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guyanatimesgy.com
wednesDAY, february 11, 2015
Views Editor: Nigel Williams Tel: 225-5128, 231-0397, 226-9921, 226-2102, 223-7230 or 223-7231. Fax: 225-5134 Mailing address: 238 Camp & Quamina Streets, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, sales@guyanatimesgy.com
Editorial
What David Hinds said and meant
O
pposition politician Dr David Hinds is quoted in a section of the media as urging APNU to campaign harder in “East Indian communities”. Hinds is also reported as saying that it was easier to make a strong case to Afro-Guyanese to support an Indo-Guyanese Presidential Candidate rather than to Indo-Guyanese to vote for an AfroGuyanese. Hinds reportedly argues that the ruling PPP/C could lose the elections if APNU again focuses its attention on electioneering in East Indian communities in the hope of capturing another 30,000 to 40,000 votes, while leaving the AFC to win another 10,000. Hinds, who is a seasoned WPA Executive Member, made those pronouncements during an interview where he appeared to be expressing concern over the failure so far of the PNCR-led APNU and the AFC to agree to a pre-election coalition in time for the May 11 elections. But there are many questions that arise when one looks carefully at the comments attributed to Hinds. Firstly, he appears to be suggesting that Indo-Guyanese are more racist than Afro-Guyanese when he makes his surmise that they are more likely to support their own. Hinds does this despite the fact that East Indians participated in every single elections in Guyana’s pre- and post-independence history, despite Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte rigging elections. Secondly, Hinds makes that distasteful assumption despite the fact that Janet Jagan was elected President of Guyana by a voting population that included Indo-Guyanese, and she was anything but Indian. Is Hinds saying that Guyanese of East Indian heritage are incapable of voting for Governments and Presidential Candidates on the basis of meritocracy, the plan they present and their own personal vision for a developed Guyana? He also does this despite the fact the WPA is part of APNU, which has been touting itself as a multi-ethnic party. Surely, there would be no need to refer to any voting constituency as East Indian if APNU has embraced the message it was seeking to promote to Guyanese. There would be no need to convince them to campaign in “East Indian communities” if they were really interested in appealing to a wide cross-section of voters. Hinds’ argument that Moses Nagamootoo, who is being touted as a possible candidate for the Prime Ministerial position in the electoral alliance, would be more appealing to Guyanese of East Indian heritage because of his race lacks merit. Is Hinds saying that East Indians again would not be enticed by David Granger’s plan for Guyana’s development, are unconcerned about the issues he has been raising with respect to corruption and governance, and could not care less whether the Government was undermining the Constitution? Even his analysis of how APNU should go about securing support from what he deems East Indian communities is degrading and suggests clearly that he strongly believes that the 2015 elections will be fought by two ethnic groups. He has even dismissed the AFC’s ability to attract a wide and balanced cross-section of votes apart from the two main political parties. Is the WPA, which refused to accept the existence of race and class in society for more than three decades, finally accepting the concept that elections in Guyana are racebased and there is need for a possible shared governance structure? Hinds must say clearly what he means by his continued insistence that there are East Indian communities and African communities in Guyana, when clearly there is the emergence of large multi-ethnic groups in the country which are removed from the sensitivities of race and race politics. As a matter of fact, it can be argued that the biggest voting bloc which comprises youths is uninterested in race and uninterested in the politicians who seek to disparage or promote racial insecurities. Hinds must understand the implications of his statements on the image of the WPA, APNU, the AFC and Guyana as a whole.
These 'Good Samaritans' took time out to attend to this horse that collapsed while on its journey along Homestretch Avenue, Greater Georgetown. The animal was eventually attended to by a vet (Carl Croker photo)
Russia intends to continue seeking peaceful settlement in Ukraine Dear Editor, A new round of armed escalation in eastern Ukraine is growing, especially in connection with massive shelling of Donetsk, Lugansk, Uglegorsk and other cities, and active hostilities in the Debaltsevo area. Peaceful civilians are the main victims of the continuing violence. Many international organizations are increasingly concerned over the Ukrainian army more and more often resorting to methods of warfare involving arms with an effect similar to weapons of mass destruction. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission already has some material evidence of this. The refugee flow is growing, civilians are suffering, and infrastructure is being destroyed. There are more than 800 thousand of Ukrainian refuges in the territory of Russia today. Attacks on hospitals, kindergartens and residential areas are a source of profound concern.
