Withdraw… from street protests

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton made his pilgrimage to Reg 11 in Guyana in North America and reiterated his opposition to street protests against the PPP government. He spoke to Guyanese at a town hall meeting in Toronto. Since he was elected leader of the PNC in 2022, there has been enormous pressure on him to take his supporters to the streets to oust what these extremist elements called the “illegally installed racist cabal.”
In fact, it is widely believed that this was the reason he was elected PNC leader by the party’s powers that be. Over the years, he had built a reputation as a street fighter after participating in the street protests following the December 1997 elections. But in refusing to repeat that path, he pointed to his role in those same street protests as the reason for now using it as a political tactic to renounce.
He told his audience in Toronto: “Street protest is not the best option. Let’s be sensible. We want all Guyanese to benefit from this. At this stage we must not do anything that will result in a conflict between the two main ethnic groups.” He admitted that because our politics reflect our ethnic divisions, the PNC protesters are inevitably African-Guyanese and because they are protesting against the PPP – whose supporters are Indian-Guyanese – the atmosphere becomes quite combustible. This is what had happened after 1997 and unfortunately, when it was launched in GT, it led to the beating of alleged PPP supporters – read Indian-Guyanese – and then to mass arson against Indian Guyanese companies. This set the pattern for the next twenty years – most recently exemplified by a protest march on the east coast of Demerara that ended in violence against Indian Guyanese vendors at the Mon Repos market.
Mr. Norton reiterated the PNC’s old claim that the PPP is infiltrating their street protests with African-Guyanese elements to cause ethnic violence and tarnish the PNC’s reputation. Whether this is true or not, street protests have become an “opposition thing” associated with violence. But Norton kept his eyes on his supporters’ need to “put pressure” on the PNC and made it clear he would not abandon the protests altogether. As he warned his audience in Toronto: “That should not be interpreted to mean that there will be no protest. There will be protests, but they will take place in a way that allows us to achieve our goal without allowing the PPP to achieve its goal of creating division within society.”
This is a very mature and astute observation and effort by Mr. Norton, and he is to be commended. As he also noted, there have been negative developments since 2020 that he can highlight – and show that the PNC can do better than the PPP in governance!

…in Haiti
The US had hoped that the Multinational Security Support (MSS) – which it had led with Kenya – would have been transformed by the UN Security Council into an official UN peacekeeping mission. But in addition to criticism of the LAST UN peacekeeping mission spreading cholera and engaging in sexual exploitation in the poverty and violence-stricken country, threats of a veto from Russia and China in the UN Security Council have now stopped them from withdrawing to pull.
These countries and several Haitian groups oppose U.S. involvement in any effort to return stability to Haiti, and they want the MSS to continue. But the fly in the ointment is that none of them are coming up with funding for the initiative and at this point the 400 plus police force, mostly from Kenya, has proven ineffective in making a dent in the gang’s looting against the citizens.
So while the new Cold War plays out in the UN Security Council, Haiti continues its downward spiral with 900,000 displaced – and that number continues to rise!! Sad.

…Crazy Maduro
As Mad Maduro consolidates his rule over Venezuela after rigging the July 28 elections, the Biden administration is wavering on its policies toward democracy. Mad Maduro is now encouraged to have a “dialogue” with the opposition!! Haha!!