The PPP presidential candidate should be grilled about his/her association with this corrupt Jagdeo regime

Mar 13, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I read Mr. Mike Rahman’s letter, “Jagdeo’s attack on David Granger not surprising,” (Kaieteur News, February 9), and it was fairly fine reading until the last paragraph: “The David Granger nomination as the PNCR presidential candidate will end up in great danger.
I have said enough about his involvement in rigged election in Guyana and when the truth is fully told – it will shock PNCR supporters and the nation.”
My challenge to Mr. Rahman or anyone out there who has credible proof that Mr. Granger literally stuffed fake ballots in boxes or tampered with ballot boxes after Election Day polls were closed during the Burnham era, is to produce your evidence so that voters can help make an informed decision in advance of Election Day.
Simply saying Mr. Granger was part of an army contingent that transported ballot boxes does not render him guilty, because he was a subordinate under orders, the same way retired Major General Mr. Joe Singh was, at one time, a subordinate under orders until he was called on to head up the PPP reviled National Service and then the GDF under the PNC government.
But has anyone in the PPP or its government ever characterized Mr. Singh as being part of the repressive PNC regime or guilty of having blood on his hands?
No! In fact, the PPP government never really objected to Mr. Singh becoming Chairman of GECOM, and or raised his military past when it recently tapped him to head up the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission
There was never any talk of Mr. Singh’s bloody hands or being part of the repressive Burnham regime, which makes me wonder if, to the PPP and its government, the attack on Mr. Granger is a ‘Black thing’ aimed at establishing a Burnham/Granger link to stoke fears of racial insecurity as memories of rigged elections are conveniently dug up.
Not that I do not share the widespread belief that the PNC did rig elections (plural), but when it comes to fingering a particular person as being involved in the rigging process, this places the burden of responsibility on the accusers to produce either direct or compelling circumstantial evidence. And right now, Mr. Granger appears to be the only one being accused, yet it is impossible for one man to pull off such a massive stunt.
Mr. Granger said he previously answered this election rigging question and promised he would do so again to probably put the matter to rest, and I hope he does for the sake of the campaign, which is begging for candidates to intensify focus on other pressing issues.
If any evidence surfaces that he was involved in tampering with ballot boxes, then his past connection with the army could raise questions about his role as an elected leader versus people’s rights and freedoms, so let’s have the evidence, please.
Mr. Editor, I could never excuse election rigging, and especially given the spiraling decline of our country’s social and economic standing under Burnham, but I would have to apologise to Burnham and the PNC if I did not repeatedly body slam this Jagdeo-led PPP government until it suffers a major concussion for its bare-faced plundering of the state treasury and resources, after the PPP spent 28 years condemning the PNC for election-rigging and corruption.
For the record, let me say right now that I am not writing as a supporter of Mr. Granger, but as a Guyanese who believes that after all the political distrust we have been through under the PPP and PNC, we need to have credible candidates who can past the smell test of public trust before attempting to lead this country.
But if we are going to make the cardinal mistake of eliminating a candidate based on the ‘guilt by association syndrome’, then this means that whoever is the PPP candidate must be considered for elimination because of his or her association with the Caribbean’s most criminally corrupt government that engages in authoritarian behaviours and has lots of blood on its hand.
And the latter observation is what the President, known for ‘busing down’ and ‘cussing out’, should have taken into account when he started frothing at the mouth about Mr. Granger’s past as an army officer, because the President himself is not peachy clean.
During the 1973 elections, Mr. Jagdeo was nine years old, so unless someone told him something then he has absolutely nothing substantive on Mr. Granger.
Quite frankly, this President has such a huge credibility problem so I don’t know if what he is accusing Mr. Granger of in 1973 is worse than what he stands accused of right now.
And in the court of public opinion he is guilty as hell of willful neglect or failing to act in accordance with the law!
In 2006, he also pulled a fear-inducing stroke when he told PPP supporters at Babu John that if the PNC got back in power criminals will have easy access to guns.
Turns out that only last week we learned that crimes, including gun-related ones, are on the upsurge and the PPP, not the PNC, is in power. Go figure!
And this is the same man who once promised to show us a videotape of Buxton criminals mingling freely with PNC officials, and who also swore three times to uphold the Constitution of Guyana, but…
Look, unless there is incontrovertible evidence of Mr. Granger personally tampering with ballot boxes, directly shooting or ordering the shooting of anyone, then he has more character in his pinky toe than the President has in all of his body.
Mr. Editor, after all the pillorying and grilling of Mr. Granger for his association with the Burnham regime, I hope the PPP presidential candidate gets pilloried and grilled on his or her association with this vindictive, criminally corrupt PPP government known for human rights abuses and having blood on its hands.
This criminally corrupt PPP and its government no longer have that moral edge over the PNC!
Hopefully, though, the pillorying and grilling will not define the entire campaign, and some space is set aside for candidates to focus on issues germane to the country’s future well-being.
God knows we are right back where we were in 1992, clamouring for a change of government, and if anything less plays out, God also knows we will need a divine intervention to save us from this sea of corruption in which the government is swimming in style and the people are drowning in despair.
Emile Mervin

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