GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The leader of the prominent opposition People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR), Aubrey Norton, has described as unfortunate the words used by a senior official of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) at a public meeting last Thursday but said the context and comments which led to the outburst should not be ignored.
The accusations against the WPA executive member, Tacuma Ogunseye, followed his remarks at the public meeting in Buxton, East Coast Demerara where he said that if there is a mass uprising, the Afro-Guyanese dominated police and defense forces would side with the opposition within a short period.
He also urged a June 12, 2023, Local Government Elections (LGE) boycott. Instead, he became “battle ready” to use the occasion as a Day of Resistance and African uprising to begin that resistance.
His comments have drawn criticism from President Dr. Irfaan Ali and other members of the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) that Ogunseye might be guilty of crimes of hate, racism, terrorism, sedition, seditious libel, inciting riotous behavior, and treason.
“All of that in any modern society can be easily classified as statements and a stage that promoted hate, racism, terrorism against the State and seek to influence people in a direction that can create havoc, disharmony and destroy any modern democratic society,” President Ali said
The umbrella Private Sector Commission (PSC), Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana, Guyana Pandits Council, and the Inter-Religious Organisation have also criticized his comments.
In addition, the chairman of the Joint Services, Brigadier Godfrey Bess, said that security agencies do not get into politics but obey Guyana’s Constitution.
“Irrespective of its ethnic composition, the Joint Services of Guyana is an apolitical institution and will continue to uphold the noble position of service to the people of Guyana,” the Joint Services said in a statement.
Speaking with the online publication News Source, Norton, the Opposition Leader in Parliament, said. At the same time, the words uttered by Ogunseye were “badly chosen.” Given the current state of affairs in Guyana, he understood the WPA politician’s frustrations.
“I think Ogunseye’s language was badly chosen, but we must not miss the fact that Ogunseye described the situation in Guyana, and probably out of frustration, he went a little too far. But the Government seems to want to use the opportunity to increase their repression rather than to recognize the societal problems and seek to solve them,” said Norton.
The PNCR leader said that the party does not condone racism but warned that the Government, which came to power following the controversial 2020 regional and general elections, is taking a position to frustrate a section of the population.
“We, as a party, condemn racism outright, we have always been a party that promoted tolerance, but at the same time, we recognized that the government is pushing people in the direction to create tension in society so that they can achieve their objective,” said, Norton, who had also addressed the public meeting last week.
Meanwhile, the WPA has indicated that it stands firmly behind its executive member, adding that the Government was planning to arrest Ogunseye.
It said the Attorney General, Anil Landlall’s “implicit and explicit threat to take away Ogunseye’s liberty is in keeping with the government’s larger campaign of bullyism that has characterized its most recent stint in office.”
The WPA added that Nandlall’s threat to lock up Ogunseye was “an open attempt to violate once again the right to free speech which is expressly guaranteed by the very Guyana constitution which the AG likes to pontificate about.”
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