Last week, David Hinds announced on his podcast that on CARICOM Day (July 5), there would be a street protest on Buxton public road against the pending President’s Pension Bill.
The protest did take place. This column is published on Wednesday, and last Tuesday, today and you will see, tomorrow there will be no video clips of the protest on all the social media platforms associated with the opposition.
Online news outlet, Demerara Waves is pro-opposition with one of its investors being GHK Lall. Demerara Waves (DW) has never been sympathetic to any PPP government. But DW put the attendance at a dozen. Knowing DW, I would say that dozen was about eight persons. And among the eight would have been David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye, Kidackie Amsterdam, all three are the WPA and the WPA is these three men.
The WPA is these three persons. So, if you subtract the normal Buxton three, about five persons attended that protest. This number has important lessons for understanding Guyanese politics since 2020 when the APNU+AFC government fell. This small attendance is a large symbolism of an era long gone.
Four political incidents instruct the analyst about how to study Guyanese politics. One is when Ogunseye was arrested and charged for public racial incitement. He urged the police to violently confront the PPP. At the police station where he was booked, and at his court appearance at Vigilance, neighbouring village of Buxton, no sympathisers turned up in support of Ogunseye.
If you are from another planet and you listen to Ogunseye on social media, you would think this is a huge political activist with substantial following. This is the same man that on a social media with David Hinds last week, told social activist, Audreyanna Thomas that she doesn’t understand politics.
This is the same man last week that openly said that the only way to change things in Guyana is that African Guyanese got to “bruk up.” Yet he is singing this song for years and few persons in Guyana know who Ogunseye is.
The second incident revolves around Ogunseye’s comrade who lives in Buxton, Kidackie Amsterdam. He was charged with a similar offence to that of Ogunseye. At the station where he was charged and at his court appearance, there were no supporters. This is the very man that organised the CARICOM Day protest on Monday last.
The third incident pertains to David Hinds. In the 2025 election campaign, APNU and the PNC featured Hinds as the second front man after Aubrey Norton. For a man that appealed to African Guyanese each day over a five-year period, over a hundred thousand African Guyanese voted against Hinds, his party the WPA, and APNU.
The fourth incident occurred in Plaisance. On the last night of campaign in the 2025 election campaign, Henry Jeffrey, Hinds and Norton addressed the Plaisance village. The turnout was poor and the PNC lost votes in 2025 in Plaisance, the hometown of the APNU, presidential candidate, Aubrey Norton. Above, I noted that the pitiful turnout last Monday has enormous implications for understanding politics in Guyana today.
What these four incidents listed above indicate is that there is a changing population in Guyana that is not familiar with the politics of Guyana in the 70s, 80, 90s. They do not know about that period. Global changes, technological changes and generational changes in Guyana itself have made Guyanese into a nation that is not interested in strong man politics, race-baiting politics and politicians that appear as crazies in their eyes.
I am absolutely sure that the electorate in 2025 found David Hinds, Ogunseye and Norton, politicians that they did not understand, want to understand and were preaching a sermon that they find weird.
If you keep talking about Black People, Black people, Black people, after a while, the theme loses its appeal. And when that happens, not only the theme is rejected but the preacher himself is frowned upon.
This is what has happened to Hinds, Ogunseye, Rickford Burke, Henry Jeffrey and others. In analysing the failure of these people, the analyst must remember the words of Vice President Bharat Jagdeo at one of his press conferences shortly after the election of 2025.
He said that there were people outside that did not want to vote for the PPP but they did not want to vote for the PNC (or ANPU) either.
What this statement means is that there were substantial numbers of voters in this country that did not want David Hinds and company around. Finally, what this latest rejection (the CARICOM day protest) indicates is that Guyana will see new political parties as we come to 2030.

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.