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Clement Rohee must resign now!

Sep 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

When Ministers are caught openly evading the truth, it gets them into trouble. But they resort to a traditional bulwark from which you cannot dislodge them. They would say I never said so or I never used those words. And they are right; they evaded using the words you expected them to say. It is a different matter entirely when they issue definitive statements that are not true and can be proven wrong.
Many people feel that certain very powerfully placed politicians will be in tsunami waters if it can be proven that they met with Roger Khan because they have repeatedly denied they met him or had any discussion with him.
As I wrote before, President Jagdeo is choosing his words carefully on the third term possibility. He has avoided saying that he will not run if his party wants him to or PPP supporters asked him to. So far his words are thus shaped; “I have no intention, no desire.” Those are very banal remarks people have used countless times in their individual lives. They have changed their minds with the following explanation; “At the time, it wasn’t my desire or intention.”
When President Jagdeo does accept the PPP’s nomination as presidential candidate for the 2011 elections and the press puts the question to him, he will say the same; “At the time, that was the way I felt.” It means you cannot accuse him of lying because he didn’t say, “I will never run in 2011.”
Clement Rohee is in a different category. This writer thought that Mr. Rohee’s achievements were phenomenal after he became a Minister in October 1992. As someone who hardly made it through primary school, Mr. Rohee rose to become one of the longest serving Cabinet Ministers in the CARICOM region.
But his career has been an inelegant, blemished, uninspiring one. From all my travels in this country meeting people, I believe that if a survey was taken by a reputable institution, it will find that Mr. Rohee is one of the least admired Ministers throughout the history of this nation. When you think of Mr. Rohee, Mr. Jagdeo, Mr. Kellawan Lall, Mr. Bheri Ramsaran, Mr. Charles Ramson, then think of Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Something was inherently defective about Jagan’s psychological make-up to have nurtured these types of personalities in the realm of working class politics. You don’t have to look far to see what a flawed character Jagan was – just look at who he left to administer his party and run the Government of Guyana.
It is a huge embarrassment for a nation when a Minister of a Government in 2009 does not know about “Google search.” I can understand a mediocre pretender like Vishnu Bisram who didn’t know about that.
Bisram as most Guyanese would know ended up being exposed. After 20 years of conducting polls all over the world, Bisram’s NACTA cannot be located by a Google search. Bisram was foolish enough not to know that people would Google him and his fictional organisation, NACTA. Rohee is a Government Minister. He should know about Google search. If he does not, he has no place in any organization in any country.
Here are Mr. Rohee’s own words in the letter pages of both independent dailies for September 2, 2009. He was responding to an enquiry from UWI law lecturer, Arif Bulkan as to why the American Embassy refused to give Rohee a visa. “I never said my visa was cancelled; others did, and sadly, Mr. Bulkan swallowed it, hook, line and sinker. Talk about commonsense!”
I hope Mr. Rohee knows what is commonsense and who has it, who hasn’t got it and who ought to have it. I Googled the following question, “Minister Clement Rohee US visa revoked,” and I got 122 items. Readers should know at the time, Rohee was International Trade Minister.
In the February 22, 2004 issue of the Stabroek News, then Foreign Minister, Insanally acknowledged to the newspaper that the US was not giving Mr. Rohee a visa, and Cabinet will have to take up the matter. GINA issued a press release on March 24 with the following words; “Mr. Rohee applied for an American visa but his application was revoked for reasons not given….”  Another GINA report stated that Mr. Rohee was subsequently offered the reason why he couldn’t get his visa. This writer has written twice that he knows why the visa was not granted. It was told to me in 2006 by a US embassy official. But I was asked not to print it. A Freedom of Information request in the US by a US citizen should reveal the reason if Rohee doesn’t want to talk.

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