Which Guyanese politician will emulate Vice-President elect, Biden?

Dec 24, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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There are two interesting letters in yesterday’s issue of the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News. One has to be guarded and very much so when one reads these correspondences in the newspapers. In majority of cases, the signature is false.
Secondly, in such a situation it becomes impossible to verify the information. Both independent dailies demand that the writer provide information of proof of existence but it is doubtful they stick tenaciously to that policy.
The first letter contains some names that we can go on. It is written by someone who purportedly is an official of the Methodist Church. Titled “The Ministry of Education should return the Bedford Methodist School building in Robb Street to the Methodist Church” (SN, Dec 23), E.C Brown contends that the school in question has been abandoned by the Ministry of Education and the property should be re-assigned to its rightful owner.
Now, there is a part of the missive that cites the good work of then Minister of Education, Dale Bisnauth on the related issues.
E.C. Brown informed readers that Minister Bisnauth was moving in that direction because he favourably responded to two similar requests by the church – Golden Grove Methodist School and another one in Cumberland, Berbice.
According to E.C Brown, after Minister Bisnauth took on the Labour portfolio, the church requested that the new Minister of Education, Dr. Henry Jeffrey, proceed with the divestment as started by his predecessor. According to Brown, Minister Jeffrey advised that the matter be taken up with the President.
This is a ticklish situation to comment on. We do not know if the attitude of Dr. Jeffrey can be verified because it is only Brown’s word we have. If one proceeds to criticize Minister Jeffrey based on Brown’s statement, the paper runs the risk of libel.
I will leave it there for readers to draw their own conclusion. I chose to comment on this letter because I think it brings out dimensions of governmental behavior that we should reflect on. However we interpret what Brown wrote about Minister Jeffrey, there can be no denying that unlike the Hoyte Government, the PPP administration, from Jagan up to Jagdeo, has shown no vision to venture into the realm of the unprecedented so that historical changes can come into being.
Before we move to the second correspondence in the Kaieteur News, it should be noted that Minister Dale Bisnauth is owed some acknowledgement for his forthright leadership in giving back the Methodist Church its properties.
On the same day, one Ganesh Singh reported in the Kaieteur News that a Minister bought a huge plot of land equivalent to four house lots (that would be about an acre; that is a large piece of land for a home) from the Catholic Church in Prashad Nagar.
I checked with the Catholic Church. The Bishop and the Superior of the Sisters of Mercy told me that no such transaction was concluded with any Minister recently. The writer used the word “recently.” I hope he can write back and clarify for us which religious denomination he is taking about. I did some checking on lands owned by Ministers, highly placed PPP leaders in important positions in the public sector, their families and relatives. What the revelations will show make the PNC’s 28 years in power look like a tea party for kindergarten children.
When Vice-President elect Joseph Biden launched his autobiography, he made an absorbing observation, quite unusual for a high profile American politician. He opined that after the Bush presidency is over, there may be questions of prosecution for serious wrongdoing. Biden was referring to illegal action. We in Guyana would like to hear one or more of our politicians echo the Biden sentiment. My vote in 2011 will go to the party that openly proclaims that if it wins the Government it will investigate the previous government.
I lived under the 28 years of PNC rule, and in all honesty, I cannot day I saw the wholesale purchase of the country’s public properties and public lands by PNC officials as what I am seeing now.
The media and the opposition are not doing their jobs. Transparency International is not doing its work competently. The practice of corruption under the PPP Government has reached levels never before seen in any Caribbean country, not under Walters in Antigua and Panday, in Trinidad. Yet Walters and Panday were jailed after they lost power.
Let’s hope the PPP loses in 2011 so Guyanese can begin to reclaim what was taken from them. And believe me; an unbelievable amount has been taken through corruption.

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