We need to be constantly on guard
Viewpoint
By: David de Groot
Guyana Chronicle
April 17, 2004
IT IS difficult to remain unconcerned about the extent to which the major opposition political party is prepared to indulge in order to maintain a state of uneasiness in the society. Also it is not easy to forget the enunciated policy of making the state ungovernable.
The current political environment has clearly been engineered by the PNC/R and its leader. It fits the pattern and desire of that party to have a state of discontent with the government and ruling party in place.
The happenings in Venezuela where the legally elected government headed by Hugo Chavez is currently facing a fierce situation of chaos by opposition elements, whose sole intention is the overthrow of the democratically elected Chaves government, should be followed. There are some familiar activities, which were instructive, and some quotes from recent papers are reprinted thus: (and I quote). "The opposition did not manage to bring about a major demonstration, but it did manage to create the image of chaos and violence that it needed."
Another "...what is being doubted is the good will of the political operators of the opposition, who have been accustomed by decades of fraud and electoral muddying that fabricated citizens' will."
Again another: "But who can assure that an opposition that bypasses the rules of the games whenever it is convenient to its interests will accept the verdict of the people at the urns if this verdict should prove to be favorable to Chavez?"
And finally, "The opposition strategy of provoking cells of violence in order to amplify and diffuse en masse an image of chaos and un-governability in the country, which would prepare the terrain for a potential foreign intervention, thus suffered a serious blow."
Note the similarity? These are actions of opposition forces against a democratically elected government right next door in Venezuela! We Guyanese cannot be too vigilant in preserving our own peace and ensuring that chaos is kept at bay.
A troubling factor to all of this chicanery in Venezuela is the now established fact that an agency of the U.S. government, National Endowment for Democracy, is funding the opposition against the Chavez government. This report appeared on the Internet on
April 13, 2003 and was written by Bart Jones and I quote: "Some 2000 pages of newly disclosed documents show that the little known National Endowment for Democracy is financing a vast array of groups; campesinos, businessmen, educators, even an organization leading a recall drive against Chavez. Some compare the agency, in certain of its activities, to the CIA of previous decades when the agency was regularly used to interfere in the affairs of Latin American countries.
"It certainly shows an incredible pattern of financing basically every single sector in Venezuelan society," said Eva Golinger, the Brooklyn, New York-based attorney, who helped obtain the documents through Freedom of Information Act requests. That's the most amazing part about it.
Serious questions arise out of this policy of duplicity by Washington and instruct any prudent government to be wary of statements of support and promotion of democracy emanating from this source.
In Guyana we need to be constantly on guard against an opposition that will go to any length to attain power and to review our foreign policy independence vis a vis the recent travel document fiasco.