Cricket commentator, Ian Bishop, has given journalism and perhaps in fields other than journalism, especially in politics and sports, an exclamation that has become iconic. Just in case you are not a cricket fan, here is the history. In the 2016 T20 World Cup in India. West Indies needed 19 runs to win in the last over. Carlos Braithwaite struck four consecutive sixes to win the match.

The commentator at the time was from the Caribbean, Ian Bishop. The effervescent broadcaster shouted to the world: “Remember the name! Remember the name!” From thereon, other cricketer broadcasters have kept the utterance alive and it has slipped into common parlance.

I am now going to apply the iconic shout to both journalism and political analysis. The publication, “Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the General and Regional Elections of Guyana on 2 March, 2020” was released in April 2023. The report constitutes one of the most important documents in Guyana’s political history.
No book on Guyana’s political evolution will be complete without reference to it. It is a priceless publication in understanding the travails of this nation that impacted traumatically on Guyana in the post-Independence period. April is six months ago, and to date, not one civil society group has made a statement on the contents of this report. The list includes the Guyana Human Rights Association; Transparency International – Guyana Chapter; Red Thread; the Oil and Gas Network, the Bar Association among others.
There has been no newspaper letter from the usual suspects with their 40 signatures commenting on the horrifying evidence the report listed in the attempts to rig the 2020 poll. There has been no response from a man named Sydney King, AKA, Eusi Kwayana, who writes on everything in Guyana from his niche in California.

Missing in action is the co-owner of Stabroek News, Isabelle DeCaires; Melinda Janki, Christopher Ram; Dr. Percy Hintzen, among others. Dr. Alissa Trotz has not featured the commission’s findings in her column, In The Diaspora. I suppose it may have been done but left “In The Dustbin.”
Please note the title of my column for Wednesday, August 30, 2023. It is captioned, “Remember this column after the Mahdia report.” In that commentary, I asked readers to note the prediction I am making. It is that while the names above did not offer any thoughts on the election report, these very names will jump over each other to make known their feeling on the findings of the commission that is currently probing the fire and massacre at Mahdia.

Remember this column in which I am predicting again that all those names enumerated above, will rush to judgement and criticize the Mahdia findings. Wait and you’ll see how profound my knowledge of these people is.
So what did the election report pronounce on in relation to Roxanne Myers? Please note- Ms. Myers is in front of the courts and I will stay away absolutely and completely from any comment on those court cases. I have consulted three lawyers for this column and they told me I have every right to quote from anything the election commission published because it is an official state document. I have been advised by same to stick meticulously to what the commission pronounced on.

1- “On a report that a bomb being placed on Ashmin’s building, Myers told party agents, observers and diplomats, “Y’all get out the room. There is a bomb in the building.” But she herself never left the building.”
2- “On the 4th of March, Myers took a decision to limit the number of political party agents and observers for the ascertainment and tabulation process. This was a unilateral decision by Myers taken as an administrative measure, for no justifiable reason but intended to limit the number of witnesses to GECOM’s ascertainment and tabulation procedures.”
3- “In the absence of Regional Officer, Mingo, Myers arrogated unto herself the authority to continue the ascertainment and tabulation procedures.”
4- “Myers appears to have selected GECOM staff to conduct that process and, apparently, unilaterally decided to continue the process for sub-district East Bank Demerara when at the close of tabulation on the 3rd March, 2020, the Georgetown district was being examined.”
5- “Myers seemed to have developed an obsession with getting party agents, observers and others out of the room. We believe that the bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax was a contrivance, an artifice created by persons bent on manipulating the outcome of the election.”
If Sydney King AKA, Eusi Kwayana was living in Guyana, I would have kept a vigil outside his home to make sure he gave me a response to the election report.