Columnist note: This column done on February 21, 2022, was not carried by order of the publisher of Kaieteur News at the request of Article 13
Here I go again, urging Guyanese to reply when things are written about them. Here I go again, suggesting to others that when they reply facts come out, others have gained knowledge, and history is recorded. The signature, Albert George, appeared under a letter on behalf of a group, named Article 13 critical of one of my columns.
I believe in polemics, debates, and academic exchanges. No matter how nasty people get with me, I just don’t have it my DNA to use libel writs. I don’t know who or what is Albert George. Maybe I would have known him if he stood out from March to July in 2020 when the election rigging began.
I know Christopher Ram of Article 13 confronted the rigging very early and in the dying stages of the failed attempts, Yog Mahadeo of Article 13 took to Kaieteur Radio to denounce the rigging. Mr. George should be grateful that I do not have a propensity to sue for libel, else he would have received a writ.
He attributed malice to me in my column in what I wrote about Article 13. That is acidic and libelous and I resent that. George has asked me to withdraw my contention that one of the persons in Article 13 was a rambunctious voice in support of election rigging. I will not do so if George does not withdraw his accusation of malice. Article 13, that is constantly criticizing the government, must also face criticism and not use nasty terms to describe media operatives.
Jonathan Yearwood, whom I have a positive opinion of because of his courage in fighting against election rigging, called me on the phone on behalf of Article 13 to ask me the name of the person in the membership of Article 13 that supported election rigging. I offered it to him. Vishu Bisram has done a handsome enumeration of that person’s constant words of defence of election rigging during the election crisis. It was published in newspaper.
Yearwood told me that the person is not in Article 13 and I conceded the mistake, but I explained how the inaccuracy came about. I don’t know why Article 13 had to use such an ugly word like “malice” which I am sure had to be approved by the bigwigs of Article 13 before publication.
Here now, in what I told Yearwood. There is a person in Article 13 that will affect the credibility of Article 13 because that person referred to David Hinds as a fine example of struggle. Not only is Hinds far from being an example of struggle, but he is a threat to the very article, (number 13) in the constitution that Article 13 seeks to have the government recognize and adhere to.
I used the old saying to Yearwood; “show me your company, I’ll tell who you are.” Article 13 should ask Yearwood for his opinion of Hinds because he shared it with me in that conversation. I know Yearwood has a no-nonsense attitude and based on our conversation, he said he accepts the meaning of that ancient saying.
I also emphasized to Yearwood that Article 13 cannot come to me and tell me to listen to them while it has in its midst leaders who are extolling actors in the society whose rhetoric and demagoguery are not only an assault to the constitution and the rule of law but dangerous, destructive and evil.
There are two other persons that the leader in Article 13 is on record of praising since August 2020 when the rigging was defeated. Last week one of them was on a panel discussion with David Hinds and Rickford Burke and the entire programme was laced with poisonous racial ceremonies and ethnic incitements. One of them on the programme (not Burke, not Hinds) said he faulted David Granger for bad leadership because Granger should not have conceded election defeat in July.
That person in Article 13 that thinks Hinds is a fine example of struggle should get all the tapes of Hinds and listen to Hinds’ take on the ethnic question in Guyana. In my conversation with Yearwood, I told him that in the history of the PNC, I have never seen such racially driven, ethnic grammar as what comes out of the mouth of Hinds. How can you be praising people like these, then, in the same breath shout from the rooftop for people to support your demands that the government recognize the constitution.
Finally, George said I hid in not naming the anti-democratic person. Which country George is living in – Timbuktu? In this country, people sue for libel for things that they are guilt of.