Latest update December 12th, 2024 1:00 AM
Mar 27, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Guess where PPP propagandist and Chronicle columnist (please read what Caribbean icon, Eusi Kwayana said about the Chronicle last week), Rickey Singh lives? In one of the most populated territories on earth that does not have space for more inhabitants. It is the island of Barbados.
Mr. Singh is a supporter of President Jagdeo (for reasons that are quite obvious and for the reason Singh supported Basdeo Panday over Manning). Last week, Singh wrote these words in the Trinidad Express; “Mr. Jagdeo’s successes in economic management have significantly transformed Guyana.”
This is what you call unadulterated propaganda. When you make such a statement, it has to be backed up by statistics from places like the World Bank, IDB, IMF, Transparency International, the Heritage Foundation etc. The statistics from all, I repeat, all international organisations monitoring economic freedoms in the independent countries of the United Nations have not given Guyana good ratings.
Singh obviously did not consult the latest Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal analysis of the Guyanese economy. The growth rate of this country since Mr. Jagdeo became President in 1999 is a statistical nightmare.
But then again, propagandists are paid to propagandise. Mr. Singh is a paid columnist with the Chronicle. Singh of course would tell you that the Chronicle is top class that is why he is not ashamed to write for such a sleazy newspaper.
In case you don’t know, Mr. Singh is getting on in age; he is nearing his eighties. They say when you reach that point in your life you should at least begin to show respect for your age. We must not forget that Singh wrote that he was the last person to see David De Caires alive. But he is yet to reveal in his Chronicle’s propaganda page what De Caires told him. I am sure it was not anything flattering about Mr. Singh’s favourite CARICOM head, President Jagdeo.
It was Mr. Jagdeo who refused to even pay any attention to Singh when state advertisements were taken away from the Stabroek News. Goes to show how little respect Singh commands among those he propagandises for. Why Singh went to see De Caires we don’t know.
But a cynical mind can say that the visit didn’t help the heart condition of De Caires. He died soon after.
Mr. Singh and Sir Shridath Ramphal were the recipients of a subtle insult last year from Bajan Prime Minister Thompson. The dig came about because both of these exiled Guyanese made some strong accusations against the Barbadian Government’s rounding up of illegal Guyanese. Mr. Thompson hinted at ingratitude.
Stripped of its diplomacy, he was saying that these two exiles showed no gratitude to Barbados for having offered them a place to live when they chose not to live in their own country. Two years ago, Ramphal left the UK and instead of coming home, bought a house in Barbados. Of course any linking of Ramphal with Singh would be immensely unfair to Ramphal.
Singh is a propagandist for the Jagdeo presidency, Ramphal is not. We need to remind readers that Mr. Thompson is a gentleman because under a previous Bajan PM, Tom Adams, Singh was almost deported for criticising Adams’s foreign policy
Singh has chosen to spend the last thirty five years in Barbados. He had a chance to bask in the glory of the PPP’s 1992 victory. But he chose to propagandise for that government through the Chronicle rather than returning home. Singh isn’t coming back to Guyana even though his favourite CARICOM party, the PPP has been in power for eight years (oops! make that 18 years).
Rickey Singh isn’t going to spend his remaining years in Guyana because he knows small (or tiny) Barbados is more developed, richer and offers more freedoms to its citizens than Guyana. No amount of economic miracle will influence Singh to return. Singh knows that the miracle is a mirage.
He knows Guyanese know that it is an illusion and that is why nuff Guyanese run away to Barbados and some are happy to live in fowl pens.
It may sound like an exaggeration, but a friend told me that four carpenters were housed inside a place that was built originally as a large fowl pen in the boss’ yard. Anyway, can Singh tell us more about Mr. Jagdeo’s economic success? Is electricity in Guyana cheaper than in Barbados? Is my niece’s university in Barbados (UWI) falling down? Does Singh know that Guysuco is falling down? By the way Mr. Singh, will you be doing PR work for the PPP in the next general elections?
Dec 12, 2024
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