Kerzorkee: The beginning of scandalmania

Jun 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the threads that run through my analysis of the seventeen-year-old rule of the PPP but in particular the nine-year rule of Bharrat Jagdeo, is that there has been more scandals in a shorter time of PPP domination than under the 28-year tenure of the PNC.

The number of scandals should not be the main variable when making such a comparison. One can point to minor and major disgraces. You can have insignificant notorieties in one regime but one major act of dirtiness in a government can bring it down.

In making the comparison between the PNC stewardship and the PPP’s, the distinction of greater and less acts of infamies does not apply. Both governments have been punctuated by national scandals, many of which should have brought them down.

Counting up the numbers of national nastiness in both regimes, the record shows that the PPP, particularly after Mr. Jagdeo’s assumption, has chalked up a dirtier balance sheet than the PNC under both Burnham and Hoyte. Important to note is that this essay is not about measuring authoritarianism. PPP debaters, like Ralph Ramkarran would argue that the PNC rigged elections. He made this clear in his recent Mirror article, “Atonement,” which he feels obliges the PNC to apologize. He believes that the rigging of election was an act of authoritarianism, and he went on to describe the number of elections that the PNC rigged.

The reply to Ramkarran, of course, is what weight does one put on types of authoritarian conduct? As I said in an earlier column, even the PPP leaders would not use the absence of free elections as a yardstick to judge governments. Without exception, all leaders of the PPP are supporters of the Cuban system and its long-serving leader, Fidel Castro. Certainly, the absence of competitive elections by opposing parties cannot be the essential yardstick by PPP leaders in measuring the levels of freedom a country enjoys, because they do not see the absence of free and fair elections as a barrier to freedom in Cuba.

Two weeks ago, Guyana’s Honorary Consul in Barbados, Norman Faria, went to extreme lengths to describe the superiority of Cuban democracy in comparison to most countries around the world.

My point is that one can put different weight on different types of authoritarian conduct. Some critics of the PPP would argue that the association between narco-traffickers and government leaders in any country is an unforgivable sin. Against that background, I will confine the major argument of this article to scandals in the administrative lives of both the PNC and PPP Governments.

My conclusion is that there has been more nasty misconduct in the affairs of the state under the PPP than when the PNC was in control.

My arbitrary dating of the starting point of the crescendo of infamies began with the mysterious death of “Kerzorkee” the nickname for Mark Thomas. He was picked up by the police for investigation into an extra-judicial squad that went around killing people. “Kerzorkee” appeared to be the weakest of the three accused and there was a fear in some quarters that he may spill the beans.

Lying quite happily in his bed at the Georgetown Public Hospital chatting daily with his family, “Kerzorkee” suddenly died, the cause of which was suspected to be poisoning. Samples sent away returned inconclusive results because the tissues were not properly kept. My take on this? “Kerzorkee” was killed.

From here on, the Jagdeo presidency has been rocked by notorieties, infamies, scandals and improprieties that the Forbes Burnham Government would not have survived. I use the term, “scandalmania” to describe what has taken place in the PPP Government since 1999. At the moment, I haven’t done any research to come up with a figure but the profligacy and degeneracy go on.

Exactly who killed “Kerzorkee?” Exactly who killed Ronald Waddell? Which Government officials were close to and encouraged Roger Khan? Where is the $6B NIS investment in CLICO? How do we know it is not in private hands in Miami? Who benefited from NBS’s purchase of CLICO’s Berbice Bridge bonds?

Why did the Marriott venture fail? How much do we know of what went on with the sale of the Sanata Textiles Complex? How much do we know about the spate of divestments within the past six months?

I have been told by an insider that Joseph O’Lall was about to tell it all after he went to Mrs. Jagan, pleaded with her that he did nothing wrong to warrant peremptory dismissal by the President, but was turned down.

He too, like “Kerzorkee” suddenly died in the Georgetown Public Hospital.

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Kerzorkee: The beginning of scandalmania

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