Dear Editor

REMEMBER when, in the dead of the night and in many parts of Guyana, gun shots rang out, startling people out of their sleep? Such events left many families living in fear, their only thoughts were to run; I mean make urgent plans to run out of this country. Fear gripped Guyana and most Guyanese. For a long time this was everyday life for Guyanese.

Mothers and fathers feared for their own lives, as well as the lives of their children, especially their sons who were black. People in some neighbourhoods reported that as the numbers of those found dead escalated, many had pleaded for their lives just up to the moment their lives were brought to a brutal end. What a thing! This was a truly haunting and traumatic time in Guyanese history.

This was the reality of the day in Guyana. It stemmed from a government that saw it as it’s right to take full advantage of people and the use of lethal force, in particular against those that dared to stand up to the government or who tried to expose its lies and misdeeds. As a result, many people are still oozing from deep within their bellies from the pains and sufferings they were forced to endure during those “dark days” when the PPP so callously murdered their sons and daughters.

Most of the PPP’s 23 years in government was marred by bloodshed. Soon after taking over in 1992 and especially after the death of President Cheddi Jagan, on March 6, 1997 after he suffered a heart attack on 15 February 1997. When Jagdeo was sworn in as President on 11 August, 1999, Guyana was plunged into darkness and then began the PPP’s reign of terror.

Youth without a future
Other than killings and the instability that came from the emergence of the narco-state, there was massive youth under-employment and youth unemployment. A Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Study said that youth unemployment in Guyana was around 40 per cent. An education system in disarray, no vision for young people, and no attempt to build industries that would offer young people opportunities for a better life were just part of the problem under the PPP.

The CDB further noted that “Among the direct personal consequences of youth unemployment identified were the lack of means to support self; participation in anti-social behaviours; engaging in negative behaviours as a consequence of social exclusion, low self-esteem, hopelessness and ambivalence.” And so, as opportunities and hope for the future dried up, a cycle of crime in Guyana began that would come to destroy the lives of many of our youth.

A Crisis of Governance
As the PPP’s campaign to drive ethnic division in Guyana took hold, the realities of what this might mean for the ordinary person were being realized both inside and outside Guyana. The World Bank (2003) noted that, “Guyana is at a crossroads. It could either bounce back into high growth, last seen during most of the 1990s, or continue to slide back with the risk that too many people would be trapped in abject poverty and that the ethnic divide could give way to violent conflict, undermining the very gains that a decade of economic reform has brought.

We have yet to find an example of division and disunity driving progress, positive change and social development. On the contrary, violence, instability, reduced investment, poverty and a widening social-economic gap are typically associated with ethnic division and oppression. Guyana was no exception. The divides between the haves and have nots grew at an unprecedented rate, largely along ethnic lines. The divides grew deeper, the political violence more entrenched and culture of crime/fear was pervasive across Guyanese society.

In fact, the same World Bank report in 2003 noted that “Nowhere is the crisis of governance more evident than in the area of security. In the last two years, Guyana’s crime problem has worsened significantly, to the point where some Guyanese claim that the rule of law and the security and judicial systems have almost completely collapsed.” And today, 16 years later, it is clear that the PPP hasn’t changed its stance on crime. They have put forward a presidential candidate who himself is facing 19 criminal charges.

‘Bring the evidence’
The refusal of the PPP to investigate deaths of opposition political activists and the bloodshed at the hands of the state as the PPP government cracked down with brutal force on political protests, is perhaps the most startling indication of the PPP’s brazen disrespect for life, for security, for the rule of law and for democracy. They simply laughed it off – the PPP’s famous saying, ‘bring the evidence’ will go down in Guyanese history as one of the country’s most shameful moments.

I wonder how the family of Courtney Crum-Ewing, who was assassinated near his home in Diamond on the East Bank Demerara in the early hours of the night on March 10, 2015, feel about the PPP’s cruel ‘Bring the evidence’ taunt. Crum-Ewing was on a bullhorn appealing to residents to go out and vote for the opposition coalition in May of that same [year]. Or, what about the family of Donna McKinnon who was shot dead straight from the PPP’s very own headquarters, ‘Freedom’ House. Is it the same taunt of ‘Bring the evidence’?

This type of presumptuousness has eventually led to extrajudicial killings that exceeded 400 men and women and children. You couldn’t talk, you couldn’t even walk, without fear of reprisal. Only a state living in absolute fear of its dishonesty being exposed stoops to such extremes. Only a state not willing to be honest with its people reaches for bloodshed and murder as a solution.

There is great hope
A dossier packaging the working of crimes against humanity within Guyana; the lawlessness and racial repression and the arrogance of PPP has been documented. Though it is often said that it is not exhausted, it truly spells out as much as possible the plain murderous dishonesty of the PPP – men who now want to come back after the clung to power for 23 years, and take our country back to the past.

The audacity of such is unbearable for so many decent and hardworking men and women of this land. Under President Granger’s honest leadership, the APNU+AFC coalition has set a new direction for our country. We have come a long way and the evidence is there to show. There is still more to do and the best is yet to come through the APNU+AFC coalition, which continues to stand strong. We must continue to support this progress, we must ensure our country is never again torn apart by racial and political violence. As we approach our next elections, we have a clear choice about the kind of future we want – progress, unity and a better life under the honest leadership of David Granger.

Regards
Margaret Burke