PPP/C is settling political scores by the use of the police and the courts

I write this letter reluctantly since I had decided not to engage any actions or messages taken by the present PPP/ C government until its “honeymoon” 100 days are over. However, in light of the police shooting at protestors in Belladrum, West Coast Berbice with rubber bullets, I am forced to condemn this repressive action of the rulers.

Privately I have been saying to coalition supporters that the PPP/C is its own worst enemy and will eventually create the political conditions for its downfall. This has been my response to supporters, who raised how and when we will defeat the PPP/C. I point our comrades to what I call the “ORR” equation that states Oppression leads to Resistance and resistance leads to Revolution. As a believer in the inevitability of this social/political law, unlike many who are showing concern at the PPP/C government’s behaviour, I am actually delighted that they have chosen the path they have taken. So comrades after this letter don’t expect to hear me lamenting over the oppressive conduct of the PPP/C. My energy will instead be spent on how we are or not dealing with their oppressive actions.

It is not by accident that the Belladrum protest became bloody since this is a characteristic of PPP/C rule when facing African protest actions. The PPP/C leadership from Jagdeo to Ali, have displayed and will continue to display intolerance to African rights to protest. Even the most minor protests drive fear and bring a desperate response from the rulers. They are haunted by the memories of the 60s when US-sponsored opposition riots brought down the then PPP government. They have since 1992 reached an accommodation with the US on its terms. They don’t now see the United States of America’s past actions against the PPP/C, the way they continue to see Africans’ past actions: as unforgivable – not politics. The PPP/C leadership from generation to generation is unable to concede that African protest is a legitimate political action. Faced with the present police violence my concern is as an African community we don’t make the political mistake we did in 1992 when the PPP/C came to power and implemented its subsequent policy to teach PNCR supporters a lesson.

The above-mentioned policy was applied particularly in the Georgetown area where the police were instructed to used aggressive tactics against African protest, be it the nurses or other sections of the community. The high point of this repressive policy was the emerging of state-sponsored death squads and what I at the time called the African Armed Resistance, the latter was deemed by the rulers as criminal to mask the political aspect of the reality. That is a response to state-sponsored killings, and economic, social and political oppression. On the other hand, the state-sponsored death squads were hailed as crime fighters. We made a fundamental political mistake by our failure as a community to respond to the police killings with a firm political will to stop it. This failure gave the government space to manoeuvre. What should have been a politically organized response by our political, social, religious and cultural leadership to stop the killings, unfortunately, fell on those who were not capable of achieving the desired results. Hopefully, we have learned from our mistakes and are now more prepared.

With the coming to power of the PPP/C, the present leadership of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) seems disposed to do the bidding of that party and government.

All Guyanese regardless of where they stand politically know that the decision and timing of the police decision to prosecute Mr Clairmont Mingo and other GECOM officers are the result of political instructions from the government. For the police to deny this is a display of infantile thinking on their part. The Attorney General’s public utterances that no one should be surprised that the government is going after election riggers exposed the police leadership. While unfortunate, it was expected given the PPP/C approach to governance and the gullibility of senior officers of the police force.

One doesn’t have to be schooled in politics to know that the arrest and subsequent charges against Mingo and other GECOM officers are political. The fact that they are accused of attempting to rig the elections to deprive the PPP/C of victory is a political action and that fact is indisputable. Therefore, in simple terms, the PPP/C is settling political scores by the use of the police and the courts. Having decided to walk this road it opens the door to a major political confrontation with the opposition and the APNU+AFC constituency.

Yours faithfully,

Tacuma Ogunseye