THE persecution of Acting Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, the threats to her life and fire-bombing of her home by known protagonists and felons with a history of violence and even murder – and even right now the revelations at the Rodney Commission of Inquiry are exposing the real faces of the terrorists of that era where no average Guyanese was spared the terror of those times, and underlines the fact that beast is very much alive and roaring, ready to devour everyone who gets in its way, even its own.
One of the greatest Guyanese leaders once said, inter alia: ““It is clear that we must get beyond that red herring (The call to ‘kith and kin’ and blaming the PPP for every wrong) and recognise that it is intended to divide, that it is not intended in the interest of the common African and Indian people in this country.
“Surely we have to transcend the racial problems.  Surely we have to find ways and means of ensuring that there is racial justice in this society.  But it certainly will not be done by a handful of so-called Black men monopolising the power, squeezing the life out of all sections of the working class, and turning around and expecting that they will manipulate an issue such as the Arnold Rampersaud affair and get the support of ordinary black people because we will say, ‘After all; is only an Indian. We could hang him. No sweat.’
“Because, as I said before, you start with one thing, you end with another. The system doesn’t stop at racial discrimination. Because it is a system of class oppression, it only camouflages its class nature under a racial cover. And in the end, it will move against anyone, irrespective of colour. In the end, they will move even against their own. Because, don’t believe if you are a member of that party today, that you will be protected tomorrow from the injustices. Because when a monster grows, it grows out of control. It eats up even those who created the monster. And it’s time that our people understood that.”
The only reason that Carol Sooba is being rejected by the masses in Georgetown in favour of Royston King is because of her ethnicity. Royston King has been an integral part of a municipal administrative construct that has transformed Guyana’s former Garden City into a Garbage City, where accountability is a foresworn concept, where instances of fraud were discovered at every level of administration by the Burrowes Commission of Inquiry, and subsequently by Ramon Gaskin and team; and where King himself is alleged, with charges pending, to be involved in fraudulent acts that have cost the municipality revenue losses to the tune of millions of dollars.
Conversely, Sooba is regularising the administration of the city’s business after decades, there is accountability for monies being spent, staff is being paid on time and, more importantly, the city is slowly but surely returning to a semblance of administrative orderliness.
Thus it baffles the mind why even Georgetowners, after decades of suffering under the corrupt, ineffective and lackadaisical City Council under the stewardship of Hamilton Green, whose history is known, are joining with the Green gang and baying for this woman’s head.
Events that unfolded prior to, during, and subsequent to successive PNC congresses should issue a warning bell to its supporters and they should heed Walter Rodney’s dire warning: “… in the end, it will move against anyone, irrespective of colour. In the end, they will move even against their own. Because, don’t believe if you are a member of that party today, that you will be protected tomorrow from the injustices. Because when a monster grows, it grows out of control. It eats up even those who created the monster. And it’s time that our people understood that.”
Walter Rodney paid with his life for his struggle to make all Guyanese see the real face of the beast, and unless all Guyanese honour Rodney’s sacrifice by heeding this warning, in the words of the national poet of this land, where he wrote of the then extant times “All are involved, all are consumed.”
It is time Guyanese stop fighting with each other and feeding the beast because of “kith and kin” and recognize that we are one nation whose only salvation relies on unity of purpose in slaying this beast that has been devouring the peace and progress, and inhibiting our prosperity for decades.