By Lelon Saul- As a former Commissioned Officer of the Guyana Defense Force and even though retired, I find it extremely difficult, nay impossible, to simply abandon the precepts associated with such a prestigious, and might I add, nationalistic honour. It was for this reason that I had earlier found it extremely difficult to ignore a response to a Letter to the Editor, purportedly penned by my former boss, Brigadier Mark Phillips, in response to a missive, addressed to the US Vice President and Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus instigated by the members of the ‘Institute for Action Against Discrimination,’ and signed by dozens of concerned citizens, appalled by the segregation and racist policies of the PPP regime aimed at their detractors.
Mr. Phillips’ response was somewhat obtuse and caused me to reluctantly revisit the issue in what I considered a final response, regardless. I have since been forced to renege from that commitment following a follow up response as, rather than attempting to address the real concerns of my missive, the PPP regime, obviously bent on a mission of character assassination, penned their rice eater and released the pitbull. Any dog lover would admit that though the rice eaters are simply noisy and simply draw attention to the intruder, pit bulls, on the other hand are killers, would snap at your ankles, rip off your pants, chew you to a pulp, just about anything to dissuade you from entering their territory.
And so, it was no surprise when my attention was drawn to a missive, purportedly penned by the Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy, aimed at my jugular. Rather than deal with the issue being addressed, Mr. McCoy performed a famous ‘Floyd Mayweather’ on the readers, bent on a knockout victory at all costs. Mr. McCoy addresses me as a “Propaganda Puppet” and immediately I realised that I was dealing with an individual of low academic esteem. Why else would he want to engage in derogatory name-calling warfare to strengthen his views?
Also, the IAAD, the acronym for ‘Institute for Action Against Discrimination,’ is no ‘so-called’ organisation as evidenced by the real signatories. Furthermore, the contents of the letter simply highlighted the economic and other woes of a large section of the Guyanese people. I cannot remember ever using the term ‘hysteric claim’ but I did mention that Guyana is on the brink of civil unrest, because of the lopsided and discriminatory policies of the government. Maybe the Honorable Minister is sitting so high that he misses the ‘ground floor’ issues of “discrimination swirling around in Saul’s head” as Mr. McCoy chose to put it.
Mr. McCoy then chose to give a brief of my tenure in the Guyana Defense Force and claims that I was sent into early retirement. For the sake of decency, I hope that Minister McCoy did not garner this spurious misrepresentation of the truth from his immediate boss since such actions would only serve to demerit Mr. Phillips’ affiliation to the noble unit he once headed.
And by the way, my previous portfolio as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ministry of Housing Planning Authority was not bestowed upon me by the David Granger administration, as McCoy maliciously asserted, especially since I do possess the requisite qualifications and have fulfilled the stated criteria. I wonder how many other PPP surrogates can proudly utter such boasts!
Finally, Mr. McCoy, much of the other contentions in your missive have strayed away from the core issues in my correspondence. I have detected the typical “buse down, dress down” synonymous with the decayed attitude of the author of the response. I, therefore, refuse to dignify those aspects of McCoy’s letter with a response. However, Mr. Minister, now that I’ve managed to engender your interest, nay unorthodox, it may be fitting that you address these pertinent issues to endorse the spurious “one Guyana” mantra peddled by your boss.
