NOW THE PEPPER BUNNIN’…TIME FOR AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

Mar 29, 2009 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

By Raphael Trotman

Three weeks ago the AFC was accused of having “pepper sauce” links. Two weeks later, the President and Government of Guyana were fighting a rearguard and futile battle to fend off allegations of being knowledgeable and involved in the activities of Roger Khan. This is what is called poetic justice.
Now that the bouncers are flying right, left, and centre, there is an unbelievable attempt to duck, fend off, and play these bouncers that are being pelted at the Jagdeo administration by the revelations coming from the U.S. Court’s filed documents. No one is impressed.

As was explained when the pepper sauce was thrown at us, we believed that it was part of a grand scheme to bamboozle the people of Guyana, and distract them from what was happening at CLICO, the threat of losing thousands of workers’ pensions and benefits, and the very precarious financial situation facing the nation. The President even said he had “a good laugh” at the AFC, but I wonder now who is doing the laughing and who is doing the running to Syria and all over.

What in fact is laughable is that the PPP does not know what to say about the AFC. When we were just formed we were accused of being an off-shoot of the CIA and MI5 and the claims were made that we received moneys from them to enable us to launch and sustain our campaign. That was an absolute lie. Now the tune is changing to “pepper sauce”. This too is an outright lie. The PPP needs to make up its mind and to stop flip-flopping.

When the utterances were made at Babu John, it was known that certain developments were about to occur in the Roger Khan matter.
One gets a sense that things have begun to unravel in our dear land. Only a few months ago, the government boasted that Guyana was so unique that it was insulated from the shocks and tremors of the global financial crisis. Now, just a few months later, we see CLICO in serious and irreparable trouble, the NIS in jeopardy because of the exposure of billions of dollars set aside to meet claims, and employees losing their jobs as industry after industry begin to wobble from the shocks.

Added to this are the recently released report by the UN Expert on Minority Rights Issues Ms. Gay McDougal which is very critical of the government, the Al Jazeera story on narco-trafficking, and the refusal to have the head of CANU attend an important regional meeting of Drug Tsars.
There is little or no credibility left in the government in what it says and does. Even diehard PPP supporters are now confessing that this is “government gone mad” and that all of us, no matter what we may look like and what our surnames sound like, are in deep peril.

In Guyana, there is need for an immediate independent investigation into the Roger Khan affair. If indeed Khan was acting as agent for the Government of Guyana, we need to know. Was Khan led to believe that he had an unbridled warrant from the Government of Guyana to do all things necessary to prevent an insurrection or coup d’etat? Would he make up such a story, or is there even a grain of truth in what he says? Can we believe the President when he says he had no personal contact with Khan? Or is there at least one person in Guyana, or abroad, who can prove otherwise?

Guyana is being damned by these allegations in the eyes of the international community. As was explained to me a few days ago, there was a time when Guyana stood tall over little breadfruit republics, today we now look like minions beneath them. We have lost our regional and international stature which undoubtedly had been built up after 1992. It may be all well and good for the government to pretend to hide behind a fig leaf when most things are already in the open.

However, for the rest of us, who number in the hundreds of thousands, we want to see a proper and dignified end to this sordid affair. The daily newspapers reported the President as saying at the Police Force’s conference “The Commissioner has to solve murders here. That’s his job. If he reads the papers and sees that anyone has information on an unsolved murder he has an obligation to seek further information because that’s part of his job It can’t be just Jagdeo. I think that he should be dealing with these issues.” Nice attempt to play the ball away, but certainly this information was coming out years ago. I have to say most respectfully, this seems quite shallow.

In this regard, an independent investigation is the only way out for the Jagdeo administration.
The AFC wishes to suggest that the International Commission of Jurists, or other similar institutions attached to the United Nations or Organisation of American States, should be approached to spearhead the investigation. All of these organisations have done work of a similar nature in other countries around the world and the ICJ was in fact invited here under the Burnham administration to examine the police force and did an excellent job. The AFC and all of its executive members will willingly participate in the investigation including, taking a lie detector test if called upon.

The President’s call for the Police Commissioner to conduct an investigation three years after the situation unfolded is a little said much too late. No disrespect meant, but obviously this is way beyond the capacities of the local force and may very well involve some of its members. An independent investigation is the only proper way to go. The question is, will Mr. Jagdeo and his colleagues agree and submit themselves fully to one. The nation waits.