GHK Lall has intimated that Azruddin Mohamed should adjust his strategy from his parliamentary role as LOO to one along the lines of the Viet Cong. He wants the man to live off the land, and to adopt strategies normally like those used in guerrilla movements. Simply put, this implies the use of violent methods to bring down a government or even the state.
Here is Lall in his own words – “Being a stealth operator is key. Mr. Mohamed has to remake himself. From Opposition Leader to guerrilla fighter operating in an untraditional zone and a unknown dimension in Guyana. He has to live off the land.”
- Use the civilian population as your principal resources (a fish in the sea model)
- Hide behind that civilian population while you carry out violent acts against the state.
- Expect the state will retaliate and that civilians will be killed or if that does not happen, kill popular civilian personalities and blame it on the state.
- Live off the land, move with stealth, ‘get off the grid’. (Be like bin Laden).
- Construct narratives of government oppression and present yourself as the saviour.
In any number of countries this exhortation would be considered a call to organized violence, and the provocateur would be considered a national security threat. But Guyana is a democracy today, and the free press is still free.
The call for a guerrilla strategy is directly related to the fact that the PPP/C under the Irfaan Ali government has been making step-level improvements in the lives of the Guyanese people. Dramatic improvements in the lives of everyday working people, the elderly, students from kindergarten to university, farmers, small business owners, investors, the disabled — and this across all ethnic groups in all regions, is bad news for those who want to start terrorism in Guyana.
A satisfied civilian population is bad news for those who wants a strategy of guerrilla terrorism. Stability is inconvenient. Progress is bad news. Development is disturbing to them. Home ownership is a step in the wrong direction for them. A Guyana that is now being seen as a shining light of betterment for its people is bad news for them. Improved cross-cultural communication and inter-ethnic cooperation is anathema to them.
The guerrilla men prefer instabilities, disruptions, riots, bombings, and when these are not enough, then move on to bloodbaths, massacres, fully-blown insurgencies. Guerrilla warfare: that is the dream for them. Live off the land. Hide. Get off the grid. Use civilians as cannon fodder, while the terrorist guerrilla leader and his columnist friends lie warm and secure at home, polishing the Lamborghini, writing another column.
Be careful what you wish for. Words have consequences.