by bussed-in criminal elements. They were aware, as the Chronicle had warned, that it would escalate into criminal action, which was the opposition’s intent, as always; and there is great suspicion on who really caused the deaths of the three Linden protesters, because those deaths suit the time and historically proven agenda of the Opposition.

Certainly, the Government could and would not wish such an eventuality, for fear of consequencing just such actions as precipitated by those deaths.

During the budget debate, the Government had acceded to Granger’s menu of measures as conditions for supporting the new electricity tariff structure for Linden, a necessity acknowledged years ago by even Burnham; so, essentially, the PNCR/APNU configuration recognised the need for this gradual weaning away from a subsidised energy sector in Linden.

Immediately after, piqued at being sidelined by the APNU in these talks, the AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo — mainly because of political adventurism, opportunism and expediency — ran to the mining community and began agitating the anger of the Lindeners by misrepresenting the terms of the new tariff arrangement, and telling Lindeners that the PNC and Granger were selling them out.

To protect the turf of the PNCR, Granger immediately reneged on the agreement with Government, and rushed down to the community to compete with the AFC in trying to convince the Lindeners that the PNCR had not abandoned them. And because they could not stem the tide of the misinformation that the AFC had fed the community about the proposed tariff restructuring, the APNU went along with the AFC’s call for that community to start a protest, which, in any case, fitted in with the PNCR’s traditional agenda of destabilization and destruction to impede the PPP/C administration’s governance of the country. The rest is history.

What happened in Linden is to be blamed squarely on the AFC and PNCR/APNU leadership, and on their satellites in the NGOs and private media, which displayed absolutely no sense of responsibility nor remorse over what they had foreknowledge would occur subsequent to their inflammatory rhetoric, as they — as one AFC leader put it — continued to “rile up” the members of that community.

There are many villages in rural areas that have many pressing needs in various areas that they consider of vital importance. In some instances, roads are impassable, and youths have no recreational facilities and so get into bad practices. These villages also have a security dilemma that causes sleepless nights, as people have to stay awake in turns, fearful of the predatory armed bandits rampaging all over the country, with no one knowing when again they will strike, or who will be their next victim, as in the case that caused the protest in Albion.

Yet Lindeners — whose roads are paved and drainage and irrigation concerns have been addressed to the optimum; whose needs the Government has been continually trying to meet in various ways and forms since 1992, subsidising practically everything in that community, especially with the provision of practically free electricity that provides them with no motivation to conserve, resulting in that tiny community consuming in excess of three times the amount of electricity used by the entire rest of the country — can destroy all the facilities; private and public property; rob, assault and victimise law-abiding citizens; and attack ranks of the police force; and at the end be rewarded with even more goodies, as a result of opposition-called-for CoI, the findings of which they eventually rejected, as is their wont to do when faced with the unpalatable truth of the consequences of their actions.

After years of a large chunk of the national budget going to subsidise free electricity for Lindeners, which started when that community was really depressed and needed much infusion of resources in other ways to upgrade the lives and living conditions of its residents, the Government felt it was time to regularise the electricity rates, and gradually bring it in line with those being paid throughout the rest of the country, on a staggered basis to minimize the impact to the community.

The rates proposed was no real increase up to a usage of 50 kilowatts; and many persons in the rest of the country use less than that on a monthly basis. Any usage additional to that would incur a rate of $50 per kilowatt, which is still much less that the rate paid by the average consumer. This, as a start, was basically a mechanism to encourage conservation; because if there was no wastage, then their bill would still have been negligible; but their protest was to ensure that there are no limitations placed on their consumption, which is unsustainable for a country such as Guyana.

No country in the world, not even the most developed ones, provides free electricity to its citizens, because there are involved tremendous cost factors that no economy can absorb and sustain.

The shooting incident that followed is highly suspect, given the PNC’s history of strategising violence in this country, with destroyed lives of supporters being considered by all Opposition leaders as “collateral damage”.
Yet, in spite of the Government’s many concessions, mainly in efforts to stop the suffering of the innocent, including hinterland dwellers and businesses who were being deprived of vital commodities essential for their survival, among which is the restoration of free and unlimited use of electricity to Linden, along with other goodies, the atrocities being committed by the Linden ‘protesters’ continued unabated; and even escalated, as did the demands made on Government.

The rules of engagement were changed daily by the joint Opposition.

