This time the coffee burnt me to death: I’m dead

Mar 12, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Years ago I did a column on a serious aspect of power interjected with humour and satire. In that piece, I described how, at breakfast, while reading the newspaper, I was so shocked at the hypocrisy of the government that the hot coffee spilt to my leg and burnt me to the bone.
Surprisingly, a few persons thought the incident had occurred. Strange enough; the publisher of this newspaper, Mr. Glen Lall jokingly reminded me of that paragraph last week. Here I am in an identical situation. As I type, I am wondering if I should repeat that humour.
I was having breakfast (yesterday), again with hot coffee on the table, when I read that President Jagdeo made three observations about the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) that were so shocking and unbelievable that I was tempted to write in this essay that the whole cup of coffee dropped on my stomach and burnt me alive and I died.
Any Guyanese analyst would be familiar with the theoretical disjuncture in the politics of Presidents Burnham, Jagan and Jagdeo. All three of these gentlemen have taken specific programmes to the leaders of the developed countries, demanding equal treatment of all states in international relation while at home practicing the worst kind of incestuous politics mixed with large doses of realpolitik that have set Guyana back millions of years. We aren’t catching up with the rest of the world; we are falling behind.
Burnham championed the North-South Dialogue asking for equal terms of trade while running amok in his own homeland. Jagan requested from the world community the adoption of the New Global Human Order after he became President in 1992 but at home, there was no new political culture.
Jagan’s mediocre protégés were carving out a racial empire. Now we have Mr. Jagdeo. He is tempestuous in his denunciation of the Europeans and how they manipulated the EPA. Mr. Jagdeo blames the mechanism that was invented by the CARICOM Heads to negotiate the EPA.
Here are his three statements that killed me on Phagwah Day. First, he observed that the people in the RNM are too narrow-minded in their outlook.
Let me state unambiguously, unapologetically and in a bold way – it is my unshakeable opinion that Bharrat Jagdeo in my long observation of Caribbean politics and from my practical experience of living in Guyana, is the most narrow-minded leader of a nation that the Anglo-phone West Indies has produced.
Next, Mr. Jagdeo intoned that the RNM is not catered for in the CARICOM Treaty. There is no clause in the Guyana Constitution, and no law in Guyana, that justifies the instantaneous dismissal of senior public sector workers for failing a polygraph. Yet, Mr. Jagdeo’s Government has done just that.
The Head of CANU and a number of his subordinates became victims of this cruel imposition. The Constitution does not allow for the continuation of the life of the Ethnic Relations Commission except by a vote of two thirds of the Parliamentarians. The ERC’s biology was continued without that number being secured.
We could go on but let’s move to statement number three.
Mr. Jagdeo makes the accusation that the RNM is unwilling to listen to independent advice. This is “pot telling he mattie he bottom black.” Mr. Jagdeo and I clashed directly over a three-year period because of Mr. Jagdeo’s unwillingness to listen to independent advice.
Don’t let me go that route. All readers of this column know that it had to do with UG. But one must go beyond UG. The President reserved harsh words for patriotic Guyanese who disagree with him. His habit is to lock out those who are not associated with his world and the PPP.
In conclusion, one can say that Mr. Jagdeo’s legacy would have been permanently imprinted upon this land if he had exorcized from his political character the three types of fallings that he sees in the people of the RNM.
Without hesitation, without even an infinitesimal thread of doubt, I can say that I know that Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte deeply respected talent and skills and wanted such even if those people had no interest in the PNC.
Cheddi Jagan was below that level but he was open to independent suggestions. Mr. Jagdeo is the missing link. With each passing day, these three failings grow larger on the face of Mr. Jagdeo’s T-shirt. They are so emblazoned that even the blind can see them. This is so sad for a young man who was presented with an opportunity to change history but descended to the abyss of ordinariness and would hardly be remembered by his people when he bows out.

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