President Jagdeo and his scare tactics

Sep 04, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Addressing his constituents in West Coast Berbice at a party meeting President Bharrat Jagdeo made another of his venomous attack on PNCR/opposition leader Mr. Robert Corbin and critics of his controversial Buxton visits.
As is usually the case Mr. Jagdeo adopted scare tactics that was intended to drive fear in his supporters.
He invoked his old, overworked, discredited and unproven accusations that the PNCR had contacts with the gunmen that had operated in Buxton. He went on to state that Mr. Corbin had these contacts and suggested that it was the first time he was actually accusing Corbin by name.
Jagdeo seems not to understand that for as long as he continues to withhold evidence from the police which points to serious wrongdoing, as alleged by him, of the Leader of Guyana’s Opposition in Parliament and of the PNCR, Robert Corbin, he Jagdeo is himself guilty of criminal misconduct. It is now time for the Commissioner of Police to demand that Jagdeo makes the information he so often claims to have available to the police so that a thorough investigation onto Corbin’s alleged contact with the criminals in Buxton.
For too long this political charlatan feels free to run around the place leveling wild, unproven allegations against other persons while cowering behind the same constitution he abuses, which protects him from being sued by those he so frequently vilifies.
What is even worse is that as he continues to smear his political opponents it is this same Jagdeo, who goes to great lengths to protect his cronies against known and proven allegations of corrupt behaviour on their part.
This behaviour of Jagdeo just underscores why the political opposition should be engaged at this time in waging a struggle for constitutional reform before elections.
One of the things which must be removed from the existing constitution is the clause which absolves the President for responsibility for his actions during and after his term of office.
The significance of Jagdeo’s speech at Bath Settlement must not be missed by other Guyanese. It was in Bath Settlement, coming so shortly after his visit to Buxton that he chose publicly to define his concept of what he means by a new beginning. It is there when speaking to his Indian Constituents, that he once again demonstrated his contempt for other races by providing his normal diatribe of deception and lies. The more things change the more they get worse.
Jagdeo in his address claimed that his response was prompted by the opposition leader’s call for him to address the issue, but he did not elaborate on this point.
However, we can infer that he was referring to Mr. Corbin’s repeated call for Jagdeo to agree to the opposition and the international community demands for an impartial, independent inquiry into all of the violence from Mashramani 2002, including Lusignan and Buxton. Jagdeo’s comments and the timing and choice of occasion when he made them, was deliberate. By speaking on this matter at a party meeting in Berbice albeit public, but in a PPP stronghold, Jagdeo chose to play the race card to the hilt. He resorted to the old politics. Blairmont was the forerunner of what is to come over the next few months.
My main reason for writing this letter is the President’s deliberate attempt to misrepresent my position on his Buxton visit as was, stated in my letter which was published in both the August 20th edition of SN and Kaieteur News. Mr. Jagdeo in his venomous attack said that as President of Guyana he has the right to visit any community in the country and no one can stop him from doing so. He went on to name Corbin, Trotman, Tacuma Ogunseye and David Hinds, presumably as persons who wanted to place limits on where he visits.
I have not heard or seen any statement by those named above to justify the President’s claim. No where in my letter did I question Mr. Jagdeo’s right to visit Buxton. For me that was a non issue. However, I expressed my disapproval of the way it was organised and the President’s conduct during the visit. My comments on the visit were well thought out bearing in mind my present political position, that in this period of political engagement the main focus of the African community and the nation should be on how to deal with the challenges of the 2011 general elections.
I hold the view that Africans should wage a struggle to win shared governance before any consideration of entering the election contest. With this in mind I deliberately reframed from raising in any detail the regime’s alliance with phantom killers under the control of Roger Khan that was responsible for a number of killings in and out of Buxton, neither did I raise the regime’s counter insurgency strategy which was planned and supervised by the Office of The President, which had disastrous consequences for residents in the village. Instead, what I had done in my letter was to refer, as I had a right to do, to the President’s and his government’s role in the destruction of the village including the destruction of the farm lands. In doing so I was trying to avoid political distraction by narrowing my criticism. It is apparent in Jagdeo’s response that he was hurt and upset by my remarks. So what if he was? I did not lie. I only sought to put the situation in perspective and offer no apology to him for doing so.
I stick to my contention that Jagdeo is not “an enlightened leader.” He had the opportunity of reading the numerous criticisms of his Buxton visit. Instead of demonstrating that he can be an objective ruler, capable of self criticism thereby proving me wrong, he reverted to his natural uncultured, political style which is characterised by cussing out, lying and playing the race card. This little tin god has a lot to learn. His boast that he has rubbed shoulders with several influential world leaders including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton of the USA seemed not to have done anything good for him.
Jagdeo’s speech in Berbice confirmed my position that he behaved in Buxton like a “conqueror.” He told his supporters that he went to Buxton to help the suffering residents economically, and that he was doing what the opposition had failed to do over the years. Only conquerors behave in this manner mocking at the nation reminding them that it is he who is in control of the national treasury and it is only he and not the political opposition who can dish out “goodies”. An enlightened President would not have failed to point out that the people of a country regardless of race, gender, religion, cultural and political persuasion have an automatic and equal right to economic and social development from the government who collect their taxes. Oppressor that he is Jagdeo sees the collection of those taxes as being his.
In closing let me reiterate that while not questioning the President’s right to visit Buxton I reserve for myself the right to question his sincerity and criticise his conduct. I don’t expect Mr. Jagdeo to correct his misrepresentation of my position since to do so is not part of his political culture.
Tacuma Ogunseye

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