Berbice is watching the APNU-AFC regime with hawkish eyes

SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

Last Thursday, I was invited by the West Berbice Chamber of Commerce to attend one of its meetings. The confabulation was held in the boardroom of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Five at Fort Wellington. The Chamber suggested that I be there to hear legitimate complaints its members had and to have them highlighted in the press.

I was glad that I had that experience. It was an eye-opener for me both as a political activist, and as a student of political theory. I would be lying if I say I didn’t feel sorry for the business people who spoke to me at that event. But that experience only served to deepen my cynicism about politics and power in this land.

I also learnt at that meeting of how tragic has been racial politics in Guyana. At the meeting, there wasn’t one African face or even a businessman of mixed race; not even a Portuguese Guyanese or Chinese entrepreneur.

As I listened to the grievances pouring down on the fine, polished table around which we all sat, my mind was bombarded with thoughts of political theory – what did the PPP do for these people the past twenty-three years, the period for which it was in office and winning every General and Regional election in Guyana since 1992.

Was this a case of power contempt when power-holders know their constituents are Pavlovian respondents? This was the first time in my entire life that had I stopped at Fort Wellington.

Of course I had passed it hundreds of time on my way further up Berbice but never stopped in the area. I spoke at many APNU+AFC 2015 campaign meetings but was never on the platform in that village.

There was a conspicuous strangeness at Fort Wellington. Its immediate neighbour (to the east) is the village named Naarstigheid. No one lives at Naarstigheid. I took a look over the entire landscape. Why doesn’t the new APNU-AFC Government do something with the entire ghost village named Naarstigheid? Is it possible that no one wants to live there because of the ancient tale of Dutch jumbies (Naarstigheid is a Dutch name) that has been passed on to generation after generation in this country? I was told by one of the Chamber members that there are hundreds and hundreds of villages in Guyana where no one lives.

Before I return to the meeting, let me say boldly and unambiguously that I was given a genuinely warm reception around that table before and after the meeting. There are scores of PPP leaders, including their intellectual propagandists (chief among whom is Dr. Baytoram Ramharack who commented that I had and have no cultural background) who wrote consistently in all the newspapers that I am a Guyanese who criticizes Indian people all the time and Indian people do not like me.

This was elephantine ignorance that I have ignored over the years. It was crazy to find during the 2015 election campaign, Mrs. Sarah Punelall, the AFC’s campaign manager for the lower East Coast, saying to the AFC’s logistic office that she didn’t want me speaking in Indian areas because Indian people would not take kindly to me.

In fairness to the AFC leaders, they all rejected Mrs. Punelall’s misanalysis of the nature of Guyanese society.

The members of the West Berbice Chamber of Commerce have ventilated grievances that should have been dealt with long, long ago by the PPP Government. And they are looking at the new Guyana Government to see what its attitude will be. The people around that table have openly said to me that they want the new government to know that Berbicians are well aware that their vote will be asked for in 2020. They said that rejection of gun licence applications is hurtful. And they want answers from the APNU-AFC regime.

The room was told that Chamber members asked President Granger for a review of two rejections. The review was granted yet three months after the APNU-AFC came to power there is no communication on the outcome. It was clear to me that these people feel that crime and security are priorities for West Berbice and they want firearms for protection. Next they want police harassment to stop including unprofessional conduct among traffic ranks who they say hide in the bushes then they spring out like kangaroos on unsuspecting drivers.

The garbage has become a health menace as in Georgetown. My parting advice to them was to let their vote be their weapon and to let politicians know they have that weapon and to air their hurt in the press.