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Drama yesterday at the Princess Hotel

Nov 19, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Our politicians never fail to amaze us. I have hesitated to cite Mrs. Sheila Holder once more for short-sighted politics but yesterday her politics and that of so many other people were so disappointing that the situation makes you feel that Guyana is a jinxed nation. The event was the co-sponsored conference on social stability hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission and the business community and all the umbrella bodies.
Dale Andrews, Mr. Glenn Lall and I represented the company that publishes the Kaieteur News. As we entered the hotel, we had to pass through the metal detector corridor. After I went through, I asked one of the security details how then did rich young men escape detection and went on to shoot up two guards at a private party in the hotel. He couldn’t answer.
The next drama centered on Glenn Lall, the publisher of the newspaper. As Prime Minister Hinds went through his propaganda ritual, Mr. Lall said to us, including Mark Benschop who was seated at our table, that he could not stay and listen to Hinds based on what he, Lall, knew about him.
He told us that his newspaper has a tape of a 41-minute press conference of Hinds in which Hinds spoke for 20 minutes of the Amaila Falls project of “Fip” Motilall and announced that he had signed the deal. The same Hinds had the temerity to tell Kaieteur News that he could not remember such a press meeting. Lall did not return to the confabulation
My position is that the ERC is illegal. But I think political activists like me have to be there to confront the propaganda that young minds hear from the little dictators. This was the second meeting of the ERC that the UNDP local office financed. This is an insult to the opposition that has declared that based on law, the ERC is illegal.
The PNC maintains that only a parliamentary vote on a two/thirds basis can extend the life of the ERC. It is as if the UNDP does not care about the rule of law in Guyana
As usual, one heard the normal nonsense from Hinds. Hinds spoiled the entire morning with boring repetitions that lasted way beyond his allotted time and turned off most people. Someone has to tell Hinds to adhere to protocol.
As if that wasn’t enough, he wrapped up, then went back immediately to the podium and continued his speech. I never saw anything like that before.
The entire proceedings were messy with speaker after speaker denying the reality of power abuse and ethnic discrimination in Guyana and content to see the cancer in broad general terms.
One section of the confabulation was to determine if there was ethnic imbalance in hiring practices. Hinds denied there was. Not one speaker talked ethnic imbalance in ownership of business. That was certainly an egregious omission.
Then came the drama of the afternoon. Mrs. Sheila Holder made mention of a medical doctor at the Georgetown Public Hospital who should not be employed because he is a convicted pedophile. She went on to state that there is a law in Guyana that should prevent the doctor from employment.
When it was question time, I asked Mrs. Holder which of the two negative values she thinks is more deleterious to the well-being of Guyana – the pedophile at the hospital or deliberate misleading of the nation by the President that he was married to Ms. Varshie Singh? Then there were Ms Singh’s allegation of abuse against him.  Let me stress that I specifically asked her to identify which of the two negativities impact more adversely on the nation’s moral foundation.
Here is Mrs. Holder’s answer. In law, the area is clear, the doctor has a conviction. In relation to President Jagdeo, what transpired between him and his wife (Mrs. Holder used the word “wife” three times without saying “common-law”) was a private matter. On the deception that he was married when he was not, her opinion is that it is a matter for the electorate.
Why must a nation look to the election avenue to vote out a president who deliberately lied to them rather than asking and demanding his resignation. I thank those members of the audience who clapped me after I put the question to Mrs. Holder. If Mrs. Holder didn’t understand the question, a majority of persons in that audience did.

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