EACH time I see a front-page story in the Stabroek News (SN) about a press release by the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), I think about two things – the absolute barefacedness and double standards of some people in this country who bad-mouth the Government of Guyana daily as a Pavlovian reaction.

Secondly, I think of an email I will always remember. It was from Dr Bertrand Ramcharran. He asked that I ease my criticism of Mr. Mike Mc Cormack. One week after Kidackie Amsterdam was charged with complicity in violent incitement against the President and three Cabinet ministers, McCormack is still silent but found time to issue a press release about the newly formed constitution commission and SN featured it.

You are in disagreement with the government’s way of governing and you condemn the government relentlessly, and in your chastisements you hope and, in fact, want the government to change course. However, what makes you think you will change the government’s attitude when the government sees you as a hypocrite, whose activism is riddled with double standards?

Vice-President Jagdeo’s recent words should be a colossal indication of how the government feels about the integrity of its critics. Mr Jagdeo intoned that every little detail about the PPP and the government is met with criticism, but when venalities and immoralities occur in the PNC, the anti-PPP critics are not seen and heard.

I have argued tirelessly that detractors of the PPP government are doing a disservice to the people of Guyana because their pronouncement will fail to achieve the results they want because the ruling party sees them as people who lack credibility. Every country welcomes an opposition, an independent press and a robust civil society sector.

The citizenry feels that there must be social actors that can press the government for changes and in the absence of such actors, government, then, has limitless latitude to do want it wants. The irony here is that these actors become failures if instead of keeping the government on its toes, they become relentless and irrational condemners of any and everything the government does.

This is what we have in Guyana today. Which government will listen to a group of civil society actors who concludes that oil production is bad for the climate and Guyana should come out of it? Which government is going to take the country’s trade union council seriously, when its head demands that murder charges be dropped against an accused charged with the alleged murder of 20 persons?

Which government is going to take the GHRA seriously while in the midst of a violent incitement against the president and three of his ministers, the GHRA finds time to issue a press release about constitutional reform? When Rickford Burke is alleged to have urged people to run PPP leaders off the road, there was absolutely no reaction from civil society.

To date, there has been absolutely no condemnation of the alleged advocacy of violence against the government by Tacuma Ogunseye. Even before the matter became sub judice, civil society groups chose not to utter even one word. But Red Thread issued a press release about threats against it and the usual suspects became ballistic.

In what remains one of the most colourful manifestations of asinine politics in Guyana in recent memory, Red Thread cried out that one of the leading businessmen has sent a hitman in a white Toyota car to harm Red Thread and attack the US Embassy. In its press release, Red Thread admitted that it does not know the businessman and have never ever mentioned anything about him.

Commonsense could have instructed Red Thread that if you do not know the man why he would want to harm you. Red Thread publicly stated that it got the warning from a personality who goes under the pen name, Guyanese Critic, who denied it. This was comedy that was hilarious because Red Thread wanted the police to investigate the so-called threat. One day after the cry of Red Thread, the usual suspects were incensed and as they usually do, published a long letter in the SN urging the police to investigate and for society to protect Red Thread.

This very Red Thread, along with the GHRA was silent and remained silent when Ogunseye is purported to have urged violent removal of the government. This very Red Thread along with the GHRA and their acolytes in civil society were silent when the Kidackie Amsterdam incident made the headlines. As anticipated, the infamous usual suspects will soon publish another letter condemning a minister for not saying good morning to the cashier at the supermarket.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.