The most important task is to stop immediately all hostilities and restore the direct dialogue between the Ukrainian authorities and representatives of the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics on implementing the Minsk accords. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a number of other states, the OSCE, the United Nations and many human rights organisations have been consistently calling for this. Regrettably, the public rhetoric of the Ukrainian leaders and the actual actions of the Ukrainian army “on the ground” are increasingly suggesting the contrary conclusion, notably, that Kiev is determined to solve the problem solely by force despite all earlier accords and Kiev’s commitments to the international community. We are convinced that it is absolutely necessary to resolutely reverse this destructive trend and ensure the return of the conflicting
Ukrainian parties to direct dialogue at the negotiating table. Russia intends to continue actively facilitating a peaceful settlement. This is the goal of the recent initiatives on de-escalating the conflict and disengaging the sides, which President Putin laid out in his address to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on January 15 of this year. President Putin met with Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and President of France Francois Hollande at the Kremlin to discuss solutions to the situation in southeastern Ukraine on February 7. Joint work is underway to prepare a text for a possible joint document on implementing the Minsk Agreements based on the suggestions formulated by the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany. The document will include proposals from the President of Ukraine, as well as suggestions drawn up during the meeting on February
9 and added by the President of Russia. Russia intends to send another humanitarian convoy to Ukraine. A note in this respect with a proposal for the Kiev authorities to inspect the cargo on the border was dispatched to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on February 4. Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly informed US representatives about serious concern regarding Washington’s intention to provide modern lethal weapons to Kiev, directly or through intermediaries, under the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, which permits and even encourages these deliveries. Considering the revenge-seeking plans Kiev, this would not only escalate tensions in southeastern Ukraine, but would also threaten the security of Russia, whose territory has been shelled on several occasions from the Ukrainian side. Denis Kopyl Press Attaché
Horrible decisions in the courts Dear Editor, Guyana is in deep trouble. When I say trouble, I mean deep trouble when it comes to matters engaging the courts. Gone are the days of rulings, fair and balanced. It is now a system of bad to outrageous decisions made by some magistrates and judges. And the most distressing part of this corrupt scenario is that all of these matters have to do with capital offenses, murder being top of the list. The other serious offense is drug trafficking. When these matters come up for hearing, some judges refuse to try the matter, far less to grant judgment. It is a serious and distressing situation pervading the country and if nothing is done about it Guyana will sink into cha-
os and confusion. You look to the courts for redress only to realize that it is the worse place you can go to. I make these bold remarks based on a recent case involving a magistrate (name given), who freed (name given) on the basis that there was “insufficient evidence” to find him guilty. This magistrate, having all the facts before her, that is, a senior member of a household where children died, could not find him culpable of a crime. The facts of the case are about someone giving his accomplice something to take up to the USA to deliver to a cousin there. That accomplice somehow forgot to take the item up north and left it at a Guyana address. Some young ones in that
household then, without supervision, mistakenly drank from it, which sent them to an untimely death. Now, the facts are clear that this man is a producer and trafficker in drugs, no doubt about that. The accomplice did not forget the item. I believe this was done on purpose. Around that time, several drug busts were made at the airport with North American bound travelers. So this person would have thought that the chances of getting through looked slim, so the drug was left behind. The individual would have purposefully left for the interior, holding on to the alibi used quite extensively, “It wasn’t me I was in the bush.” So, if the accomplice was caught at the airport, he would have absolved himself
of the crime. Meantime the hapless unsupervised children drank the concentrated stuff and got poisoned. This is crystal clear even to a layman like myself, but not to the magistrate, with everything becoming murky. The magistrate could not see through the scheme only to make the excuse that the individual charged could not have been the one who placed the drugs. Drug traffickers expertly package their product so as to avoid detection. How many times haven’t we read or seen these occurrences. In fact, a few years ago a group of traffickers was caught with the well packaged stuff in tins of fruit juices at Coldigen on the East Coast of Demerara. continued on page 5