Granger endorsed the soldiers’ actions on elections day 1973
Written by D. RAMROOP
Friday, 18 March 2011 02:28
RECENTLY, there has been a lot of attention on Rtd. Brigadier David Granger, especially since his election as the Presidential Candidate of the PNCR.
A lot of commentators seem to be concerned with what they called “efforts to delve into Mr. Granger’s past”.
But what is so wrong with that? Here is a gentleman who is aspiring for the highest office in the Land.
To want to investigate his past, understand his views and position and gather information on his involvement in public life is perfectly in order.
This sort of scrutiny of public officials is necessary and happens in every corner of the world. For example, we have seen the lengthy process of scrutiny that Supreme Court nominees in the United States are subjected to, and this is not even the highest office in that federation.
Scrutiny of persons, especially in the instance of wanting to be President in Guyana, is especially important if we remember the famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
A significant portion of our populace, and moreso, our electorate are too young to have firsthand experience of the past.
But let us not allow the PNC to pull wool over our eyes and pretend that they have always cared about a united Guyana.
It is in this light that I wish to revisit, not hearsay, but Mr. Granger’s published works.In 2003, in Chile, Mr. Granger presented a paper entitled “Civil Violence, Domestic Terrorism and Internal Security in Guyana, 1953 – 2003”, wherein he referred to the sinking of MV Sun Chapman when 40 African Guyanese were killed as “the most alarming slaughter of the ‘disturbances’ between the period 1953 – 2004.
Yet, nowhere in this work were the beatings, rape and murder of hundreds of innocent Indian Guyanese residing in Wismar ever mentioned.
Indians were forced out of their own homes, which were then permanently occupied by the perpetrators; yet this was not considered in Granger’s writing of the history of civil violence in Guyana.
If this is not blatant racism and intellectual dishonesty on the part of Mr. Granger then what is?
Was Mr. Granger trying to portray an image that the Wismar massacre never occurred, or should not be considered civil violence?
Please tell us why this horrific event never made its way into your report, Sir? It should also be noted that in this lecture no mention was made of January 12, 1998, when supporters of the PPP were beaten, robbed and stripped, with females–even young students being molested on the streets of Georgetown.
The PNC and even some sections of the media are outraged with the President’s Babu John comments - that Mr. Granger has blood on his bands.
However, it was the same Mr. Granger, who claimed to have been stationed at Atkinson Field (now Timehri) and thus had no hand in the 1973 Ballot Box shooting at Number 63 Village, Corentyne, that later published “The New Road – A Short History of the Guyana Defence Force – 1966 – 1976” that incidentally bore prominent the flags of the PNC, GDF and Guyana.
One can only imagine what the reaction would be like if Commodore Gary Best or any serving officer of the GDF were to issue a publication with the PPP’s flag embedded in it.
In “The New Road – A Short History of the Guyana Defence Force – 1966 – 1976” Mr Granger wrote, “National elections were scheduled for July 1973.
Realising that their hold on the electorate was slipping further and in an abortive attempt to forestall an obvious and overwhelming PNC victory, a campaign of violence and resistance was planned by the PPP.
The GDF was called in to aid the civil power and prevent a breakdown of law and order that was planned by the gangsters.
The operation established the maturity and competence of the Force and through sensible precautions and deployment, the PPP plan was frustrated.
The soldiers behaved splendidly in the face of provocation.
The sound political education that the officers and soldiers received during 1971 and 1972 enabled them to act with tact, discretion and firmness in 1973 and this saved the day.
The GDF, fully aware of the government’s policy and dedicated to serving the working masses, performed really creditably.”
How can shooting and then allowing two men to bleed to death simply because they demanded that the ballots be counted at the place of polls rather than taken away by the GDF be endorsed as “splendid” and “discretionary” behaviour?
Where was the “discretion” in murdering these two young men for protesting their democratic right to have their votes counted?
What was “really credible” in the army taking the ballot boxes to the GDF base?
Yet there is objection to the comment that Mr. Granger has blood on his hands. One would be perfectly in order to say I was not even born in 1973, much less was nine years old, but Mr. Granger I am only reading from your history books.
There is no dispute that the 1973 election was rigged. This fact is documented by both local as well as international organisations.
Yet Mr. Granger had the audacity to refer to the PPP as wanting to “forestall an obvious and overwhelming PNC victory” in 1973.
Now that he is older and hopefully wiser with age one wonders if he is not ashamed at the blatant lies and distortion of history that he promoted in his booklet.
Mr. Granger, you may have conveniently forgotten your role in promoting a racially divided Guyana, but your writings are there for all of us to examine and indeed revisit history.
Finally, I wish to remind those who criticise the PPP, of a statement from the “Declaration of Sophia”, where then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, in 1974, reminded those gathered, perhaps including Rtd Brigadier Granger, that it was decided “that the Party should assume unapologetically its paramountcy over the government, which is merely one of its executive arms.”
