Dr. Hinds and the cure for Burnham’s fever

Dear Editor,

Euphoria can best describe the excitement of Dr. David Hinds in the aftermath of the coming to power of the APNU + AFC regime in 2015.
In the early days of the life of the regime, Dr. Hinds declared that, ‘Burnham people and Kwayana people are now one’.
As the anti-corruption campaign of the Granger regime went into full swing, Dr. Hinds, whose mantra was “power sharing” for many years, openly declared that the enormity of the corruption was so disgusting, that it would be out of order to even make a suggestion of “power sharing”. To a large extent, it was the WPA personnel, headed by the venerable Dr. Clive Thomas, who uncovered the wholesale “sell-out” of the country, so much so, that not a square inch of land was left available to Guyanese.

As the Granger regime began to consolidate its hold on power in unabashed Burnhamist style, the mild criticisms of the regime led to the expulsion of Dr. Hinds from the pages of the government-owned and controlled Guyana Chronicle. Dr. Hinds sought refuge at Kaieteur News.

It is a remarkable phenomenon, after the outright seizure of the ballot boxes by the Granger regime, to hear Dr. Hinds in his enormously affective booming voice, declare that the ballot boxes should be destroyed without a result being declared, and “power sharing” should be implemented.

We are now left to divine the thinking that could have brought Dr. Hinds to his knees despite his “cockiness”.
In a TV discourse with Ravi Dev, Baytoram Ramharack, and others, the issue of racial balance in the armed forces came up.

Dr. Hinds wanted a ‘horse trade’. Indians would be given the right to bear arms in exchange for equity in economic wealth of the country. What is of importance in this debate is the outright declaration by Dr. Hinds that military might belongs to a particular race in Guyana. It is this unabashed declaration of “we gat de guns” that is the root of the evil of elections in Guyana.

Dr. Hinds is claiming “bragging rights” on this matter. He claimed that Indians must accommodate the redistribution of “wealth” in Guyana in exchange for arms.
Why is this debate unfolding at this particular juncture in our history?
In a nutshell, Dr. Hinds has simplified the debate to its barebones, using “Occam’s razor to flesh out matters.

The idea that Indians are a wealthy race was as mythic as El Dorado. Dev did refute this misconception. Dr. Hind did not raise any logistical concerns regarding the integration of Indians in the military. It was a done deal, but if, and only if they would surrender wealth to Blacks. That was the only stumbling block, or brick wall.
In essence, Dr. Hinds has declared that election Guyana is a waste of time, energy, and resources. Just “bruk up the ballot boxes” and get down to the real issue of wealth sharing and power sharing.
Is this what Dr. Hinds is really saying? Definitely not! We gat de guns, and you can’t do anything about dat. So elections don’t prove a damn thing.

What is lost in all of this is the massive corruption that was being engaged in by the APNU+AFC regime. The very people who were the moral crusaders against the PPP and its 23 years of corruption were, under cover of darkness, engaged in shady deals that would put the PPP/C in the camp of novices.

They were planning “the heist of the century”. They have simply been caught in the act.
Guyana is now in a unique position to raise the living standards of all Guyanese. To do so, there must be a sense of justice. The electoral struggle is what measures the temperature of the nation in the struggle for justice and must be respected for what it is.

The nation cannot succumb to Burnham’s fever as Dr. Hinds is demanding. This sickness must be dealt with as a means of cleansing us.
Whatever price is exacted, let us be the Petrie dish to the world where the virus of greed and corruption can exterminate the hosts of the disease, and not the disease itself. That is the choice we must make.

Rohit Kanhai