Dear Editor
ELDER statesman, former Prime Minister and Vice-president Hamilton Green, speaks volumes of truth in his captioned piece, “Letter writers need to do more research”, Guyana Chronicle, October 3, 2019.

It is a position for which there is consensus ad idem, for I have always argued that letter writing should be avenues for sparking public debate, irrespective of political affiliation/ethnicity, in which honest, verifiable facts should be presented to support view-points. It can only lend, with the passage of time, to further engagement for a better understanding of the problems which confront a society as politically polarized as ours.
Unfortunately, we are daily being inundated with letters of a particular point of mission, written by mostly mischievous-minded persons, consistently distorting historical facts, using even both subtle and open racist views, as their base, in attempts to present a certain mental frame. These people are not about fair and objective debate through public correspondence; they are about a dangerous type of communication with portents of an incendiary type. In fact, to echo the grand man’s description they indeed “constitute a danger to society and in particular, the young generation who may be unaware of our history and our place among the “Nations of the World.”

Of course, there is all the truth in such a statement, especially given the fact of our deeply polarized society, where these poison pen letter writers responses to their political leaders, and their cohorts, betray a gullibility that is taken advantage of, by their political party, because of a mostly listening constituency. Facebook offers a rather frightening example of this status quo.

But back to the major thrust. For these national miscreants, research is not done, for there will be no evidence found, which will support their lies and fraudulent arguments about the extant situation in their country. The fact is that – genuine research challenges their blatant lies and falsifications. It is a light which their weak and dishonest pens, studiously avoid; for it would mean having to abandon contrived falsehoods which are their self- sustenance of mental security.

Even the “new breed of experts in the Constitution, oil, gas and governance’’ debate, fall into the described category above, beginning with what have been frantic attempts to influence a particular deceptive and dishonest political end of distorting the CCJ’s decisions to make the government look bad. But these ‘experts’ have not enhanced themselves, or their legal training in any positive manner; except in the public judgement of the vilest period of legal dishonesty in this country’s legal history, ever seen.

The same goes for those, oh, ‘oil and gas experts’ – the overnight graduates who became sudden authorities in this discovered sector that promises so much, for a better Guyana. Rather than use their criticisms as a guide and advice for an administration now beginning to establish infrastructure for this industry, what the nation witnessed, and still do, have been bombardments designed to prove the government incompetent and incapable of managing such an industry. Of course, they are all part of the political opposition’s band wagon. Even the signing of the early contract with Exxon, and the giving out of oil blocks by the Donald Ramotar regime, in its final days, at a time when such an action ought not to have occurred, have been the victims of clever obfuscations, through dishonest arguments via letters.

But, Editor, one must take notice of the fact that these dishonest letter writers are also helped along, by the absence of fact checks. I fully support Mr Hamilton Green’s observation.
Regards
Earl Hamilton