GIVE IT TO UNCLE FREDDIE!
Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News
February 18, 2007
I believe that Clairmont Lye has done a good thing in returning his national award. He ought never to have accepted it in the first place.
I am sure that there are many good reasons why Lye can be considered as someone who made a positive contribution to Guyana . However, he was bestowed with a national award specifically for his contribution to the restoration of democracy and it is on that basis we must assess whether the PPP administration was not too liberal in dispensing this national award to him.
I have read in the newspapers that Mr. Lye was associated with the reform movement GUARD, of which Prime Minister Samuel Hinds became a Chairman. However, I doubt very much whether the PPP government would have granted him a national award for his work with GUARD.
After all, the PPP had stolen Hinds away from GUARD and Dr. Jagan harboured bitter feelings towards GUARD and its role in announcing its own consensus candidate, an announcement that drove a rift within the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy and effectively scuttled any chances of a joint slate and consensus candidate for the 2002 elections.
Reading Dr. Jagan's views about the role Dr. Nanda Gopaul played in that process is very revealing. I therefore do not feel that the PPP considered GUARD to be an important contributor to the restoration of democracy and therefore it has to be in another capacity that Mr. Lye was awarded his national medal.
That capacity, I believe must be his involvement with the Elections Assistance Bureau. I believe that it is because of the work of the EAB and Mr. Lye's headship of this bureau that he was granted a national award for his role in the restoration of democracy. I however felt that this award was too premature.
The EAB came on the scene just before the 1992 elections and while it is true that it did a tremendous job in voter education and checking the voters' list, I believe that its participation did not age justify a national award.
I would have given the EAB an award after the 1997 elections for its role in voter education and monitoring, but not so soon after the 1992 elections and not for its role in the restoration of democracy.
Ironically, when the 1992 elections got underway, the EAB posted observers at many polling stations but when riots broke out in the City it closed its office doors.
I would like at this stage to suggest that the medal that has been returned to the government should be given to a special Guyanese who is long deserving of a national award for his contribution to the restoration of democracy in Guyana .
I am quite serious when I say that the person who made the greatest contribution to the restoration of democracy in Guyana , second only to that of Cheddi Jagan, is Uncle Freddie.
Okay, I know he is ill-mannered; I know he lacks the social polish that one associates with recipients of such an award; I know he needs to get rid of that hippy hairstyle, but any objective assessment of those who contributed to the restoration of democracy cannot ignore the tremendous contribution of Uncle Freddie, a singular, courageous voice who for years ran columns in the Stabroek News and later a television programme, exposing the wrongs that were taking place under the PNC regime.
There have been a great many people today who were given national awards since the PPP took over. Uncle Freddie has shockingly been bypassed in all the years that awards were given. This is unforgivable oversight for someone who was braver than most when it came to standing up to and standing down the dictatorial PNC regime.
There are a great many people today who are mouthing off about the fight to restore free and fair elections in this country. However, I did not recall many of them taking a stand during the long vigil of the same PPP that today they are cuddling under.
When many were afraid to speak out, Uncle Freddie, spoke out. And he did not belong to any propertied class. He too, like Walter Rodney, had to fend for a living. Yet he spoke out then and continues to do so. He is one of those brave Guyanese who deserved to have been recognised for speaking out when so many were afraid to do so and when so many were silent. How can we speak about democracy when we refuse to honour someone who played an important role in the struggle for freedom in this country?
The government of Guyana which likes so much to boast about the dawn of a new era, should be ashamed that after fourteen years in office, it has failed to honour Uncle Freddie. It should be ashamed because not only is he one of the most brilliant sons this country ever produced, but he has also been a fierce voice of independence that was a constant thorn in the sides of all oppressors in Guyana , including those of the present genre.
And it is not only Uncle Freddie alone that should have been honoured. Why was Rupert Roopnarine and Paul Tennassee never honoured for their contributions?
I believe that Mr. Lye has done something that we should thank him for. I do not agree with his reasons for retuning the medal but I respect his integrity in so doing.
I believe that there are others who are in receipt of national awards who should, for different reasons from Mr. Lye, return their medals. I know of at least two persons who are in receipt of some of the top national awards of the country who ought not to have accepted these awards since they are not deserving of so high an honour. I think these two persons should also return their medals and accepted lesser awards.