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Funny is a very, overused word. Whenever we cannot understand people, we say they are funny. Whenever we do not understand a course of action from anyone, we say it was a funny thing they did. If we find a country not in keeping with the culture we were born into, we say it is a funny place.
I was about to write that the PPP is a funny set of people. When they were in opposition, they found the WPA, GHRA, DLM, GUARD and countless citizens like Lincoln Lewis, Father Malcolm Rodrigues, people that they could embrace in struggle. The PNC is out of office, the PPP is in. And all those human beings that stood alongside the PPP and fought for free and fair elections, by some strange psychic contortion, are now bad people.
They are terrible persons for one reason only. Yes, only one reason. They were not taken to court for any criminal offence so we cannot trust them any longer. They were not frowned upon by the society for some social misconduct so we avoid them. In fact, they are the same persons they were twenty-five years ago but today they are scorned by the PPP, the reason being that they see the PPP as behaving like the very government they helped to weaken so the PPP could be free to participate and win transparent and unhampered national elections.
In my case, I have gone further than many of my colleagues from the seventies by insisting that there are forms of PPP rule that are worse than when Burnham ruled Guyana.
One evening outside Bakewell on Albert Street, I met this high-ranking PPP leader. The name of Andaiye came up. She was in the news for some critical remark she made against the PPP Government. This was in 2001. I was immediately told that she was a racist.
I took offence to that. I made the point that she was never called a racist by any PPP activist when for over twenty years she was involved in the fight against Burnham’s authoritarianism and was a trusted comrade of Cheddi and Janet Jagan and the rest of the PPP bandwagon.
One afternoon, another top leader of the PPP frowned upon Lincoln Lewis. He too was castigated as a racist. I asked why he was not seen as a racist when he was the head of FITUG, leading the fight against Burnham of which the PPP union, GAWU, was an integral part. And if he was a racist why then did he break away from the TUC to form FITUG in the eighties? He could have walked into the arms of Burnham and Hoyte.
Now Tacuma Ogunseye is regarded by the PPP elites as a racist. But when he was one of the most fearless opponents of Burnham, sent to jail by Burnham for his monumental courage, he wasn’t branded a racist then. All these fine anti-dictatorship personalities the PPP has discovered are racist now that the PPP is in power.
Are they racist or is it that the PPP has to find a classification for them because they are now condemning the gross violation of democratic principles that in their wildest imagination never believe could have happened under the very PPP that they were so comradely close to?
Donald Ramotar, in a letter in the Stabroek News, categorized me as a person that hates the PPP. Many other PPP princes echo his sentiments. They point to my relentless criticism of the PPP on this page. Before I defend myself against that charge, let me happily state that I will not apologize for what I have written about this government. The point is that I argue and prove my points.
No one from the PPP shows even an infinitesimal sign of willingness to meet the critics of the government head on. All you get from these people are broad denunciations but never a point for point reply. They cannot! They will not! So what they do? They put anonymous writers to pen the most appallingly infantile ranting against my columns that end up making the Government of Guyana look foolish with each passing day.
There cannot be another country in the world in which the government responds to exposures of its undemocratic policies by invisible writers using pen-names like the “Parrot.” I could just imagine that the person who invented that idea would have been given the most severe dressing down by Burnham.
I swear on my parents’ graves, I do not read the Parrot in this newspaper.
When senior leaders of the Government, the little kings at Freedom House and President Jagdeo open the Chronicle (assuming that he reads it; over 95 percent of the Government and PPP leadership put the Chronicle as the last of the three dailies that they read when they pick up the newspapers) and see those fictitious letters, are they not embarrassed to have such nonsense pass as defence of the PPP Government? Why don’t the PPP princes publicly confront their critics point for point rather than exclaiming that their critics hate them?
Mr. Vishnu Bisram follows Mr. Ramotar and opines that my hatred for the PPP blinds me to being objective. But which of my condemnations have I been subjective on? Do we hate the PPP because they are doing the right thing and we are chastising them wrongfully?
I adumbrated the theory of elected dictatorship in Guyana and I have consistently come up with evidence to support my conceptualization on the abuse of power.
Let us hear what Mr. Bisram has to say about the suspension of Channel 6. The details are extremely depressing. First, Mr. Sharma apologized for a caller speaking a dangerous threat. Secondly, he was upbraided by the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting. Thirdly, he agreed to purchase the delay mechanism that would allow him to monitor scandalous emanations on his station.
President Jagdeo requested him at his office. Channel 6 was suspended for four months beginning on the stroke of midnight from the day that he was summoned. This is extremely unreasonable state behaviour. No time was given to the man to arrange for his suspension.
Secondly, why as long as four months? Thirdly, since Mr. Jagdeo was the party that was offended, then he should not have been the judge in his own case. No person with democratic instinct could support the four-month ban on Channel 6 and the way it was done.
All my theories about elected dictatorship have sufficient evidence from which valid arguments can be tendered. But more than that, even if you reject my contention of elected dictatorship, what about the balance sheet of performance? How robust is this economy after sixteen years of PPP control? What about the persistent scandals, the latest one being the Bell helicopters?
For this week, where I live we had blackout three times. We can end with the fear that no citizen should have to live with–criminal violence. Yes, the US, Jamaica, Trinidad have huge surges in criminal violence. But there is a track record of arrest. How many persons are in court for the murder of “Sash” Sawh and his two siblings? Just one! Now one person has been arrested for the Bartica massacre; and one for Lusignan. Yet against this dismal record, one is accused of hating the PPP when one does what every citizen should do fault their government for the wrongs they are drowning in.

Related propagandically in one way, shape or form. [Please leave your comments below]

• Freddie Kissoon I have never claimed to be a Guyanese patriot - Dr Randy Persaud
• Snippets of memory in 2007 - Freddie Kissoon column
• Freddie Kissoon I’m more qualified, successful, honorable & sexier than you - Dr Walter Persaud
• Cheddi Jagan’s dilemma & the PPP caricature of Guyana’s history
• Nasty, racist British journalism invades Guyana - Freddie Kissoon
• Freddie Kissoon is wrong Forbes Burnham’s rule was an abomination - Moses Nagamootoo