President Jagdeo called me a fool: Let us see how he reacts to the Gleaner

Feb 14, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I will try always to never get personal in my commentaries. If I have done so to anyone, an apology is offered. There may be a feeling that I am out to get President Jagdeo. That is not true. Go to any country in the world, I repeat, any country in the world, and the President or Prime Minister receives more assessments of his/her rule from the media than any other citizen in the land. At the height of the Michael Jackson scandal, President Bush beat him by leaps and bounds for attention by the media
This is the way it will be for many, many moons to come. The woman or man that has more authority than any other person in the country will receive more coverage. It is no different in Guyana. But in Guyana, President Jagdeo may have received excessive evaluation because of his style of politics. The President is never out of controversy. Maybe there are moments in Italy when you don’t hear from Berlusconi. Not so with Mr. Jagdeo. When a president can tell the nation that if his critics cuss him out he will cuss them back, then that gentleman is going to get incessant attention from his nation’s media landscape
I am not going to cuss out Mr. Jagdeo in this article here. But I am gong to criticize him. If he chooses to cuss me down, then so be it. I received an email from a friend in New York on what the Jamaican Gleaner had to say in its Wednesday, February 9 edition on the spat between PM Golding of Jamaica and Mr. Jagdeo when the later condemned the EPA agreement between CARICOM and the EU and refused to sign the document. Speaking to the media in Barbados, Golding, referred to a CARICOM country that goes around the world portraying itself as poor and begging all the time. He used the word, pan-handler
In my column after this blunt assessment by Golding, I named Guyana under Mr. Jagdeo as the country Golding had in mind. At one of his press conferences, at the time, Mr. Jagdeo called me a fool for such a suggestion. In the February 9, 2011 editorial, this is what the Gleaner observed; “…the intemperate tirade of accusations against the European Union by President Jagdeo was an embarrassing failure…the campaign did however, cause tension among the heads of government of CARICOM prompting PM Golding to dismiss Mr. Jagdeo’s campaign as mendicancy.” Which country then, did Golding have in mind? I will leave it to President Jagdeo to answer. I would hope that some journalist would ask him to comment on the editorial in relation to Golding’s pan-handler comment
Interestingly, the editorial also made an intriguing observation that will not help Mr. Jagdeo’s credibility in his own homeland. The newspaper revealed that Guyana is the only country to date to have signed the tariff reductions mandated in the EPA. In what must bring an ironic laugh to the Guyanese nation, here is what the Gleaner told us; “Guyana has the lead in taking the necessary legislative steps to implement the commitments embodied in the EPA.” It is ironic but it is definitely funny. Mr. Jagdeo made a colossal fuss about the EPA, refusing to sign it, causing a soft split in CARICO. Yet Guyana is ahead of its regional partners in adhering to the EPA clauses. Funny!
It is difficult to fathom both the style and essence of Mr. Jagdeo politics. If we follow political logic, Guyana would be a slow starter in the implementation of the EPA because it has fundamental objections to the very nature of the covenant. But no, the repudiator becomes a willing complier. This is what I mean by the culture of controversy that more inheres in the politics of Mr. Jagdeo than Mr. Burlusconi. At the time of writing, more controversial dimensions of Mr. Jagdeo’s style are emerging. In last Thursday’s edition of both independent dailies, Christopher Ram contends that the President’s purchase of more than an acre of land at Sparendaam may not be within the realm of propriety
This revelation of Mr. Ram has come at the very time when there is what Stella Ramsaroop refers to as Laptopgate. This newspaper has produced vivid evidence that suggests that the purchase of several laptops by the Office of the President may not be above board. In the meantime, PM Golding may be interested in knowing that President Jagdeo just returned from India where he asked for a specialist hospital for Guyana.

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