From the time I entered politics by being a PPP polling agent for the 1968 election, I have remained active in social activism plus you have to add my 35 years in journalism. The thousands of complaints I have received over those long decades have taught me valuable lessons of life.|

The head of an American delegation now in Guyana to look into alleged state wrongs, Ms. Haigler, needs to understand those lessons. They make you better equipped to understand people and life in general. I was minding my own business on the bandstand section on the seawall last Tuesday evening as I watch my dog search the grass.
A gentleman came up to me and asked if he can talk about his complaint. He said he would like to know where the money is going from all the charges people have to pay for parking on the seawall. I responded angrily because he was talking nonsense. No one on Planet Earth knows the Georgetown seawall more than me. You do not have to pay for parking there.
These are the kinds of things I have encountered from people as a public figure my entire life. Politicians and journalists hear these things every day. You just don’t run with the lamentations people give to you because they can have a billion negative and personalised reasons for making complaints.

Ms. Haigler said that she got complaints about wrong things in Guyana. Here are her words: “We have received numerous concerns.” There are a whole lot of questions this lady has to answer and if anyone in Guyana is going to have a conversation with her, they have to engage her on these opaque dimensions.
1-Who are the people that raised these concerns? Are there Guyanese living in the US or in Guyana?
2-Did these people offer evidence? If they did not was it not commonsensical to ask for the evidence?
3-Did Ms. Haigler and her team compile a dossier and was the dossier based on solid evidence or hearsay?
4-How extensive is the knowledge of Guyana by Ms. Haigler and her team? Are they aware of the sociological motifs that separate the major ethnic groups in terms of career options? For examples, African Guyanese seek occupational directions that are different from Portuguese, Indians and the Mulatto/Creole class.
If you are going to research political, racial and cultural divisiveness in a nation, it cannot be based on complaints you receive from individuals. The lamentations have to lead you to research and investigate. Then such documentation is presented to the political leadership of the country you are going travelling to. Did Ms. Haigler and her group go into this pathway? If the answer is no, then she and her group are arrogant and should be brought down to earth.

Ms. Haigler herself admitted that a factor in the decision to come to Guyana was the presentation of opposition figures like Messrs. Roysdale Forde and David Patterson and Cathy Hughes. Based on what these three personalities had to say, did Ms. Haigler research the politics of these three persons? That is a commonsensical necessity.
In the opening paragraphs, I mentioned my personal experience with grievances I have received over decades. As soon as I get the complaint from a businessman, I do my research to ascertain his track record. And I can tell you, some of these people that complain to you are unsavory souls looking for sympathy from journalists and politicians.
Ms. Haigler may believe that she is convincing people when she says she never met Rickford Burke but she is not. The point is not meeting Burke. The point is the indirect role of Burke and here now is the indirect role of Burke. Ms. Haigler’s mission has a visible determinant in Hakeem Jeffries.

Mr. Burke clearly serves the political purpose of Jeffries because Jeffries’ constituency has a visible African-Guyanese presence in Brooklyn. Jeffries and Burke have a mutual understanding. Burke campaigns for Jeffries in Brooklyn and Jeffries will raise concerns about Burke’s complaints about Guyana.

Finally, I have a basket full of questions for the delegation which I will publish shortly. I know the team as a matter of research necessity has to read the Guyana newspapers, so I hope they invite me based on my queries in this column. For now, I will start with the most pertinent one.

Even if the Guyana trip was agreed upon before October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel, based on Israel’s genocidal conduct the past three weeks for which it may soon face warrants from the International Criminal Court, shouldn’t the delegation have gone to Israel first before Guyana?