IT seems as though politicians in Guyana could do and say anything that they think will mobilise their bases to action.

Once there is sufficient backlash and outrage, they then are forced into a corner and finally are made to apologise for it. Then, part of the society forgets and forgives them and moves on to another issue.

Never mind, the offending politician has gotten exactly what he wanted and his base is awake and finding new ways to spread dangerous messages to smaller groups of willing people who will listen attentively within their demographics.

Interestingly, the offending politician does not even face a fine, charge or investigation, or anything that signals the seriousness of the offense committed in plain view of the public.

One example of this special ilk of politician comes to mind. He is Hamilton Green who is a relic from an era long forgotten but who refuses to go with that era quietly into that ‘good’ night.

Last week, Green apologised for the offensive and hurtful comments he made at the Burnham Symposium. But then, after analyzing everything, and answers which were given to the journalist on the matter, any right-thinking Guyanese would come to the inescapable conclusion that Green didn’t offer a genuine and sincere apology because he sought to justify his comments and explain away the outrage and many negative comments it has attracted.

The former Prime Minister dealt the public another ‘diss’ when he again spoke the unmistakable falsehoods. It is designed to mamaguy the public into thinking that he is sorry or did not mean anything that he said. He wants the public to believe that he had a slip of the tongue or ‘lapsus linguae’, or may have forgotten, due to his age, what he really said.

Firstly, for the record, Green was untruthful when he said the PPP and their supporters started the chant “awe deh pon top” in the 1950s and 1960s.

Nowhere could the damaging term be found remotely in the speeches of former president Dr Cheddi Jagan or Janet Jagan, or another PPP leader during the time period. If Green could find it, he should have it published for easy reference and have himself vindicated. If he does not, he runs the risk of been called a revisionist politician or snail.

Green was untruthful again when he told the journalist that he said “nobody deserves to be ‘pon top’ and if anybody deserves it is those who toiled for years on the estate and the plantation without a cent. Others who came subsequently benefited from conditions being improved, etc. That is what I meant”.

He never ever said that or meant to say that. So, let’s be clear about that because he never alluded to “estate”. Nowhere in his diatribe, he meant or implied that all groups felt that they deserved to be ‘pon top’.

Any objective thinking Guyanese could view the tape, recording or transcript. They are all public and available.

Green’s body language and linguistics, when he uttered his now most outlandish and racial diatribe, is also worthy of being analysed.

He doubled down on harsh words used to describe the PPP governments but used similar words when critiquing their management style of the country’s resources without offering any evidence or fact.

Green should know that the words used were not only “strong…harsh” but they were wrong and unsubstantiated by facts. A good politician would not seek to justify, he or she would offer an outright and unconditional apology.

Secondly, Green knows that the public did not oppose him saying anything about “rigging elections” because solely it was said at that forum or was “imprudent”. It is wrong to say it then, now, and anytime or place in the future. Period.

It was, and is a justification of rigging! And Green meant that wholeheartedly when his comments are taken into “context” even with the “if” added to his actual statements.

Green owes the whole country a genuine and outright apology again. The politician never really said the PNC never rigged elections. He said that ‘he never rigged or supported’ the rigging of elections.

A schoolboy knows that Green is being a stranger to the truth and happily the world knows that too. Green was the prime minister during PNC’s reign when there were major allegations of rigged elections every time since 1960s right through to 1985 to stay in power.

He was not in favour of the involvement of the Carter Center here in electoral reforms which led to free and fair elections in 1992.

Just to be clear, Green played a role in telling David Granger not to give up the elections in 2020 and urging him to “…Put aside the constitution and put aside the laws…”. Essentially, he was supporting the rigging and delays that were in full swing at that time.

No PR stunt will make the public “unhear and unsee” what they saw and heard. The truth is, Green’s verbiage and rhetoric is what he means to communicate exactly. It gives insight into the mind of the characters who ruled Guyana during Green’s tenure in and out of office. It speaks to the volume of clandestine and whisper campaign racism and racial dialect that they are allowed to preach in their PNC cave to ‘their’ own.

Thirdly, the opposition leader Aubrey Norton shenanigans to try and absolve Green from responsibility for spreading racism and racial untruths about Guyana’s past is immature and politically puerile.

If elders, according to how he is viewed in the PNC, cannot be corrected when they err then what party is Norton leading. Norton was expected to say Green is wrong, respectfully and how he is going to move the party from the past behaviours to a pathway that is democratic and free from rigging.

Norton must not seek to make this about Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP/C. He must put some proverbial lashes on Green for saying what he said publicly because it could be used against the party during the upcoming elections cycle.

For the record, Green must be made to genuinely apologise and be charged or fined. It is not okay to break the laws of Guyana.

There is no protection from the laws because of one’s status or age. The government is failing to make an example out of him and to show zero tolerance for these racist and political revisionists.
Finally, Guyana now is at an important crossroad. The generation of politicians like Green are a dying ilk of people who deserve to be given their peace and quiet but if they will not take it, they must face the music and concomitant consequences if they don’t do right.

Norton like Green seems to be cut from the same visionless and divisive clothe. Their tune goes on, and changes to what it is convenient to say or do for the people’s votes. They do not care about how many people they hurt by their words and actions.

They do not care how they are viewed by the body politic in and outside of Guyana. They do not care about dignity of any ethnic group who strongly opposed the view that Burnham gave the opportunity to them to get an education.

It is politically wrong to apologise in this manner after the damage is done and unless Norton barely reject the racist ideologies spread falsely about ethnic groups in this country and Guyana’s history, he is complicit.

Green should not be listened to at any public event whether it is for the PNC party or any other event.