Freddie Kissoon – The permanent game that kills Guyana’s future…

May 18, 2008 Freddie Kissoon

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President Jagdeo has come out against the present activities of the PNC. He zeroed in on the alleged misuse of scrutineer money. The sum is about 100 million dollars. Without offering all the details contained in the President’s charges, to sum it up, President Jagdeo is accusing the PNC of improper politics.

In life one is accustomed to that traditional saying; “Two wrongs do not make a right.” Not because the Government of Guyana has been engaged in improper conduct means that we should exonerate the PNC from bad behaviour.

Life, however, is not that simple. Two wrongs do not make a right but people who are engaged in unbecoming conduct have no moral leg to stand on when they point to the wrongdoings of others. What about that old proverb: “Show me your company, I’ll tell you who you are.”

The leaders of the PPP have no ethical basis for citing the PNC for the misuse of scrutineer money. Before we go into the argument, it must be made clear that the President has claimed that the funds were put to wrong use; the PNC rejects that. The media is yet to be provided with evidence from both sides to enhance their respective cases. Do we know how the PPP has used its scrutineer money?
Let us show you who belongs to what company. President Jagdeo says he will stop the disbursement of funds to the PNC for scrutineer purposes. We all know that GECOM’s position is that the scrutineer fund was a government thing and that it has no authority to dispense money for that particular activity. This very government that is crying wolf over the alleged PNC bad behaviour was the very government that refused to give scrutineer money to the other two parliamentary opposition parties.
The AFC went to court. The court ruled in its favour. GECOM appealed and in the end the PNC got all the funds earmarked for scrutineering purposes because the AFC boycotted the exercise. President Jagdeo should have been magnanimous in the face of the court decision in one of two ways. Either he should have held back on scrutineer money until the appeal was heard or during the waiting period, he should have given GAP/ROAR and the AFC a separate sum. But the old game was played.
The PPP is up to its old tricks that Cheddi Jagan taught them. Guyana is never going to go an inch into the future once its political life is dominated by the PPP and PNC. Both of these parties have not given any recognition to the call from many international organizations, including the Carter Centre, that GECOM must not be run by political parties. It has to be a vulgarity of the worst immoral kind that a country has an election body and its policy-making anatomy is shaped by two of the parties that are contestants in the elections.

The PPP and the PNC are in charge of GECOM. Both parties like it that way. It gives them power. It gives them a foolproof excuse to cry wolf in order to create fear in the society and keep their constituencies intact.

This is what Jagan taught the PPP. He had his ongoing relation with the PNC and when it was convenient, he told his supporters that the PNC reneged on the agreements he had with them. And the East Indians believed him and continued to vilify the PNC.

Again we see the perennial game in full swing. We are told that the PNC is ungrateful and wicked. They took money from the government and have spent it on devious activities. PPP supporters will believe it and denounce the PNC. The other side of the coin is that they will maintain their faith in the PPP.
The game was nastily played out in Region Four after the 2006 elections. The AFC and the Justice for All Party were never consulted about coalition talks by the PPP. Instead the PPP chose to have such discussions with the PNC. Both the AFC and JFAP won seats on the Regional Democratic Council. Both found out the PPP and PNC had held meetings on the allocation of posts. The PNC got the headship, the PPP the deputy.

When in government, the PNC needed to keep the PPP afloat because it was the bogey man they used to point to the enemy at the gate. The PNC Government made sure the PPP stayed alive and active.
For all the ugly things the PPP has consistently claimed the PNC has done since 1992, do you think the PPP wants to see the dissolution of the PNC? Do you think it would support a neutral GECOM? It needs the PNC in GECOM so that it can tell its supporters that the PNC wants to disrupt the planning of elections.

Why do you think money was only given to the PNC for scrutineering functions? You can clearly see why now. We have another charge of ugly PNC behaviour – they are misspending government resources given to them. Why do you think the Region Four deal was made? So the PPP can tell it supporters that the PNC is dominating the administration of the region and shutting out the PPP. The PNC remained in power for 28 years because the PPP was the enemy. The PPP is going to make sure the PNC stay alive. It is the enemy that the PPP needs so it can have its 28 years. Guyana may not survive though.

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