Attacks on people are par for the course in Guyana. If someone does or says something that is not in line with what another person is saying or thinking then the attacks would begin.
If one were to listen to quarrels in Guyana one would notice that they would all start over an issue. Before long they would degenerate into a full scale cuss out. People then hear about their mothers and their ancestors known or unknown.
This culture is firmly rooted in the People’s Progressive Party. There was some restraint before the elections. After March 2 the social media gained a life of their own. One publisher actually became incensed and reached out for support when a reporter repeated something that was published on social media.
That publisher actually asked, “Since when do we listen to anything on social media?”
The belief at that time was that comments would be on issues rather than on people (ad hominen). Indeed, there were some writers who could only write about people. Remove that criterion from them and the writing would pale into insignificance.
But there has been a radical transformation. Suddenly people are fair game. I saw the attacks on Clairmont Mingo, Keith Lowenfield, David Granger, Claudette Singh, and just about anyone who seemed to hold a view different from the People’s Progressive Party.
If one believed that the attacks would end there then one had another thought coming. Joseph Harmon and his children came under the spotlight. They still are.
The commentators wrote that Harmon suddenly became filthy rich—moving from a person who had $1 million in a local bank account to someone who was now a multimillionaire. He owns huge properties in New York and in Florida. He was said to have collected bribes and stealing from the public coffers.
And when that was not enough he formed a liaison with business magnate Brian Tiwarie. Ever since Tiwarie parted company with the PPP he was someone to be disliked.
For his part, he said that he was familiar with the kind of attacks. Any contract that he was awarded was because of some irregular dealing in the eyes of his detractors and more recently, in the eyes of the PPP.
The government had contracts for sealing the sea defence breaches. The only company in Guyana qualified to undertake such works was BK Inc. Unbelievably, some contracts were awarded to the person least likely to complete the task. The government would then, without shame, invite Tiwarie to complete the task.
When he was asked to reflect on his achievements, Tiwarie would merely say that success breeds enemies.
In recent weeks, the PPP and its trolls saddled Tiwarie with an unlimited sum of money, more money than there ever was in the public treasury. All of a sudden, he was taking large sums of money to Harmon as a token. No reason was afforded.
Tyrone Rowe was released from prison after serving his 15-year sentence. Immediately the PPP concluded that Tiwarie went to the prison to offer Rowe, called Cobra, five million dollars. The reason was not cleverly disguised, knowing that at this time in Guyana’s history electoral violence is always a threat.
This week, the PPP went too far. It posted that Tiwarie had gone to the Court of Appeal to offer $5 million to one of the appellate judges hearing the case brought by Eslyn David against the Guyana Elections Commission.
The message was clear. Tiwarie was powerful to bribe a judge. The ethnicity of the judge did not escape notice. It mirrored the views of one follower who claimed that Black people could not read and could in no way be considered intelligent.
Tiwarie, according to the PPP, did not even send an emissary. He took the money in person. He was positive that the judge was corrupt so he had nothing to fear. What was not said was whether the money was by cheque or in cash.
That is the disrespect the PPP has for people, even judges and magistrates.
At the same time, Tiwarie’s children are being attacked. Their crime was for being the children of Brian Tiwarie. Even as she sat in her home with her children, one daughter was said to have abandoned her children and boarded a plane for Miami.
Her husband, a Haitian national, was accused of being a Haitian smuggler. There was no limit to the attacks and certainly no thought about the impact on the victims’ emotions and on their children.
Eslyn David, through her attorney Mayo Robertson, moved to the Guyana Court of Appeal to challenge the Guyana Elections Commission. Suddenly, Harmon paid her $5,000 to do that. But no one paid Reeaz Holladar who killed himself even before his matter could be heard.
Things are so bad with this woman, Eslyn David, who happens to be black, that she reportedly tells Harmon that she only got $5,000 and that Harmon should accost Brian Tiwarie for more.
This could have been funny if the trolls were not so consistent. When people questioned Irfaan Ali’s qualifications he became angry when the questions became insistent.
It was the same with Bharrat Jagdeo and the reports of domestic abuse; Anil Nandlall and the law books theft, and even those who repeatedly stole from the Guyana Rice Development Board.
Stones have a way of rebounding.
