I DO not reply to anonymous people attacking real citizens. It is one of the most self-degrading acts a human could descend to. Imagine you working next to someone in the same building, they write derogatory things about you, and they laugh every day at you because you reply to someone you don’t know and the next day that person greets you.
I had that unfortunate experience with Peeping Tom when we both penned articles at Kaieteur News. An anonymous name is only logical when the person could face danger for whistle-blowing.
I use every opportunity to respond to known and real detractors of mine because my policy is every paragraph you compose people learn. So, in Kaieteur News, Rajendra Bissessar attacked me for defending the President’s farm. He cited four columns of mine. In fact, I did five; repetition here would take up valuable space.
I take an ideological position that working class social activists that reached the pinnacle of state power, the state should provide for their future when they leave because unlike the West, leaders in the Global South do not have the kind of resources for their future that we see in Western leaders. Most American presidents were wealthy when they entered politics. After retiring, Barack Obama built an enormously expensive private residence.
Bissessar’s letter advocates watchdog bureaucracy— the kind Europe has, which Bissessar believes stops Western leaders from getting rich.
It is a sad case of people like him who spend decades in politics and know not that a damn thing about how the world works. It was Dr Cheddi Jagan who in the 1970s brought to Guyana, a Marxist concept that is powerful and profound.
That concept argues that ultra-leftists and ultra-Marxist activists eventually end up supporting imperialism. Guyana should thank Dr Jagan for transmitting that efficacious paradigm to Guyana because we have seen it in Guyana. Leading the way is Martin Carter followed by Rupert Roopnaraine and Henry Jeffrey, and includes people like Nigel Westmaas among others. They were all radical ultra-Marxist.
Bissessar, since I have known him decades ago, always proclaims himself to be a socialist and writes publicly in support of Marxism. But look how in his letter attacking me, he embraces the subliminal penetration of the colonial mind by European imperialism.
He believes that there are anti-corruption mechanisms in Europe to stop enrichment by ruling politician. Bissessar does not read widely. If he did, he would have seen how Barbadian PM, Mia Mottley dealt with corruption in Western countries.
Here are the words of Bissessar about Western leaders: “No President or Prime Minister in the West were impoverished before achieving their status. Most, if not all, were independently rich.” What a stupid fellow! What an ignorant man! If they were rich, what happened to their wealth when they became president or prime minister? The answer is they kept it so they were wealthy business people when they were heads of government.
The incontrovertible fact is that President Ali, just like the rich European leaders, had his farm before he was president. The Western leaders did not give up their richness that Bissessar noted that they came into office with. So, what is the fuss about Ali’s farm? Space is about to run out so I want to end this commentary on accountability in Western countries that is a fake and non-existent.
The last time a Guyanese political activist spoke about countries in the Global South having no checks and balances that you find in the West was Kian Jabour on the Freddie Kissoon Show. Like Bissessar, this is sad colonial thinking. All those checks and balances are to fool Global South peoples as they have fooled Jabour and Bissessar.
Where are the checks and balances in the West when it comes to covert operations by every Western country including Canada that we in the Third World thinks is more democratic than EU nations and the US. Almost 100 percent of the people of the West do not know what their security agencies are doing in both the domestic ambience and on foreign soil.
None of the parliamentarians in the EU countries and in the US House of Representatives and American Senate are given information on the nasty things intelligence agencies do to citizens.
The former daughter-in-law of Robert Kennedy, whose son is the US Secretary of Health, wrote that she was a former CIA operative that was involved in killing people in the Middle East.
The British people do not have a clue what MI6 does in foreign lands. Do you know most European countries have Mossad agents working in the local intelligence service? Where is European bureaucracy that makes European governments accountable to prevent them from supporting genocide? Finally, can Bissessar name which Western country has an independent judiciary? Ask Julian Assange
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.
