In the height of the violent street protests that resulted in schools and workplaces being invaded, people being beaten and robbed, the police being spit upon and taunted, and the nation's economy weakening still further as businesses downsized and some investors heeded the PNC/R's warning to "quietly fade away," the party "adopted" the protesters as its own.

It denied the criminal component of the protests, instead attributing the violence to "criminal elements" who it said "infiltrated" the otherwise peaceful marches.

In fact, late leader Desmond Hoyte led one of the marches to demonstrate that the PNC/R's adopted protesters precluded lawbreakers.

The PNC/R's link with violence goes back to the 1997 general elections, in the wake of which CARICOM and the international community had to call on the main opposition party to cool it and use parliament rather than the streets to vent its spleen against the government.

For their part, the British, Canadian and American ambassadors issued a statement saying violence is not the answer and calling on the PNC/R to respect the rule of law.

Since the Bacchus affair brewed in January, when all Guyana were told for the first time, from a forum provided by the PNC/R, that George Bacchus was a 'death squad' informant who had fallen out of grace with the squad, the PNC/R has been preoccupied with little else.

Already peeved that the five men it described as "freedom fighters" - five criminals who stabbed 21-year-old prisoner offer Troy Williams to death and shot and permanently disabled prison warder Roxanne Winfield as they escaped from the Camp Street jail on February 23 (Mash Day) 2002, the PNC/R felt its time had come to hit the government where it hurts the most by waging a widespread campaign to link the death squad and the government.

Its basic line was that the death squad was sanctioned by the government and that the government violated the human rights of Guyanese, and in so doing dishonoring the rule of law, by carrying out a wave of executions.

Initially many people outside of the PNC/R fell for that line. As opposition themselves, it seemed a good line to see the beginning of the end of the PPP/C administration. And so they joined with the PNC/R in co-organizing what they all called "rule of law" marches.

But George Bacchus didn't help the cause. Not any more. His controversial statements must have disappointed the PNC/R to the bone. When it heard that Bacchus had given interviews reversing his allegations against Minister Gajraj, it rushed a delegation to Bacchus' house.

Bacchus did oblige. He came out with another statement/interview stressing that he recanted his story only because he was bribed to do so. Then he recanted again: he pitched the $10 million he had been offered to the ground, saying he didn't want any; then he said he didn't get any money - he would have taken it to the U.S. Embassy if he had gotten any.

As if all this isn't agonizing enough, the PNC/R reportedly said on Nation Watch yesterday that the 60 or so persons that took to the streets on Friday telling businesses to shut down and threatening those who wouldn't, were right to do what they did.

Hardly an example befitting a party who spends lots of money and time getting people to march the streets calling for the upholding of the rule of law!

Then there's the case of the affidavits. Guyanese have been eagerly awaiting someone to come forward with information supporting the allegations linking Minister Gajraj and the death squad.

If indeed these affidavits surfaced only after Bacchus's death, when they were made on "orders" to the PNC/R by Bacchus relatively long before last Thursday, then questions about the PNC/R's commitment to the upholding of the rule of law and to the fight against crime will surface.