Dear Editor,
The recent execution of businessman Orin Boston at his residence in Dartmouth, Essequibo by the SWAT Unit dispatched from Georgetown stands as indisputable evidence that the return to office of the PPPC is once again facilitating the police executions of citizens. That was the case when they were in government from 1992 to 2015.
There are striking similarities between the method of execution used by the police in Boston’s home invasion and that of Shaka Blair’s home invasion and execution in Buxton in 2002. On both occasions, the victims were shot in their homes while unarmed and posed no danger to the police officers. I am convinced that both Shaka and Boston were sentenced to death by authorities in Georgetown. The intellectual authors had no interest in any law-related issue but a political interest in demonstrating to Africans that the PPPC will seek to snuff out any potential spirit of resistance from our communities.
Politically, Dartmouth is synonymous with Buxton, Linden and Georgetown in the African masses’ consciousness. The PPPC’s political reasoning for this tactic is that it has worked for them in the past. It is simple logic: the PPPC senses that African resistance is on the rise fueled by the government’s mandatory vaccination measures. This potential threat warranted action to remind Africans that the PPPC is ruthless – hence the fear factor.
The role Africans played in the US-inspired riots in the 60s that brought down the PPP government haunts every PPPC government and leadership to date. The context of the Boston execution is the present political situation in the country. And the PPPC seeks to drive fear in the African community. The rulers have long deemed every protest action by Africans post 2020 elections as opposition activism designed to undermine the government. This preoccupation can lead to a panic-political response that doesn’t appear logical to many observers. But in the chamber of secrecy, Jagdeo and his trusted lieutenants (that small inner circle) that logic is clear: their concern is with the regime survival.
One doesn’t have to be a great political thinker to appreciate the political, economic and social challenges the Covid 19 pandemic has posed to countries and governments worldwide. The international media highlight these realities and rulers, the opposition and the masses obviously for their own separate interests are consciously or unconsciously weighing the potential to achieve advantages. President Biden in the US and the Democratic Party have to grapple with the troubling effects of the pandemic on future elections and staying in office. In the political equation of the pandemic, the judgement of citizens on their government’s handling of the pandemic could make or break an administration. The PPPC is not immune to these challenges and the implications for their government. Guyana’s rising covid 19 infections and death rate is troubling to all Guyanese but is politically dangerous to the PPPC leadership and government. Scores of Guyanese dying outside the nation’s hospitals will not be a development that gives political comfort to our rulers.
I submit that my link of the demise of Orin Boston to the present political situation is not an attempt at cheap politics, but rather a profound judgement on this matter. My detractors will say that I am engaged in anti-PPPC propaganda, linking the killing to the PPPC/ government. But the bubble will blow up in their faces as the regime seeks to protect its rogue allies in the Guyana Police Force. In doing everything in their power to make the Boston execution another cold case the authorities are calculating. They cannot allow justice to prevail since that will be counterproductive to their objective of maintaining rogue elements in the security forces to do their dirty work with plausible deniability.
I end by making this observation: there will be no paper trail as evidence to indict the killers and their intellectual authors in the Boston execution. The evidence is political, the unwillingness of the rulers to let the killers be prosecuted in a court of law since that can be a tricky business the rulers will not be willing to take.
Regards
Tacuma Ogunseye
