Please permit me to join with all the others who have expressed condolences to the family and friends of the late Deryck Bernard. Although I have never met him in person, based on what I have gleamed from his writings and the manner in which he conducted himself, I concluded quite a while back that Mr. Bernard belonged to that rare breed of Guyanese who do not allow themselves to be consumed by ethnocentric perspectives and blinkered politics.

He always seemed to strive for objectivity and fairness even when it meant affirming those who did not belong to his political circle, even if they were of opposing practice. Indeed Mr. Bernard conducted himself with decency, humanness and patriotism, qualities that are significant by their absence in many of our leading politicians. His loss is a tragedy to Guyana, especially so at a time when our nation is in dire need of men of his calibre.

Secondly let me state with absolute conviction that I disagree with Freddie Kissoon and Randy Persaud that there is an insurgency in Guyana. I believe that these goodly gentlemen, probably too much influenced by their academia underpinnings, have attempted to connect disparate dots to suppose a holistic structure where none actually exists, and in doing so have mistaken the trees for the forest.

I will address this issue more fully in a later letter; but suffice it is to say that the same literature they refer to clearly indicates that the elements of even a phase one level of insurgency are absent from the landscape in Guyana.

Thirdly while I have a great deal of regard for Eusi Kwayana and Father Malcolm Rodrigues, and I certainly recognise their roles in the struggle for the return of democracy in Guyana, I must join with many others, including the government, in stating that there should not be any dialogue with murdering criminals who some would deem ‘freedom fighters’.

At the same time, I also join the call for the government to create and implement a viable security plan that would include flushing out and capturing these criminals from their lair in the backlands of Buxton and elsewhere.

And since it seems obvious that merely clearing the backlands would not get the job done, as the criminals, adequately warned in advance, would simply move elsewhere. Perhaps the army’s renowned jungle unit should be used to cordon off and sweep through these backlands. After all this is exactly what they’re trained for.
Annan Boodram