MY wife and I were engaged last Sunday in our traditional Parika market rendezvous. A woman came up to me and said: “Mr. Kissoon, yuh get old, I been reading you in de newspaper since I was young.” We all get old. I began my newspaper career in the Stabroek News and Catholic Standard in 1988. I was young then.
In those long years of column writing, I have never been prouder than the headline I am using here for this piece. I am happy that I am still writing columns, so I have the opportunity of penning the headline for this article. I am deeply committed to my support for the liberation of the Palestinian people so they could get what Guyanese got in 1966.
In that year, Guyana became the property of no one else except Guyanese. We owned the 83 thousand square miles, and we decided who will elect, which buildings we will construct, and which country we will trade with. This land named British Guiana was owned by our indigenous peoples. The White man told us that an Italian named Christopher Columbus discovered the West Indies. This despicable narrative was forced down our throats. He didn’t discover anything. He was a predator. People were happily living in the West Indies before Columbus left Italy.
The Indigenous people had their lands taken away from them by the imperialism of Western European empires. They brought slaves to work in Guyana, then indentured labourers and it was only in 1966 that the Indigenous people, the descendants of slaves and indentured labourers took control of Guyana.
At least we got back control. The Palestinians are still to have their territory. Their lands have been confiscated by the Jewish state of Israel, and a system of apartheid has been imposed on them. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers are erasing the lands that belong to the Palestinian people and taking them for themselves. In Gaza, the Jewish army has killed over 100,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children.
In the Guardian newspaper of the UK, there is a column that all Guyanese should read titled, “In Gaza, we’re seeing horror unfold with global powers’ support,” written by Ahdaf Soueif. This is good stuff about the minds of the Western leaders that do not stop trying to fool us about democracy in their countries. In the opening paragraph of this commentary, I referred to my long years in the newspapers.
In my long years of political activism, one of the most irritating moments I experienced was what I read from the present Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana. He said democracy rests with the Guyanese people, and they should use that democracy to get their government to accept the EU Observer Election Report for 2025.
Where does democracy reside in Canada and in Western countries? Why is there no observer mission from Canada and Western countries in Gaza? Why do the peoples of the West not use their democratic entitlements and reject their leaders that continue to send economic assistance and military aid to Israel? This is a country that practises apartheid and commits genocide. Soueif’s headline referred to Gaza’s horror of having the support of global powers, which includes Canada. I humbly ask the Canadian High Commissioner to stay out of Guyana’s sovereign affairs.
Who or what is this country named Israel that, in the West, its citizens cannot criticise Israel for its genocidal violence in Gaza? In no Western country can you use the phrase; “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Do you know the father of the current Foreign Minister of the UK has written one of the major Marxist texts that was used in most universities in the 1970s? It was compulsory reading for us in Dr Perry Mars’ politics class at UG when I was his student. It is Ralph Miliband, “The State in a Capitalist Society.” How does the younger Miliband feel about his father’s work?
Israel is a country of a mere 8000 square miles, as an infinitesimal part of Guyana. Israel is no credible country in the international system. It is a poor, barren land that is virtually kept alive by Western aid. Israel is no India. India is no Pakistan. Israel is no Singapore. Israel is no Malaysia. Israel is no France. Israel is no Indonesia.
So why can’t Western citizens criticise Israel? Why can’t citizens of Western countries say: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” without fear of victimisation as what happened to the American rapper, Makesmore who said in his concert that Palestine will be free? It is time Iran teaches Israel a lesson.
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.