The actions of the Opposition protesters destroyed private and public property; caused much suffering and loss to hinterland communities and the business community; drove the national economy into a downward spiral; and produced great trauma to Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese supporters of the PPP/C who live in that community, with Lindeners like Phillip Bynoe becoming the latest victims — like Buxtonian Idris Chester was — as voices of reason and conscience were being silenced.

Part of a Government release stated: “Guyanese deserve to know the facts of what really transpired in Linden, and it is time that the people of our nation know exactly who the agents of division in our society are.

“The campaign of dividing our people along ethnic lines is nothing new in Guyana; and even today, the scars of past events still haunt all our people, but Guyana has made significant strides since then, and despite the efforts of a group of extremists who appear to be hell-bent on always coming up with a racial dimension to each and every single aspect of decisions undertaken by the PPP/C Government, the party remains confident and proud of its record and the role it has played in that, whereas despite numerous and constantly evolving challenges, it has been successful in working to create that environment which facilitates the improvement in the standard of living of citizens all across our nation.

“It is against this backdrop that the PPP calls on all Guyanese to condemn the actions of these individuals, who are seeking to destroy all our hard work as a people, all our achievements to bridge what has served to divide us in the past; every single perception which we have worked to dispel, and all the gains we have made in racial harmony are now at stake because of the misguided and reckless actions of a few.

“The party wishes to state that much has been made by these elements, especially racial connotations about the fact that senior officials of the PPP/C Government have not visited the scene of the protests.

“ The public, however, needs to be reminded that not one of these individuals condemned their colleagues in the AFC and APNU for encouraging the protestors in the early stages of threatening to kill the Prime Minister of Guyana, Hon. Samuel Hinds, as was clearly spelt out on one of their placards during a demonstration.

“Despite this fact, Prime Minister Hinds, who is responsible for the electricity sector, journeyed to Linden, where his visit was rebuffed at the instigation of the Opposition through the protesters.

“It is most surprising that even the Opposition has now turned around and is questioning Government for not visiting the scene of the protests; and at the same time, they are supporting the continuation of the actions of the extremist fringe, who are blocking the various access roads to Linden, and also vital roadways inside the community itself; digging up roads and placing logs across roads to halt any traffic; attacking and robbing persons attempting to navigate their way either to the capital city or back to the hinterland, or extorting some for safe passage through the township.

“The PPP has, however, noted that the large majority of Lindeners do not support the actions of the protesters, led by the APNU Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon; and against this backdrop, fully supports the growing calls — the latest being from the Private Sector Commission — for the Joint Services to clear all obstacles hindering the smooth and safe passage of persons and vehicles inside the community, as the current situation is not in keeping with a ‘peaceful demonstration.’

“The party also supports the decision of President Donald Ramotar to visit and engage with Lindeners when these blockades would have been removed.

“This is not the first occasion Lindeners have voiced concerns over various issues, and Guyanese would recall, in the past, that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government has been more than willing to interact and work along meaningfully with the mining town to address their concerns.

“The party reaffirms its commitment to the people of Linden through its policies and programmes at the level of central Government, as with every other community in Guyana, to constantly and consistently work to improve the standard of living of all our people.”

When former President Jagdeo warned that an aspiring president of this country has ‘blood on his hands’ and would take this country decades back through violent strategies if he does not get his way, he was severely criticized; as was the Chronicle when it warned that the Opposition’s inflammatory rhetoric could incite confrontations that would lead to deaths, destruction and mayhem in Guyana; especially in light of a mad columnist’s constant call for an “Arab Spring” in Guyana; and constant calls for a revolution by elements in the joint Opposition.

As usual, the GHRA makes statements only on behalf of criminals, because while it was strident in its condemnation of the Chronicle, it was loud in its silence of the Opposition’s destructive actions; and one wonders where the conscientious Roman Catholic bodies and NGOs so conscious of racial verbiage were, as well as the international community. Or would it suit all their purposes for a massacre of one community to decimate PPP supporters to the extent that next elections the Opposition would have a cakewalk into Government?

Once more, the farce is being played out, but instead of free electricity to Lindeners, the Rodney Commission of Inquiry is being made into the issue in this instance, with the usual suspects objecting on their various spurious grounds, and pontificating on every possible ground – all nebulous and groundless — in efforts to cause dissension and eventual mayhem in the nation once more.

Guyanese, even supporters of Opposition parties, should be warned, and not allow themselves to be made once more into ‘collateral damage’ by an unpatriotic and opportunistic opposition combo.