I was brought up learning that if you cannot say something good about someone, then you should remain silent.

I wish to break my silence now since I can no longer stand the hypocrisy of some people. Allow me please to state a few facts about the late Huge Desmond Hoyte.

Mr. Hoyte was the Minister of Finance under the late President Burnham when Guyana was the 'basket case' of the Caribbean. We were worst off than Haiti and our people were hungry. Thanks to Mr. Hoyte. We are very grateful to you.

One of the glaring cases of election rigging in Guyana took place when Mr. Hoyte was President. Mr. Hoyte was not the statesman who agreed to free and fair elections in 1992. He was pressured and forced by International World Opinion and local overseas pressure to bend. This he did grudgingly. It was this same Mr. Hoyte who pledged that he would work to ensure that Dr. Cheddi Jagan never became President of Guyana. Sorry Mr. Hoyte, you lost.

After losing the 1992 elections, Mr. Hoyte, "the statesman and patriot", vowed to make this country ungovernable. Only weeks before be died, he was in Buxton plotting with his "kith and kin".

Here was the "statesman" Mr. Hoyte leading the funeral procession for the criminal "Blackie". Nice message for the people of Guyana, Sir.

Then came "slow fire, mo fire", and the rest is history.

Mr. Editor, people become statesmen and heroes by their actions, not through long and fanciful letters. "Actions speak louder than words". What do you say Mr. Eric Phillips and Mr. Hamley Case?
JAI PERSAUD.

JANUARY 13, 2003

Trying to blame crime on the government won't work
THE letters by Sherwood Lowe, James McAllister and Jerome Khan that the PNC is not connected to the criminals in Buxton or elsewhere, are laughable.

* Didn't Desmond Hoyte drape a Guyana flag over the coffin of notorious criminal "Blackie" at the now-desecrated Square of the Revolution?

* Didn't Hoyte say there weren't any criminals in Buxton when the criminals were on the rampage on the East Coast and clearly using Buxton as their safe haven?

* Why was it necessary for the police and army to direct their cordon-and-search operations in Buxton? And why, by the end of those operations, some bandits had been apprehended, a large quantity of crime weapons and related articles recovered, and those who weren't arrested or escaped died in confrontation with the security forces?

* And why was there a dramatic reduction in the spate of violent crimes on the East Coast and in other parts of the country IMMEDIATELY AFTER the police-army operations in Buxton?

* Which political party supporters continually blocked traffic by digging up the public road, placing man-immovable obstacles on the road and burning tires on the road during the crime wave, creating additional expenses for government while at the same time crying out that they were a depressed people who were being ignored/neglected by the government?

* Which political party called these criminals "freedom fighters"?

* Guess which political party could have gone in and out of Buxton freely during this time - when even the police couldn't?

* Guess which political party organized street protests that turned violent?

* Guess who called for "mo fiya, slow fiya" and for the country to be made ungovernable? And which party warned foreign investors to "quietly fade away"?

* Do these gentlemen think that Guyanese are stupid and so undiscerning and forgetful?

It would be very unfortunate if and very wrong for these gentlemen to think so, because trying to put the blame on the government wouldn't cut it.
NOHAR SINGH
TORONTO, CANADA

APRIL 05, 2003