The shocking 'hero's funeral’ given to the criminal `Blackie’ with the national flag draped on his coffin, would pale into insignificance, outrageous as it was, when compared with the shameful, disgusting, vulgar gesticulations and horrible rowdyism at the State funeral of Mr. Hoyte that December day.

It would have been a most embarrassing day for the PNC/R, whatever its previous politics that may have contributed to such uncivilised behaviour. It was certainly most hurtful to the grieving widow, Mrs. Joyce Hoyte, who could never have imagined such rude, irreligious, callous behaviour the day she simply wanted her husband to be given a decent burial.

Those who have since, unbelievably, sought to rationalise or even apologise for what transpired at the Parliament Building as well at the Place of the Seven Ponds have succeeded only in adding insult to injury and further demeaned themselves. There could be no justification whatsoever, by anyone with even a modicum of decency, for that day of national shame.

That the manifested vulgarities were pre-planned, well organised, with no concern for even the widow and other members of the Hoyte family, must be in no doubt.

That the PNC/R itself would have been stunned by the developments must be accepted. What is now necessary, a required post mortem, is for the PNC/R to undertake an honest and thorough investigation to determine who were the architects, the primary organisers of what happened that day the party buried its second leader in 17 years.

Some of the culprits could easily be identified. The police may be of some help. But it is a matter for the PNC/R. Hopefully, when it completes its investigation it will have the strength, the decency, in fairness to itself and its late leader, and also as a moral obligation to all Guyanese, to take appropriate actions against the evil doers who disgraced themselves, their party and Guyana.

This process should not have to wait for the special delegates congress being planned for February 1 to fill the leadership vacuum created by the death of Desmond Hoyte.

It could well be viewed as a most ugly manifestation of the "dangerous adventurism" alluded to last week by the PNC/R's interim leader, Mr. Robert Corbin when talking about the "resolve" and "steadfast commitment" of a post-Hoyte party.

Some within the ranks of the PNC/R may not now wish to be reminded about it, but those members of the public whose memories are not short, would recall a link with what happened outside Parliament on the day of Hoyte's funeral and the dirty, scandalous e-mail sent out at 2.30 a.m. on the morning of October 20, 2002, by a well known activist member of that party. It had to do with a phallic symbol as a "new Guyana emblem"

The depravity of that e-mail messenger was more than matched at the Parliament Building and Place of the Seven Ponds on the day of Desmond Hoyte's funeral.

Editorial Page for Sunday, January 12 2003