Critique of Dr. Hinds' work deemed intellectual dishonesty
Dear Editor,
I respond to a letter by Dr. Randy Persaud, outlining a critique of Dr. David Hinds' most recent work published in the SES, a UWI journal.
Dr. Persaud is being intellectual dishonest...as blunt as that. He is accusing Dr. Hinds of some inconsistencies, and he is just throwing around concepts to make some readers feel that his is a scholarly piece. This is intellectual fraud.
Trouillot's concept of 'silence' is of anthropological relevance and its context is quite different to the Guyana sociopolitical conundrum….to my mind, an intellectually worthless tool of analysis, in this case.
Maybe in its literal sense, yes, for Dr. Persaud wants to silence the contribution of the "2% party" in giving the PPP a majority in Parliament in 1992, an act which was seen as a betrayal by the WPA rank and file supporters, who for a few were African Guyanese. This critical misjudgment by Dr. Hind's party has taken its toll on all of its membership.
Dr. Jagan had failed to grasp the olive branch for consolidating national unity as offered him by the WPA and instead, showed that the PPP was only using other progressive forces to get their hands on power, so to speak; the reason today for such extreme Afro-centric expressions coming from by leading members/supporters of ACDA (once WPA activists). Dr. Persaud in critising Dr. Hinds is trying to give legitimacy to the PPP's current political interest, even if by employing his notion of Trouillot's concept.
I said to David the one time we met (met him in DC with some mutual friends) that the question of national unity in Guyana is a double edge sword. A lot of us Afro-Guyanese sometimes get upset when one of our own tries to be honest and open of our circumstance and is critical of our own Afro-Guyanese leadership.
On the other side, the Indo-Guyanese prefers to blindly defend the actions of the PPP even to his own peril. Of late, we see some Indo-Guyanese being critical of Dr. Jagan and the PPP. But as things are, if these guys were accepted by the PPP as faithful supporters, we would have never seen any such works.
In other word, unless there is fallout, the Indians are mum. It serves the narrow self interest of some Indo-Guyanese to have someone, especially an Afro-Guyanese to chastise the PNC, Burnham and Hoyte, but 'beloved' Cheddi is above reproach. But soldier on David; you are looking at the other side of the coin now.
Evan Thomas