I made the point in one of my columns that perhaps this country has produced the most barefaced humans existing on Planet Earth at the moment. Name me a country that has had a human rights organisation for the past 100 years that remained silent when attempts were made to rig the legal results of a national election, and the rigging bandwagon was on the road for five months.

So last year, I received an email (April 2022) from someone I only knew from reading about him but did not know him. I was mentally stabbed when I read the author of the email. It was Dr. Bertrand Ramcharran – Guyanese, who worked as a senior employee in a section of the UN that is officially known as the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.

On reading the email, it dawned on me that I couldn’t recall even an ephemeral presence of this fellow during the five-month election scandal. I went and researched the media and online media for anything he would have said or written on the five-month electoral degeneracy. I didn’t find anything. Here is what the email noted: “Please go lightly on GHRA. If McCormack did not do it, which local Guyanese would have the dedication to do so. Something for you to reflect on.” His correspondence was as a response to several condemnations of the Guyana Human Rights Association and its one-man directorate, Mike Mc Cormack.

For my response to Ramcharan, see my column of Thursday, June 8, 2023 titled, “Questionable scholarship.” Today, not a word is forthcoming from the GHRA on Venezuelan aggression. The same old story: silence in March 2020; silence in November–December 2023. But rest assured that the report on the Mahdia inferno is out, the GHRA will come alive. And who will bring it alive—the Stabroek News (SN).

Remember this column when the SN reinvents the GHRA after the report is made public. I cling to the belief that we have the most bare-faced people in the world in this country. Guyana’s existence was threatened between March and July 2020 and again in November and December 2023, and an organisation that has the words, “human rights” in its name chose not to voice support for the country.

That would not happen in any other nation on Planet Earth. The barefacedness takes on sickening dimensions in this country. An organisation with the words, “transparency” in its name chose not to condemn five months of election fraud, and once more, the nation’s sovereignty is threatened and this group is reticent, but this group will tell us how flawed the report into the Mahdia massacre is when the commission’s findings are released. Remember this column when that happens. Where are the usual suspects? These are people that write letters in the SN (why they abandoned the Kaieteur News is a curiosity that I would give anything to hear the explanation) condemning the oil industry and the government since March 2020.

The signatures below their missives are always large; sometimes 20, 25, or 40. This country expected each of us to denounce Venezuela, but we are expecting the people who have shown energy and persistence over a three-year period, denouncing everything the government does, to show at least a modicum of patriotism and say a few words or pen a few lines. We know who they are because their signatures have been in the newspapers consistently for over three years now. Why are the usual suspects (TUS) silent? Why did the lunatic fringe use the border controversy to blame the government? For them, it is not the country that is at stake here, but it is an opportunity to weaken the government. I will end with two examples that were extremely disappointing.

Ms. Amanza Walton Desir was on the Freddie Kissoon-Gildarie show and was angry that Vice President Jagdeo used a certain word to describe Ms. Cathy Hughes. She said everyone should denounce Mr. Jagdeo for his remark. I told her that Ms. Hughes was reckless and irresponsible to attribute a concession to Venezuela from Mr. Jagdeo that he didn’t make. She said she saw a video clip in which Mr. Jagdeo made the concession. There cannot be such a real video clip because Mr. Jagdeo never uttered those words in any forum.

Opposition personality Timothy Jonas was on the show on a different night. I asked him to comment on what Ms. Walton Desir said about Jagdeo. Jonas said maybe she believes Jagdeo said that. So you can spout any belief you have, even if it is dangerous? Aren’t some beliefs based on opportunism or delusions?