Stabroek News was never a neutral observer when it came to the death squad allegations. As this year unfolded, the Stabroek News found itself directing the opposition's crusade against the government. The Stabroek News offered a lifeline to the opposition to keep this flagging issue alive. Its editorials on this issue soon began to mirror - some may say even direct - the opposition's campaign against the Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj. The Stabroek News pursued a relentless campaign to malign the government and fabricate a criminal association between the Minister of Home Affairs and the so-called phantom squad.

Alana Johnson    Letter to Stabroek News

Mr. Robert Corbin never resigned. 

He went on leave with pay while a cowboy court headed by the PNC investigated him on the allegation that he raped  and buggered an Indian woman on Saturday 26th, 1986, in his office for an  importation licence to import jute bags from Barbados.

At that time Robert Corbin was the Deputy Prime Minister.

PNC didn't resign after ruling Guyana illegally for 24 years!
Mr. Robert Corbin, Leader of the PNC/R and the Opposition has called not only on Minister Ronald Gajraj but on the Government to resign. He cited the examples of himself and other Ministers in PNC Governments who resigned after allegations.

The most serious allegations against the PNC from 1968 to 1985 were the blatant and fraudulent rigging of elections, which were supported by a substantial body of evidence from credible local and international individuals and agencies. During this period countless calls were made for the PNC Government to resign. It never did and ruled this country illegally for 24 years and almost destroyed it.

Mr. Corbin must explain his stand when the PNC was in office before demands of resignation can have some credibility.

His past explanations that elections were not rigged will only serve to damage the PNC/R's credibility further.
TOOLSIE NARINE

Clear the air
Mr. Corbin in a television interview has said that the action by the Canadian High Commission in withdrawing Minister Gajraj's visa was a testimony of support for the PNC/R and its allegations.

I think that the public of Guyana is entitled to hear from the Canadian High Commission whether in fact what Mr. Corbin said was the truth and on what grounds and conditions they have taken such action.

They should clear the air, for Guyanese are not only PNC/R.
Yours faithfully
Tom Drakes

Police not doing their job
The shameless lynching of Minister Gajraj by the PNC/R causes shudders to run down my spine.

On the basis of an allegation that Mr. Gajraj is aware of the existence of a "death squad" and has spoken to at least two alleged members, the PNC/R has tried and convicted him.

Leaders of the PNC/R who are supposed to be responsible persons are on televisions talk shows blatantly convicting Mr. Gajraj of alleged crimes. These same leaders allow their supporters to parade with the most obscene placards every day.

The Police are neglecting their duty by allowing the picketers to carry the placards.
ABDOOL RAZACK

The politics of hypocrisy
According to Tacuma Ogunseye in his letter in the Stabroek News of 33/01/04 "Dialogue is not feasible with this Phantom issue pending," as the letter is captioned.

It is interesting to note and cannot escape attention that Ogunseye chose to use the word 'revelations' in place of the word 'allegations' with reference to the unsubstantiated allegations by Bacchus against the Minister of Home Affairs.

Ogunseye seems to have come to the unjustifiable conclusion that, one, we are in a "national crisis" and, two, we have "a government in a situation where it demonstrates the absence of good faith".

Ogunseye also seems to think that we are blind and deaf when he tells us that this group of killers committed numerous murders, kidnapped and tortured scores of Guyanese, "particularly African Guyanese but also including Indo Guyanese."

Since the 1997 elections, scores of Indo Guyanese were among those robbed, beaten, terrorized, molested, raped, kidnapped and murdered. Afro Guyanese suffered the same fate, though to a far lesser extent. Thanks to its extra-parliamentary actions, the PNC/R to a very significant degree has encouraged a lot of the crimes committed on innocent Guyanese. That has been so even though the main opposition party claimed that the people who perpetrated the violence were "criminal elements" who infiltrated its otherwise disciplined crowd of "peaceful" street protesters.

I am not aware, though, that the PNC/R picketed the Ministry of Home Affairs to complain that the Police were not doing a good enough job of preventing those "criminal elements" from infiltrating its street protesters, so that its name would not be unreasonably tarnished!

What I am aware of is that those persons who turned out to be "criminal elements" were accommodated by the PNC/R, or by individuals or organizations sympathetic to the PNC/R, AFTER their involvement in criminal-element activities.

But I guess that the politics of the opposition is not to admit any wrongdoing, but only to criticize and try to get political mileage from pointing to what it perceives is another's wrongdoing. I think they call it, the politics of hypocrisy.
JOHN DA SILVA

JANUARY 30, 2004