The Jagdeo regime’s retaliatory process: Identify, Isolate and Intimidate

Nov 21, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Government’s overt message to Kaieteur News columnist, Mr. Fredrick Kissoon, in the brief refusal/failure to clear the canal in front of his house was simple: we have identified you and will isolate and intimidate you.
Coming six months after the shocking feces attack on Mr. Kissoon, it is further proof that government views Mr. Kissoon as a viable threat to its image and agenda, and mainly because Mr. Kissoon is an Indian Guyanese.
The same can be said of Indian Guyanese Mr. Glen Lall, publisher of the Kaieteur News. His newspaper is truly fulfilling its role as an effective member of the Fourth Estate, even becoming the go-to media for Guyanese to learn about the endemic corruption and gross ineptitude of the Jagdeo government.
African Guyanese activists like Messrs. Eric Phillips, Lincoln Lewis and Mark Benschop are not viewed by government as serious threats because government can point out their ethnicity to Indian Guyanese supporters as the core reason for their dislike or attacks on government.
But when Indian Guyanese of a certain intellectual and socioeconomic standing become publicly critical of government, these are seen as ‘political eye-openers’ in the Indian Guyanese community and a present danger to the PPP and its government.
For example, in 2006, an infuriated President Bharrat Jagdeo took on the editor of SN, Mr. Anand Persaud at a press conference over that newspaper’s coverage of some incident which the President found unfavourable to him or his government.
Mr. Persaud might recall the specifics (CWC 2007?), but back then SN had already earned a reputation for getting stories that exposed the government, and the President knew SN could only have been effective because of its credible news content that had to go through editor Persaud before being finally approved by the editor-in-chief.
Editor Persaud, being an Indian Guyanese helping expose the government in a negative light in the eyes of other Indian Guyanese, rubbed the image conscious President the wrong way. In November 2006, not long after their testy press exchange, government announced it was withdrawing ads from SN. Today, with the publisher dead, SN has toned down its exposés.
Second, Dr. Yesu Persaud, a maverick business leader, dared to challenge the President in public over government’s granting of illegal concessions to Queens Atlantic II (holding company for Sanata Complex and New GPC), and the President went on a verbal offensive rebuking, repudiating and reprimanding Dr. Persaud.
While it turned out that Dr. Persaud was right in his observations, as the government had to then rush to get its parliamentary majority to pass legislation to retroactively correct the illegal concessions granted QAII, the President found it untenable that an Indian Guyanese of Dr. Persaud’s reputation could be exposing the government negatively in the eyes of other Indian Guyanese.
Third, Mr. Peter Ramsaroop, an Indian Guyanese political activist and businessman, found out the hard way that because he chose to stand against the PPP, his business investments did not receive the start-up support it needed from government. Other businesses, meanwhile, have found great favour with government, even receiving sweetheart public financing.
Fourth, Mr. Christopher Ram, an Indian Guyanese lawyer and accountant, much hated by the government, but much appreciated by the rest of the nation, continues to draw the silent rage of the government for his ongoing brilliant analyses of government’s financial irregularities and outright abuse of power. We need more Guyanese of Mr. Ram’s calibre.
Fifth, AFC Presidential candidate, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, an Indian Guyanese, while a member of the PPP, was allegedly accused by the President of taking information related to the Phantom squad operations to the US Embassy. That reportedly triggered his departure from the PPP.
Whether by invitation or sheer intuition, he showed up at the Skeldon Estate to look at the new US$200M plant built by the Chinese. He immediately reported to the media that the plant was facing serious start-up problems, but the government and GuySuCo quickly shot down his report as a fabrication.
We have since learned Mr. Ramjattan told the truth, which the government wanted covered up, and now with the sugar industry imperiled by internal and external factors, there appears to be a growing belief among sugar workers that the PPP is no longer the same as it was under Dr. Jagan.
There is also a growing belief that some Indian Guyanese may, for the first time, be looking seriously for an alternative to the PPP, especially given that other Indian Guyanese government employees like Joseph O’Lall (GEA), Navin Chandarpaul (OP) and Anand Goolsarran (AG) were forced to quit.
Other Indian Guyanese who have become notable proverbial thorns based on their writings: Messrs. Malcolm Harripaul, GHK Lall, Sasenarine Singh, and Gherard Ramsaroop, continue to join the pantheon of Indian Guyanese taking a public stand against this government.
Conversely, those Indian Guyanese who sucked up to the President or his government and the PPP have been rewarded. However, with an apparent growing number of disaffected Indian Guyanese, can the President or the PPP continue to depend on this constituency in the future?
In Forbes Burnham’s era, after initially gaining support and votes from Blacks, he turned to his parliamentary majority to establish his President-for-Life status via the 1980 Constitution. Political loyalty from any race replaced Burnham’s need for Black support/votes.
Today, given this President’s dictatorial propensity, he, too, may need parliamentary help to hold onto and abuse power.
At that stage, political loyalty from any race may replace his need for Indian support/votes, but until then, identification, isolation and intimidation are political weapons of choice to deal with political opponents.
Déjà vu?
Emile Mervin

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