By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus The WPA has been around since the 1970s. In the early days it played a useful role in helping the PPP remove the authoritarian Peopleâs National Congress. One of the WPA stalwarts, Dr. Walter Rodney, was assassinated by the state in June 1980. The COI into Rodneyâs death directly pointed fingers at the then ...
Read More »Opinion
OPINION: Guyana: from next Dubai to a new Qatar, a few thoughts
by GHK Lall I like it. As a Guyanese, how can I not like Guyana as the ânew Qatarâ. From Guyana being the ânext Dubai to the ânew Qatarâ certainly has the sound of music to it. But to be either, I must warn that it is not a frolic across the hills. The hills may be ablaze with promise ...
Read More »OPINION: Where is the AFC plan?
By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus There have been recent calls for a consensus-based national development plan. In my view, two versions of consensus warrant attention in the current conjuncture. The first, which I shall call constructive consensus, is based on exchange of substantive ideas that yield positive and measurable outcomes. This form of consensus involves balanced contributions from all ...
Read More »OPINION: Pay proposals for teachers incremental and insulting
by GHK Lall The strike of public school teachers has torn another gaping hole in the fabric of Guyana. The ancient tug-of-war between politics and clean purposes, race and fairness, has been given yet another lease on life. A distressing local existence is what Guyanese have always known. Teachers have endured a torrid time, and their traumas continue without letup. ...
Read More »OPINION: The brink of war: how courts avoid injudicious aggravation of tension between nations
By: Dr. Vivian M. Williams It was a few dreadful months ago that Guyana, one of the worldâs recently minted petro-states, was desperately scrambling to mobilize the international community to avert war with Venezuela. The conflict heightened the risk of instability in the Caribbean and Latin America over a decades-old border controversy between two former colonies, squabbling over territory. When ...
Read More »OPINION: Happy Birthday, Comandante! from Chavez to Maduro
by Alexandra Panzarelli In 1989, excluded Venezuelans took to the streets to condemn a political class that was leaving them behind. It was a bloody encounter between the people and the repressive state that marked a deep fracture with representative democracy in Venezuela. This moment highlighted the consequences of social exclusion and marginalization, revealing a political class deaf to the ...
Read More »OPINION: Ethics versus morality in the Hughes-Exxon relationship
Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus I couldnât help but notice how the WPA literally inserted itself between the PNC and AFC at the Buxton line-top on Emancipation Day. While the photographer who took the shot of Norton and Hughes with the WPA must be given credit, one must wonder why these parties have to rely on the weakest chain in ...
Read More »OPINION: Venezuelan election: intâl chessboard active, Guyana must be sensible
by GHK Lall The battlelines are drawn, and they have all that is ominous about them. Russia, China, and Persia (Iran) came out of the blocks first. The Venezuelan election was transparent, the man won another term of office. Fair and square. Free and fair and transparent. Normally, it would be the end of the matter, except that the US ...
Read More »OPINION: PPP Gov’t: four years of atrocities and calumnies
by GHK Lall August 2nd marked four years of PPP governance. Four years of PPP government-era financial crimes, indigenous rights violations, media rights violations, citizen rights violation. Obscenity and putridity from the PPP governance cesspit. On August 2, 2020, when President Ali swore his oath, I hoped for the dawning of a new day in Guyana. On the fourth anniversary ...
Read More »OPINION: Emancipation Day, I call from president to peasant: let there be the fullest self-emancipation
by GHK Lall May all Guyanese make the best of Emancipation Day 2024. Closing in on 200 years since the abolition of slavery by the British, and considering the incomparable blunt traumas inflicted on Africans, a special hand of warmth is extended to Guyanese of that historical heritage on this their extraordinarily sacred day. Emancipation Day, what can I say? ...
Read More »