Plans by Buxtonians to stop traffic on the Buxton Public Road Saturday morning appeared to have fizzled out and party activists sought to explain the poor response to their public calls.

The little more than 12 persons, bearing banners and placards, snarled traffic for about three minutes shortly after 9 AM when they circled across the road in the vicinity of the filling station. A police mobile patrol quickly arrived on the scene by which time the protesters had already regrouped on the southern side of the thoroughfare. “I’m not here to interfere with you all peaceful protest but we are just asking you to be orderly and let the traffic flow,” a police officer told the protesters.

The protesters carried placards, stating “Buxton in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Linden and Region 10,” “Guyanese subject to executive contempt Ramotar and cabinet must stop now,” “Politics nah gat lil boy. Respect Sharma Solomon,” “We are here in front. Brummel, not afraid,” “Black Blood is precious we will defend it. Buxtonians are ready,” “Rohee must go now. No ifs or buts. Ramotar, act like a man send him home.”

Asked why he thought so few persons responded to his party’s call to block and possibly dig up the road, Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) Executive Member, Professor David Hinds said “only a fool would announce what they are going to do and when they are going to do it.”

He said his previous utterances were aimed at alerting Guyanese that when people are offended they can barricade and dig up the roads if police continue to kill protesters and the country continues to be badly governed. “It is an option that we must not give up and it is the option of extra parliamentary struggle of using what means you have.”

He disputed earlier reports that his party had asked Buxtonians to go out and block the road Saturday morning. He also did not expect villagers to voluntarily join in the picket because the party did not publicise its intention to hold the activity.

“We must not give up the right to retaliate. I think that right to retaliate has been slowly taken away from us. It’s being criminalized and the message here is to tell people that you have the right and there must always be an option to retaliate and the people must decide when to retaliate,” he said.

When asked whether he had not told residents at a public meeting earlier this week that  they had a  date on Saturday and that “Buxton people stop train. On Saturday we stop car,” the veteran WPA member would only say that “Saturday is young, we have all day today.”

Reacting to Police Commissioner, Leroy Brummel’s assertion that leaders were only riling up supporters and afraid of being on the frontline, Hinds flayed police weak police intelligence because he has been always in the forefront.

The WPA activist accused the top cop of plotting to kill him. “He is saying that he is ready to kill me because he is daring me to come on the frontline so that he can show his force and so I want to go on record as saying that Mr Brummel has issued a death warrant for me and I take that very seriously."

Hinds also said that he has lost confidence in the Police Commissioner because he has echoed the government's view that political leaders have been riling up supporters and abandoning them rather than being with them on the frontline.

Here we have the Commissioner of Police repeating the PPP’s song book and that is very ominous so I think I have reached the point where we can no longer have confidence in Mr. Brummel and I put that within the larger context of the ruling class in this country, and particular the African ruling class, which is prepared to murder its own people, which is prepared to look after its own personal aggrandizement at the expense of the people,” he said.

Several WPA leaders were on the Buxton Public Road picket line including Hinds, Desmond Trotman and Deon Abrams.

The state-run Government Information Agency (GINA) quoted Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira as taking a verbal swipe at Hinds, a United States-based Political Science Professor.

GINA reported that Teixeira believes that for persons who would like to undermine what has been achieved, it is regrettable, and alluded specifically to the comments made by Working People’s Alliance member David Hinds who does not live in Guyana but ‘hops on a plane and tells us as a people what to do’.

“I don’t think this is the time for naysayers or persons who feel that they know better than those of us who sat in the room hour after hour, day after day…this is the time for us to recognise that this stage we have reached at, is one that has to be nurtured, encouraged and built on and not to be dissected and used as an opportunity for further problems,” Teixeira said.

Region 10 Council-Gov’t agreement 

Professor Hinds described the initialled agreement between the Region 10 Council and the Donald Ramotar administration on Friday as a “giant step forward” to address Lindeners’ concerns about a hike in electricity rates, liberalization of the television spectrum and the crafting of an economic plan for the once bauxite-dependent town.

He credited the success of the negotiations to more than 20 days of unrest in the town that saw key roads through the town to the interior being locked off. The tension also resulted in three persons being killed and 20 others injured during clashes with police as well several public buildings burnt down.

“Let us understand that what happened there yesterday would not have occurred without the people of Linden standing up so it is a victory for the people of Linden,” he said.

At the same time he urged vigilance by Lindeners to ensure that the agreement is implemented because of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration’s history of not honouring agreements. “If they do not implement these things, we must have the option of forcing them to retaliate.”

For her part, the Presidential Advisor on Governance assured that government would implement the agreement with the Region 10 Council under the Chairmanship of Sharma Solomon.

“It has been a long road to reach this and we anticipate that this will bring some leveling off and cooling down of the passions and the rhetoric…we were able to get to the business of having signed the agreement on Monday and get into the business of implementing what has been agreed to,” Teixeira was quoted as saying by GINA.

The Region 10 Chairman was later Saturday due to explain to residents the details of the agreement and by early next week sign it with government representatives.

That would almost certainly see the removal of remaining obstructions on roads in Wismar and allow the free flow of passengers and cargo to and from the interior.

Regions 7,8 and 9 have for several weeks now had to go with little or no supplies of basic necessities and in some cases relying on trickles through Georgetown-Parika-Essequibo River-Bartica-Potaro or by plane.