I HAVE lived in Guyana and studied Guyanese society for a long time now, so much so that I can make predictions about political behaviour. The title of my commentary for Wednesday, August 30, 2023 was “Remember this column after the Mahdia report.”

In that article, I made the point that the usual suspects (TUS) were silent on the April 2023 release of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the March 2020 national elections. It has become one of the most important commission reports in the history of both colonial British Guiana and independent Guyana.

It is a scary document about collusion between elements in GECOM, the police force and the two main opposition parties – PNC and AFC- to undermine the legitimate results of the election, a conspiracy that lasted five months and catapulted Guyana onto the world stage. In no democracy in the modern world, results take five months (not five days or five weeks) to be announced.

Any civil society group that wanted respect from the society could not have failed to alert society to the contents of that report. Not one civil society organisation even uttered one word about the report. Included in the list are organisations that basic decency would demand that they address the society on the contents of that report. Some of these are Transparency Institute Guyana, Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and Red Thread.

There is this gentleman of Guyanese birth, Dr. Bertrand Ramcharran, who has become a columnist with the Stabroek News. He once worked in the Human Rights Commission of the UN. He wrote me to advise that I should temper my criticism of the GHRA. I responded by telling him things and I am absolutely sure he is aware that the GHRA was absent in the fight for free and fair elections in 2020. Dr. Ramcharran has to know that the GHRA has not pronounced on the contents of the 2020 election report.

In that column of August last year cited above, I predicted that as soon as the Mahdia report was out, the TUS would rush to condemn it and Guyanese will see a damning letter in the Stabroek News. Here is what I wrote back then: “If after 2 weeks there is no such letter, I will stop writing for the Chronicle because it meant I didn’t know these people at all. I will win. I know them at a very deep analytical level.”

So I don’t have to stop writing because I won the moral bet. In less than two weeks after publication of the Mahdia report, TUS have published a letter chastising the Commission’s work. But there is a comical dimension to the letter. It has only 11 signatures. Always the missives from TUS have between 20 to 40 signatures.

There wasn’t only the diminution of numbers but new inclusions which are interesting. The list includes politician, Dr. Vincent Adams, who sits on the executive committee of the Alliance For Change. In March, 2024, it will be four years since the attempts to rig the 2020 general elections and Adams is still to comment.

Added to the list is GHK Lall. The less said of him the better. But rumours have been swirling around since 2022 that GHK Lall and Glen Lall will enter a third party in the 2025 election. Something is not right within the fortress of TUS. From 40 to 11 is a terrible decline. Before we comment on the possible reason for the diminishing numbers let us see who is missing in action.

Some essential members of the Mulatto/Creole class are not there. Among them: Dr. Nigel Westmaas, Dr. A. Trotz, Dr. Percy Hintzen, Isabelle DeCaires, Simone Mangat-Jolly, Karen De Souza. A friend of mine, Gerald Perreira told me that I can go public with his withdrawal of his name from a letter by TUS on November 13, 2020 in the Stabroek News which called for the cessation of oil production.

Gerald said up to this day, he does not know how his name got onto the list of signatures. I keep reminding readers and Guyanese at large about that particular missive of TUS. In its advocacy for the stoppage of oil production TUS stated quite clearly that greenhouse emissions kill African people. That was the only race of people that was specifically mentioned.

So why the sharp decline in signatures? Credibility of course. Many of them know they have lost credibility in and out of Guyana. Guyanese think they are an extremist, hate-filled, anti-government bandwagon. When people see this picture of you, they know who you are and your message fails.