Strange coincidence

Jun 25, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Dr. Roger Luncheon in Guyana and President Jagdeo in New York, about the same time, (Luncheon on Thursday, the President on Friday) spoke about the state of affairs in Guyana.

After you have read what they have said, there is the distinct feeling that the image and record of the Guyana Government leave so much to be desired.

In any open society, where politicians (as in every other CARICOM territory) have to battle like soldiers on the war front to win elections, Guyana’s present leaders would have been unceremoniously voted out.

Dr. Luncheon absolutely refused to explain to the media, after being asked, why his office has rejected endorsement of 39 small business ventures funded by the EU to the tune of $200M.

Here is a Government that has put a red light on a large number of business endeavours in one of the poorest countries in the world, and does not feel it has an obligation to the country to explain its position.

The Guyanese society is one tragically divided by inflexible political positions and torn asunder by racial suspicion. Guyana is a country where perceptions become reality.

Guyana is a land where secrets of Government are easily transformed into the most dangerous rumours of racist discrimination.

Against this brutal reality, the deportment of the Office of the President and the wider Guyana Government feeds the rumour mill.

This is a nation where only two features find themselves being present in any controversy discussed by the public – political incestuousness and racial vindictiveness.

Quite a large number of stories never had even the remotest connection to PPP involvement and race-based decision-making, but people injected these nasty angles into them.

All the time, I encounter persons who would infuse race and PPP politics into situations that are completely devoid of such elements.

Contributing heavily to the growth of this venality is the attitude, mediocrity and arrogance of the Government of Guyana.

A majority of citizens, if surveyed, would say they think the PPP or the President is up to something devious about the new hotel to be built in Kingston. They would adopt this stance for one basic reason – secrecy surrounds the identity of the investor(s).

The first group of people to become angry at this reaction would be the leaders in Government. They hate the rumour routine. They complain that it hurts Guyana’s image abroad. The feel it exacerbates race tensions.

Myopically, the President, his ministers, Dr. Luncheon and PPP mandarins encourage the circulation of nasty rumours by either their arrogance or inept politics. People have told me that race spite is behind the micro projects. Others say that the groups that will benefit do not come from PPP districts in Guyana.

I don’t know if that is true. It may not be true. But can you dismiss this speculation when Dr. Luncheon and President Jagdeo do not feel obligated to explain to the media and the wider society what they think are the faults in the projects for the EU funds? Arrogance or reticence adds fuel on fire.

One can easily move towards the factors of political spite or racial discrimination, given the reluctance of the Government to defend the decisions it took.

It boggles the mind to understand how the Office of the President cannot see that the more they refuse to give out the reasons for their decisions the more citizens will believe that they are up to no good. There is something wrong with the Government’s rejection of these small ventures, and it looks fishy.

But this Government’s haughtiness knows no limits. Across New York, President Jagdeo chose not to defend his Government’s achievements but, instead, took us back to an era when he wasn’t born.

After insisting that Guyana’s races live in harmony, the President vented his anger on the American destabilization of the PPP Government in the sixties. This is more than forty years ago. I couldn’t see the relevance of that, but I understand the subliminal intention.

All PPP leaders, without exception, as their dictatorial penchant reaches extremist levels and as their non-achievements become more visible, fall back on two ancient facts.
The Americans harassed Premier Cheddi Jagan in the sixties. And secondly, the PNC ran a dictatorship for 28 years.

No mention is made of the fact that sixteen years is quite an extensive period for one party to govern, and in that time span Guyana should have joined the club of modern, economically sound, technologically developed nations. These missing motifs are an embarrassment so they are avoided and, instead, the past is resorted to.

In the 2011 election, that is all we will hear about – the past. The PPP likes to live in the past. Incidentally, the same Friday the President spoke, Mrs. Jagan, in the Friday edition of the Mirror, wrote about the American involvement in pressuring Dr. Jagan. Strange coincidence.