Hoyte's big surprise
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
October 13, 2002
AFTER the surprising intervention in Buxton last Thursday night - that followed his deafening silence over the past six months - ostensibly on behalf of the people of that East Coast village, it is to be hoped that the leader of the People's National Congress/Reform, Mr. Desmond Hoyte, will not jeopardise the current initiatives of the Social Partners Group to move forward the dialogue process. In particular, a desirable consensual approach in combating the criminal rampage in this country.
Following the rounds of separate meetings held over a week by the representatives of the social partners with the PNC/R and the PPP/C, and subsequently a second meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo, with claims on all sides of "fruitful" and "productive" results, the focus now must be on where we go from here.
The immediate concern, of course, is combating criminality, beating back those who have been committing murders, rape, hijackings, robberies and criminal violence. The inputs of the retired heads of the Joint Services in this context should prove helpful in assisting the government and the current Joint Services officials from the army and police in efforts to effectively arrest the crime wave.
That Mr. Hoyte should have chosen this time to go to Buxton to hold a political meeting of his PNC/R for the purpose of disclosing what is being packaged as an estimated $250 million "revival" development scheme for Buxtonians, smacks more of political opportunism than any serious interest in joining hands of cooperation to solve not only the social and economic problems of that village, but other depressed villages and communities.
More than the government, the heads and all ranks of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force, the minority parties in Parliament and the various civic organisations, including the Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Trades Union Congress, would also know of the strange and puzzling silence of Mr. Hoyte amid all the murderous acts, robberies and criminal violence that have been taking place, including in and around Buxton. Even his own party supporters are so aware.
Buxton happens to be just one of the villages and communities whose very serious neglect by successive governments of the PNC, and including Hoyte's own tenure as President, that have been identified by the PPP/C government for rehabilitation of social services and upgrading their economic status.
It was no surprise, therefore, that a swift response came from the government, through its Minister in the Local Government Ministry, Clinton Collymore, to the PNC/R leader's advocacy of a $250 million programme of social and economic development for Buxton.
Minister Collymore was quick to remind the PNC/R leader and the country as a whole that over the past five years, the government had already spent $227 million in various schemes in Buxton alone to remove the neglect suffered over the long years of government by that party.
Questions
His proposals may very well have merit. But the government is evidently challenging the PNC/R leader on his own claimed turf to be truthful about the social and political realities of Buxton and other villages where citizens are predominantly of either of African or East Indian descent.
Questions will, naturally, be asked where was the PNC/R leader when criminal elements were not only attacking, killing, beating, robbing and generally making life a horror in and around Buxton, but also attacking the police and army on patrols and constantly damaging the Railway Embankment Road. Who are the culprits, Mr. Hoyte?
If indeed Buxton, has not been a sanctuary for criminals, then the PNC/R leader has a responsibility to tell the nation who are the ones who have been engaging in the criminal activities that have occupied so much of the resources and time of the security forces.
Where was he when the Chester family was forced to flee their Buxton village? Where was he when those better informed, such as Eusi Kwayana, were openly and specifically condemning criminal acts and urging that the way forward could not be by use of guns, violence or generally making life a nightmare for innocent people?
When the PNC/R leader finally awoke from his apparent Rip-van-Winkle like slumber, he at least rightly declared at his meeting in Buxton that "guns and force" were not answers to the social and economic problems facing the village.
The victims of murder, including law enforcement officers, those beaten and robbed, as well as the countless commuters who have been deprived of regular use of the public highways, always knew that guns and violence solve nothing.
Mr. Hoyte must also know that in a democratic state it would be dangerously foolish for a government to even appear to be genuflecting to criminals by allocating state resources, under pressure, that should rightly be shared on an equitable basis in other villages and communities - irrespective of racial composition or political preferences.
The PNC/R leader, who, for so many months has been throwing tantrums and roadblocks to the resumption of dialogue with President Jagdeo, has been asked by Minister Collymore if certain villages are to be favoured above others, or that all should benefit from the resources of the State for social and economic development. The answer must be obvious to all right thinking Guyanese.
Let the dialogue process proceed, with the involvement of government, opposition parties and civil society for addressing the problems of social and economic advancement in a climate free from the criminals, wherever located or being encouraged.