The other foot has dropped. For months we have been warning that the criminality sweeping the country was not just a matter of a few good ‘ole’ boys playing at being Robin Hood, as the PPP would have it. These are domestic terrorists who had a political point to make. To wit, that African Guyanese were being marginalised and they would rectify that sad state of affairs pronto by removing the government. The mob that invaded the Presidential compound are cut from that same cloth - the overt leaders, Philip Bynoe and Mark Benschop (who are now wanted for sedition) have been openly advocating the same solution as declared by the terrorists, for a long time now. Many persons have reported that the terrorists were amongst the marchers. Some have said that ROAR was too tough on the PPP but we were simply trying to tell them that power inevitably expands to fill a vacuum. Power is something that if you don’t use it you’ll lose it. As the man in the street says, “If you lapse, you collapse.”

This is what has happened. If treason was being advocated openly for so long why was no action taken? The government will answer that under the present laws they couldn’t do anything. But why have they not introduced the anti-terrorism bill with broad powers of arrest and detention (among other powers) that ROAR has been advocating, which would have allowed them to act more swiftly? We await an answer. In the meantime, the county is traumatised by the PNC’s protest march, which from reports reaching us, un-leashed far more widespread violence against Indians than on January 12, 1998 and culminated in a storming of the Presidential compound.

Once again we have the public apologists trotting out the standard excuses: not only Indians were beaten (as if that excuses the atrocities, and as if one raindrop makes a storm), criminals infiltrated the marches (as if the whole march was not criminal from the moment they started molesting Indians on the East Coast), and the shootings at the Presidential compound aggravated the mob (I guess the Presidential Guards were derelict in their duties when they didn’t offer tea to their ‘visitors’). The PNC has also said that it wasn’t involved even though they have accepted that they mobilized for the march and even though the Chairman of the party, Mr Robert Corbin and executive member, Mr James McAllister were present in the march.

The police were most derelict in their duties and their claims of being stretched thin by their duties during the Caricom summit do not hold water. The police led the march from the East Coast and must have known about the robberies, vandalism and assaults while the protesters were on their way to the city. After such a beginning, in light of our recent history of protest marches, what did the police think would happen in Georgetown, a garden party?

The march should have been stopped on the East Coast, plain and simple. Why has the police not even been slapped on the wrist for this lapse? What were the standing orders for the Presidential Guard at the Presidential compound if the compound were to be invaded? There are none? How did the security forces think the terrorists were going to ‘overthrow’ the government? By a letter requesting that the President should step down? Reports of a probable coup attempt were discussed over every fora in the last month. How come the protesters got inside the compound? Why is the Home Affairs Minister still at his job after this fiasco?

We have come a long way since 1998 in one detail: no one can pussyfoot around the issue and not accept that Indians were the primary targets of these protest-related attacks and it is Africans who perpetrated the attacks. Even the Stabroek News, the PPP and the PNC have had to use the dreaded, and previously taboo word, ‘Indian.’ The question now is when will they move on and ask why these vicious unprovoked attacks occur and what ought to be done to stop them. It was not a question of money. The owner of Payless said that he offered the mob that burnt down his store $250,000 (a sad index of how life in Guyana goes on is that this money was specially kept aside to offer bandits to spare employees from harm) but this was refused. His store was still torched. An Indian store had to be burnt to put fear into the Indian business class. It’s a political thing.

A Commission of Inquiry must be established to determine who was responsible for these latest attacks. Charges have to be laid. Indians cannot be beaten like dogs in the streets and not a man be charged. Today many Africans have denounced these racist attacks; this is progress. Yet even today there are those who deny that widespread attacks against Indians occurred against Indians on January 12, 1998. We must prevent this myopia from remaining. The businesses that were burnt down must be rebuilt at government expense since it was their abdication of responsibility, through the lapse of their security forces, that caused the losses. All citizens who were violated must be acknowledged and compensated. We call upon citizens who suffered losses to file charges against the police and government for dereliction of duty. Please contact ROAR and we will assist with the charges.

All Guyanese, and not just Indians must now accept that the security forces as presently constituted cannot offer them the security they know they need. We have to agitate for a balanced force but immediately Indians must take whatever means necessary to defend their families and their properties. We have to look at measures such as federalism, which will share power in this country and offer security for all. All of this can only occur if Indians reject the weak PPP and select leaders that can deal firmly but fairly with the PNC. We have always said that the PNC has shown throughout its history that it will do whatever it has to do to represent its supporters—African Guyanese.

But Africans will have to accept that the PNC’s type of representation gets them nowhere. The PPP has proven itself weak and cowardly and cannot command the respect needed to deal with the PNC. The PPP, incredibly, even today insists that it represents African Guyanese. Does it represent those who stormed the Presidential Compound? ROAR’s strong leadership and blueprint for a United Federal Guyana, a united balanced disciplined force, and a United Front Government (for one or two terms) makes sense even more today. We, the people, must assert ourselves: the fire still isn’t out.    <<< Page                                                                    Page X>>>