“He (Jagdeo) is hurt…we have hit the mark” – Trotman

Sep 03, 2010 News

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“He is hurt…we have hit the mark,” said leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Raphael Trotman, in response to President Bharrat Jagdeo’s remark that the opposition party was being unpatriotic for raising its concerns about the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project with the US State Department.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel and I believe that it is just as unpatriotic to be wasting taxpayers’ valuable money, for not dealing with corruption, for allowing people to get killed without justice being served,” said Trotman.
Trotman was emphatic while stating that the AFC has a right to expose all of the ills taking place in Guyana, especially when, according to the AFC leader, “the President spends so much of his time trying to paint an image abroad as if this is a perfect place”.
The AFC leader said that it is overseas that the President spends much of his time, “and so it is out there that we are going to tag him, to ensure that those with whom he associates also know not only the good, but also the bad.”
Trotman said that his party is by no means afraid, adding that it has been labeled as unpatriotic before. He made reference to a full-page advertisement that the party had placed in a newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago during the fifth Summit of the Americas, and President Jagdeo’s reaction to the move.
Trotman also pointed out what he saw as double standards, saying that Jagdeo heads a party which utlilised western power, “the Carter Centre, Senator Kennedy, the Democratic Party at the time and the State Department of the then Government to bring pressure to bear against the PNC in the late 1980s.”
The AFC leader asserted that, “now that the shoe is on the other foot and it is pinching, Jagdeo is crying out.”
He said that his party will not relent and that they have their job to do, adding that the AFC can list several instances in which the President has been unpatriotic.
On the fact that Jagdeo had charged that the AFC met with low-level officials and he (Jagdeo) met with Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, Trotman said that Jagdeo is a Head of State and is expected to meet with other Heads.
“The President of Sudan (Omar Hassan al-Bashir) who is wanted by the world court was in Kenya where he met with other world leaders…that doesn’t mean he is an angel.”
He said that regardless of who Jagdeo meets with, it does not change the fact that there is serious corruption in Guyana.
“He (Jagdeo) could meet with the Pope…it wouldn’t change a thing, there is corruption in Guyana and we will expose it.”
The AFC leader said that it has now become a thorn for Jagdeo as he travels the world as Champion of the Earth, that Guyana under his watch has become one of the filthiest cities in the world.
He said that whenever the AFC exposes the ills in Guyana such as torture, extra-judicial killings and corruption among others, “it annoys him (Jagdeo) because it touches a raw nerve.”
Meanwhile, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan who made the trip to the US, and who met with the State Department officials, also responded to Jagdeo’s statements that he does not need anyone’s approval for the Amaila Falls Hydro Project and that the AFC’s action was unpatriotic.
“This is infantile disorder of the pettiest class. The President’s characterization of unpatriotism is not surprising, and his spin that the hydro will lower electricity costs by as much as 40 per cent is all an attempt to let the ends justify the means,” Ramjattan said.
Ramjattan noted that he did raise the “ugly manner in which the US$15.4M contract was awarded to Synergy Holdings Inc.” when he met State Department officials in Washington on August 18th.
“There is nothing unpatriotic here…When Dr Cheddi Jagan was lobbying Senator Kennedy and then President Jimmy Carter for free and fair elections when PNC was stealing the ballot boxes, he was Guyana’s finest patriot…Today’s issues surround the literal theft by the PPP Government of the funds from the Treasury, and nepotism in the award of contracts…So why should this not be brought to the attention of powerful persons in the State Department.
He said that the party has carded a meeting with Senator Benjamin Cardin as soon as his recess is over.
“And what an unstatesmanly exhibition, if not incomprehensible idiocy, when he says that our team met a low official and then goes on to compare how he met (Hillary) Clinton and President (Barack) Obama….What did he expect? Us to meet Obama? How ludicrous…The persons we met, however, were not low officials.”
He suggested that the AFC is obviously having an impact on the President and, “it is biting him very deep”.

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