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FM
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Home > NEWS > Remembering the Ballot Box Martyrs…
Well-wishers pay tribute to the memory of the ballot box martyrs at last year’s memorial.
Well-wishers pay tribute to the memory of the ballot box martyrs at last year’s memorial. 

Remembering the Ballot Box Martyrs…

 

Let us be united and inspired

TOMORROW, JULY 16, we will be commemorating the brutal murder of our two exemplary Comrades Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar. These two young men were ruthlessly and brutally gunned down as they were among their villagers who were struggling for free and fair elections in Guyana. 

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Neil Kumar

On that fatal day July 16, 1973, forty-one years ago, Bholanauth Permanand and Jagan Ramessar were shot and killed by a Guyana Defence Force Officer. Guyanese were fully aware of the People’s National Congress’ wicked approach to National Elections, specifically, their heinous intentions to rig the elections. Investigations by the Justice Dhanessar Jhappan Commission of Inquiry revealed the high likelihood of a PPP victory if the Elections were run in a free and fair manner. The Commission cited the massive public meetings held by the People’s Progressive Party and the overwhelming public display of support for Dr. Cheddi Jagan as evidence of this. The PNC, in order to ensure their victory by any means necessary, deployed the security forces, both army and police, to all parts of the country.
In addition to the regular strength at the Police Stations in Berbice, a battalion was deployed from the Guyana Defence Force under Captain Johnson.
Captain Johnson had his headquarters in the Compound of the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam. Captain Johnson’s men were further broken up into smaller groups and a platoon under the command of Lieutenant Henry was sent to the Upper Corentyne on the 7th June, 1973. The section consisted of two Sergeants, three Corporals, five Lance Corporals and nine Privates, that is twenty men in all, including Lieutenant Henry. The platoon pitched camp at No. 51 Backdam and remained there until the 19th June, 1973. From there they went to Plantation Skeldon, remaining there until the 27th June, 1973 when they moved on to No. 63 and bivouacked on the beach. On the 14th June, 1973, they left No. 63 Beach and set up camp in the compound of the No. 51 Police Station. They had with them self-loading rifles, submachine guns, tear smoke grenades and steel helmets.

‘Bholanauth Parmanand and 17-year-old Jagan Ramessar were shot by armed agents of the PNC dictatorship at No. 63 Village, Corentyne during the 1973 Elections while peacefully protesting the illegal removal of the ballot boxes from the place of poll at the end of voting’

Yours truly worked on that polling day in Pouderoyen, and as we were coming out at 5:30 a.m. I recalled seeing GDF soldiers crawling on the roadside with their guns.
A physical manifestation of the PNC’s heinous intention to terrorize the population was unleashed in the form of thugs, police and the Army.
It is not by chance that Private London of the Guyana Defence Force was later known to Guyanese as “Blackie”! He was one of the masterminds among the criminal gangs that terrorized the Guyanese people. “Blackie” was killed in a shootout with the police and the PNC draped his coffin with the National Flag and gave him a PNC farewell funeral.
The 16th of July 1973, with Corporal Collins, Privates Mc Kenzie, Layne and London (Blackie) of the Guyana Defence Force Sergeant Ross and Police Constable Seecharran of the Police Force, Lieutenant Henry took along with him tear smoke grenades, respirators, steel helmets, two submachine guns, rifles and bayonets. He himself was armed with one of the submachine guns. Corporal Collins had the other.
The PNC thugs with all their armed might descended on the Corentyne with the clear intention to take full control of the ballot boxes and remove the representatives of other three political parties from around the ballot boxes.
Bholanauth Parmanand was killed and his dear wife and four children had to endure the death of the breadwinner of their home as their loving husband and father was ripped from them in the most brutal manner possible.
Young Jagan Ramessar was shot and killed and the Army threw him in their vehicle and drove him around as he was kicked and stamped upon. He was paraded to send a message to the people in Berbice. Approximately five hours later, after his corpse was unspeakably desecrated, he was taken to New Amsterdam Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Jagan Ramessar, only eighteen-years-old, was brutally murdered and his parents and other relatives are today still crying.
Parmanand’s immediate family and his comrades, forty-one years later, still vividly recall the unbelievably brutal and monstrous debacle that was the 1973 elections.
My Dear Comrade Rishi Ram Motie and his friends tearfully recounted for me what they witnessed on that day. Motie suffered a broken nose. His body was black and blue as he was cuffed and kicked. Scores of persons were badly beaten and threatened. Families were humiliated and separated. Rishi Ram Mote is still alive and he is a genuine activist with the PPP.
During the campaign before July 16th it was clear that the People’s Progressive Party meetings attracted massive support while the PNC had a sprinkling of people. Motie, as he sobbed, told me that when the election results were announced and the PNC was the winning Party, nobody accepted the results. The PNC terrorists continued to terrorize the Berbicians as hundreds of people fled their homes and went across to Suriname, while others went into hiding for weeks and months. As a result, thousands of Berbicians and other Guyanese were forced to leave Guyana.
As we celebrate and recognize that our two comrades made the supreme sacrifice in the fight for free and fair elections, Mr. Motie said that he is disappointed and worried to see some people who were on our side only recently are today sitting in the Parliament with some of those who were in the Army and are fully aware of how brutal the PNC was towards the Guyanese people.
As we are preparing to celebrate the heroic memories of Martyrs Ramessar and Bholanauth, let us call on all Berbicians and Guyanese to struggle to stop all forms of rigging of elections in Guyana.
Guyanese must never forget that many eminent persons such as Dr. Walter Rodney were assassinated and murdered during the dark days of the PNC rule. Today, we must draw strength, unite and work together for the maintenance and further development of the democracy we now enjoy.
We must ensure that the memories of Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar live on in us and let their sacrifice inspire us to rally with Comrade Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party.
As we prepare for General and Regional Elections let us walk the walk, house-to-house and see that every voter’s name is on the voters list. Let us live and work for a better Guyana! Long live Bholanauth and Ramessar!

