A BIG quarrel has broken out between two silly men that belong to the past and will become fossilised as Guyana moves on. They are David Hinds and Mark Benschop.
Which one do you choose over which one? As soon as the results of the 2025 election revealed a disappearing PNC, I voiced my preference for the PNC over the majority opposition party, WIN. I still do. What choice to make now between these two men?
So, in this spat between these two wild men who do you think is the more acceptable one? I do not have a choice. I think Hinds and Benschop are enemies of African Guyanese, have consistently embarrassed the African race in this country and are two men that the African people of Guyana have discarded. If you want the evidence then look at the 2025 election results.
Benschop came out swinging at Hinds over Hinds shaking Minister Edghill’s hand. When you listen to Benschop prattling about Hinds’ mistake in shaking Edghill’s hands, he comes across as an idiot not for pouncing on Hinds but for the simple asinine fuss about a handshake. How can humans fight over the right and wrong in shaking someone’s hand.
Of course, context is everything in life and there is context in which a handshake should be refused. There are unlimited situations in which a handshake refusal is justified. No Hamas official should shake the hand of any Israeli minister or military leader. Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people.
No Hezbollah official should extend a handshake to any Israeli ministers. Israel intends to create a second line of genocide in Lebanon. The Israeli government officials and its military personnel are state terrorists that should be jailed by the International War Crimes Tribunal.
In Guyana, the refusal to respond to a handshake gesture by the President of Guyana by then Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton and by the then Mayor of Linden, Sharma Solomon, is an act of colossal stupidity. Guyana is a democratic state. The President of Guyana is a popular, elected president.
What that act of stupidity did was to make people recoil from the crass and asinine behaviour of Norton and Solomon. The electorate at the national level and in Linden rejected both Norton and Solomon. Both men were on the PNC slate for the 2025 national election and African Guyanese voted against them.
The PNC was reduced from 31 seats to 12. The moronic emphasis on the importance of rejecting a handshake was noticed by the electorate. Solomon should have resigned immediately after regional election results were made known in Linden in 2025.
He is a Linden politician who lived all his life there and was the major of Linden. Yet a disgraceful politician like Azruddin Mohamed beat Solomon in Linden.
The bravado of refusing to shake the hand of the president did not propel Norton and Sharma into the consciousness of African Guyanese. On the contrary, African Guyanese repudiated what Norton and Solomon stood for. I believe Solomon is a loser and is unfit to be in parliament.
Azruddin Mohamed probably never spent three consecutive days in his entire life in Linden. Solomon has spent his entire life there. Yet the people of Linden chose Mohamed over Solomon in 2025. I saw Dr Vincent Adams explaining to David Hinds how grannies in their night gowns rushed onto the street in Linden to see Mohamed. They never did that for the homegrown boy.
So, we come back to the question – should one choose Benschop over Hinds now that the former has pelted a jumbie lash on the latter? Here are the facts. Hinds lived and worked outside of Guyana and has returned to live in Guyana. Benschop contested the presidency in 2015, got only 112 votes and soon after left for the USA.
What moral right has Benschop to say anything negative about Guyana? The story of Mark Benschop is yet to be told. Shortly after being released from jail through a pardon by then President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, Benschop moved into a building on Thomas Street and started a foundation. He started computer classes and gave away laptops. How a man that couldn’t finance lawyers for his trial ended up getting so resourceful so quickly?
Benschop contested the 2015 election. He rented an American owned business place on Quamina Street as his campaign office paying a hefty rental. He employed a number of office staff with a fleet of vehicles. Since he was released from jail, Benschop never was employed and did not earn a salary. Where did Benschop get so much money from? One day I will reveal the source of his money in my capacity as an anti-imperialist activist. Hope you can read between the lines.

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