GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Human rights activist and President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), Rickford Burke, has launched a scathing attack on People’s Progressive Party (PPP) operative Leonard Craig, describing him as a “bloviating buffoon seeking political relevance” in a strongly worded statement released Monday.
The statement comes in response to what Burke says was a PPP-orchestrated attack on him and other African Guyanese critics of the government, published via the Guyana Chronicle.
In his response, Burke did not mince words, calling Craig a “black gutter snake who slithers in the dirty crevices of the PPP political cesspool, wallowing for relevance like a deprived scavenger.”
The CGID president accused the PPP of sending Craig out to attack “every other African Guyanese critic of the racist, ethnocratic kleptocracy, calling itself the PPP government of Guyana.”
Burke dismissed Craig’s criticisms entirely, stating: “Craig is like a black plastic garbage bag, only useful to carry rubbish. So let me quickly dispose of the garbage. He is truly garbage.”
## Accusations of Political Prostitution
The human rights activist described Craig as an “incompetent political prostitute, selling himself from party to party but achieving nothing,” comparing him to a “tin-cup apostate — old, worn and unsanitary.”
Burke expressed bewilderment at Craig’s “effrontery to appear in the public square” after what he described as an embarrassing incident on the PPP’s election campaign platform last year, where he claims Craig “rambled incoherently about masturbating himself and sliming up,” leading to his removal from the campaign.
Addressing Craig’s accusations that African Guyanese anti-PPP commentators are “preaching hate,” Burke countered: “For Craig and the PPP, anyone who criticizes PPP racism, corruption, and injustice is preaching hate. They think that they can smear or intimidate us into silence.”
He accused the PPP of wanting critics to “sit quietly and accept being screwed over, discriminated against, and mistreated,” including what he described as “extrajudicial killings and genocide of our brothers, subjugation, marginalization, oppression, injustice, and PPP ethnic servitude.”
Declaring his resolve, Burke stated: “I am a proud black man and a descendant of the indomitable African slaves. I will always fight for the rights, dignity, and humanity of black people, and others who face injustice, racism, and other forms of discrimination. And we will vanquish anyone who stands in our way.”
He positioned himself in stark contrast to Craig, stating: “Unlike Craig, I cannot be bought and sold by modern colonialists. Unlike Craig, no one can pay me to be a black traitor.”
Burke concluded with a stark warning for Craig, predicting that “the very ethnocratic cabal whose derrière he so eagerly kiss, while attacking his own will dump him, then lynch him, and leave him hanging from a tree on their ‘cotton plantation’ in a plastic garbage bag.”
He urged Craig to “stop being a back stabbing Judas” and to “go and sin no more.”
The exchange highlights the increasingly heated political rhetoric in Guyana ahead of future elections, with Burke positioning himself as an uncompromising critic of the PPP government and its treatment of African Guyanese citizens. The PPP has not yet issued a formal response to Burke’s statement.
CGID, under Burke’s leadership, has been a vocal critic of the Guyanese government on issues of racial discrimination, governance, and human rights.