(By Neil Kumar)

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Get real, yuji.

The May 11 elections are about the PPP abysmal track record.

And most voters, particularly the large youth segment, want to know what plans the PPP has for their future.

They are forward looking.

You are harping on a tune of futility.

David Granger says: “We are confident that we are going to win on May 11. As far as the PPP/C is concerned, we have closed the door on winner-takes-all politics. And what we have done and are saying to you now is that if an alliance means we have 52 percent of the votes, we will not lock out 48 percent of the people. That is my promise to you.”

FM
Originally Posted by Shaitaan:

These two idiots would be alive today if they didn't interfere with government servants carrying out their duties

 

Who tell them to go interfere?

yuji22 and the PPPites won't want to touch this question, but facts are facts and the truth must be told.

During the 1973 general elections campaign Dr Cheddi Jagan told his supporters to hold on to the ballot boxes at the polling stations and don't let go of them.

Dr Jagan knew full well that according to the GECOM regulations at that time, ballots were to be transferred to Georgetown from all polling stations.

In effect Dr Jagan told his supporters to break the law.

Those two PPP supporters in Berbice got killed because they were ill-advised to break the law.

FM

This is a thread of utter desperation by yuji22.

The APNU-AFC coalition is giving yuji mental-psychological gripe.

But Guyana must move on.

Enough of 22years of PPP corrupt family government that has no respect for black people and uses them shamelessly to do its dirty humiliating work.

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Shaitaan:

These two idiots would be alive today if they didn't interfere with government servants carrying out their duties

 

Who tell them to go interfere?

yuji22 and the PPPites won't want to touch this question, but facts are facts and the truth must be told.

During the 1973 general elections campaign Dr Cheddi Jagan told his supporters to hold on to the ballot boxes at the polling stations and don't let go of them.

Dr Jagan knew full well that according to the GECOM regulations at that time, ballots were to be transferred to Georgetown from all polling stations.

In effect Dr Jagan told his supporters to break the law.

Those two PPP supporters in Berbice got killed because they were ill-advised to break the law.

 

Two idiots listen to Jagan and got into a physical altercation with Army/Police acting under orders.

 

Was this really gonna stop the rigging going on? Having innocent civilians used as human shields?

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a pacifist. But armed struggle is armed struggle. This is sending ordinary people to get killed.

FM
Originally Posted by yuji22:

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You are quite an idiot to post something as stupid as this to try and prove a point...no one here seems to know what it is you are trying to prove other than what a great butthole you are.

cain
Last edited by cain

To date:

 

The racist PNC refuses to apologize to Indo Guyanese for crimes committed against them. 

 

Indos were treated as third class citizens in their own country.

 

We had to flee and seek shelter in USA and Canada.

 

Never forgive the dawgs in the PNC.

 

WE must Never forgive the racist dawgs in the PNC and shame on Moses and Ramjattan for selling us out to the PNC.

FM

The PNC is back, so beware

 

THERE are some recent developments in the political arena which would suggest that the PNC has intensified its efforts to resurrect their late founder-leader Forbes Burnham.Guyanese would have thought that the PNC was serious in projecting a new image when they embarked on name changes and party symbols. One would have thought that the WPA leaders believed that the ‘hand’ on APNU’s symbol was meant to be a ‘clean hand’, one which can be trusted. Furthermore, AFC leaders have now embarked on a journey to convince Guyanese that they must forget the past. What is a great puzzle is on one hand Guyanese are asked to forget the past, while on the other hand, the current leaders of the PNC are intensifying their efforts to resurrect the past and the man who destroyed this country with his dictatorial rule through the barefaced rigging of elections and corruption.
Firstly, the PNC decided to start their election campaign on Burnham’s birthday and this is no coincidence. They want the supporters of the PNC to know that they have not moved away from the principles of the Founder-Leader and that the identity of the party has not been compromised in any way. This is in effect saying the WPA has been swallowed into the belly of the PNC and has lost its identity. APNU is the PNC of old! This is the spirit of revival which will cause the emotional surge to revitalise and energise the PNC supporters since the message is: the old PNC is here again!
Secondly, the strategic coalition of the AFC and APNU is the old modus operandi which was used by Burnham in 1964. The PNC is willing to coalesce with AFC in order to depose the PPP. The Cummingsburg Accord is without legal merit, it is outside the Constitution and depends heavily on the premise that Granger will honour the arrangement. But again, it should be recalled that when D’Augiar resigned as Finance Minister, the other ministers of the UF were bought by Burnham and the UF lost its Third party status forever. The present APNU/AFC coalition can be seen to be taken from the ‘playbooks of Forbes Burnham’, not Cheddi Jagan’s, as was wrongfully attributed by Ralph Ramkarran! Ramkarran should know that the present coalition is about acquiring power by the PNC and has nothing to do with social and economic development of this country. Show some sense of objectivity, Mr Ramkarran!
Thirdly, it must be noted with great interest that Robert Corbin is back! According to APNU’s General Secretary, ‘ the party has realised that its past members, as well as its present members, can make all the difference in the results of the elections…so Mr Corbin has a role to play’. Corbin’s nefarious role in the old PNC is not easily forgotten. Is it a coincidencethat the old PNC players are coming home to roost? These are people who were part of the gang which destroyed this country. They have deliberately kept in the background but have now emerged because the final kill has been made- the AFC has been craftily snared and the PNC has everything on stream to achieve what they have been deprived of since 1992.Trotman has done well to use the hate-mongers– Nagamootoo and Ramjattan — to the advantage of the PNC.
But the PNC has failed to understand that those who have supported the AFC in the past will never support the PNC, since the past has been indelibly written in their very psyche and soul. This is not about Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese, it is about a dictatorial government which jailed people and seize their property simply because they wanted food; a government which pauperised an entire nation; a government which rigged and murdered people to stay in power; a government which caused an exodus of the people and a government which denied its people basic human rights and dignity.
The old PNC is back, so beware!
HASEEF YUSUF
AFC Councillor-Region 6

 

extracted from the Guyana Chronicle

FM
Originally Posted by cain:

I hope the admin take care of yugi, the banna seems to be havin a breakdown on the board. Ban him rass riff, for bein stupid.

 

We can't start banning people for being schupid. We do that and this whole place has to shut down.

FM

You have belly wuk when yuji takes on the PNC and you are now are calling for banning.

 

Let me tell you this. I have not broken one single forum rule.

 

This is election mode. Get used to it.

 

PNC must be destroyed and exposed for their wrongdoings.

 

AFC traitors must also be exposed.

FM
Originally Posted by yuji22:

 

Indos were treated as third class citizens in their own country.

 

We had to flee and seek shelter in USA and Canada.

 

 

Yuji, you're a barefaced liar.

You yourself wrote on this BB that your father packed you away to Canada to prevent you from marrying your first love in Berbice.

FM
Originally Posted by yuji22:

More fireworks to come. Gloves are off.

 

Election mode is on.

 

Time to expose the PNC. Who vex vex.

How is posting the same shit year in year out exposing anyone but yourself you idiot?

cain
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by yuji22:

 

Indos were treated as third class citizens in their own country.

 

We had to flee and seek shelter in USA and Canada.

 

 

Yuji, you're a barefaced liar.

You yourself wrote on this BB that your father packed you away to Canada to prevent you from marrying your first love in Berbice.

 

Like most of the posters here with PNC sob stories about dhall and aloo, he's lying.

 

I probably have more experience living under the PNC than these foreign refugees.

FM

Indos still 3rd class under PPP. PPP did not use any pro-Indian strategies.  You still have to bribe black workers for documents or approvals in any govt agency.

 

Govt too busy fixing deals for themselves and parasitic bourgeoisie to care about poor Indians in the country.

 

As we said in 1992, when people yearned for change, Every Race Punishing. The country's races moved to the bank accounts of the PPP and their rich friends; there was not much trickle down to the working poor making $30,000- $40,000 a month.  Help our Corentyne people who fought for Jagan to understand that the PPP today is the party of "pension and mansion" Jagdeo, not the PPP we knew and loved when the Jagans were alive.

 

Moses and Ramjattan are the 2 most credible leaders we have and they have Jaganite hearts.  If you liked Jagan, you must like these 2 brothers.

 

It was the PPP Jagdeoites who embraced the Burnham-era terrorists who are in their bosoms now. The PPP of Jagdeo are the ones who are betraying the ballot box martyrs.  The PPP refused to hold local govt elections.  Donald asked, do you want national elections or local govt elections.  That reminds me of Burnham asking at labour day speeches, you want increased minimum wage or electricity?

 

So Burnham stole elections and the PPP Jagdeoites also stole your right to vote at LGEs.  Help people understand that.

FM
Originally Posted by Spontaneous emission:

 

The stench and fracture in the AFC is being exposed by their own members.

Moses and Rumjhaat are Traitors who sold out to the PNC riggers and fraudsters.

FM

The People knows that the PNC cannot be trusted.

 

Moses betrayed the Indo-Guyanese people and they know that he cannot be trusted.

 

A merger between two untrusted foes spells out the anatomy of disaster.

The PNC is evil.  They are the true anti-Christ.

R
Originally Posted by Ramakant-P:

The People knows that the PNC cannot be trusted.

 

Moses betrayed the Indo-Guyanese people and they know that he cannot be trusted.

 

A merger between two untrusted foes spells out the anatomy of disaster.

The PNC is evil.  They are the true anti-Christ.

 

When did we appoint you Maharaja of the Indo-Guyanese Tribe? Do you speak for all of us?

 

Are you even a Berbician? Or are you another lungeera from the Demerara or Essequibo pretending to be our spokesman?

FM
Originally Posted by Shaitaan:
Originally Posted by Ramakant-P:

The People knows that the PNC cannot be trusted.

 

Moses betrayed the Indo-Guyanese people and they know that he cannot be trusted.

 

A merger between two untrusted foes spells out the anatomy of disaster.

The PNC is evil.  They are the true anti-Christ.

 

When did we appoint you Maharaja of the Indo-Guyanese Tribe? Do you speak for all of us?

 

Are you even a Berbician? Or are you another lungeera from the Demerara or Essequibo pretending to be our spokesman?

What I am, I am.

I speak the truth...

I AM FROM BOTH COUNTIES...

R
Originally Posted by Ramakant-P:
Originally Posted by Shaitaan:
Originally Posted by Ramakant-P:

The People knows that the PNC cannot be trusted.

 

Moses betrayed the Indo-Guyanese people and they know that he cannot be trusted.

 

A merger between two untrusted foes spells out the anatomy of disaster.

The PNC is evil.  They are the true anti-Christ.

 

When did we appoint you Maharaja of the Indo-Guyanese Tribe? Do you speak for all of us?

 

Are you even a Berbician? Or are you another lungeera from the Demerara or Essequibo pretending to be our spokesman?

What I am, I am.

I speak the truth...

I AM FROM BOTH COUNTIES...

 

Are you a Berbician? Were you born there? How about your family's long history of Berbician roots?

 

Speak for your goddamn self. Not Berbicians. Cause you ain't!

FM
Originally Posted by Ramakant-P:

That is irrelevant.  I now conclude that your answer indicates that you misunderstand my rhetorical innuendoes..

 

Shanti!

 

I have no clue what you were attempting to rhetorically innuendo chap

FM

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