Jerry invited Benschop; Jagdeo, Irfan Ali and Brian Young turned up

Jan 16, 2012 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
Mark Benschop related a laughable incident to me that occurred on Thursday evening at the controversial Duke Lodge. Benschop told me I was free to quote him and publicly describe the episode. My interest in the story is its political underpinnings thus my reason for this analysis. According to Benschop, Jerry Gouveia contacted him for a serious discussion. He went to Duke Lodge, owned by Gouveia (this writer believes Parliament should investigate all of Jagdeo’s divestment deals including Duke Lodge. If these transactions were far below market values, the State should recoup its losses)
Gouveia indicated that he was not pleased with certain items on him on Benschop’s webpage, guyanaobservernews.org and thought that they hurt the credibility and business interests of Gouveia. The main point of the owner of Duke Lodge was that he has a good relation with Benschop and he didn’t see why he should be the subject of criticism on Benschop’s web page.
During the conversation, Bharrat Jagdeo entered Duke Lodge with Irfan Ali and Brian Young. Young went up to the table where Benschop and Gouveia were sitting and accused Benschop of the very “misdeed” that Gouveia had accused him of. Young  contended that there were nonsensical things about him on the web page and they were unjustified since he, James has never had a problem with Benschop
Now for my analysis. Before we get to that, was it just coincidence that Jerry Gouveia’s powerful friends just happened to walk in while Benschop was there?  First, the vexations of Gouveia and James are strong factual basis to conclude that social networking is challenging newspapers and is influential in political struggle in Guyana these days. In Tunisia and Egypt, the protestors were kept informed about the contours of their involvement through social networking.
The process has reached Guyana. Young and Gouveia read Benschop’ webpage. Jagdeo read demerarawaves.com all the time to the point where he criticized it at a campaign rally. I think I may go on Face Book and I may start my own web page so I can condemn further the politics of people like Jerry Gouveia, Ramesh Dookoo, Ian Mc Donald, Clinton Urling, Ron Sanders, Sir Shridath Ramphal and those who see Guyana as a paradise ignoring the graphic presence of Dante’s Inferno. Most Guyanese do not know that Ian Mc Donald, in his seventies, migrated to Canada
So what is the fuss about? Jerry Gouveia is typical of business people in authoritarian Third World countries. He is one of several millions who seek to protect their business interest by siding with the Government of the day. Mr. Gouveia should understand that there are millions like him in the world. He is not the only one in Guyana that sought intimacy with Bharrat Jagdeo.
What is confusing about Jerry Gouevia is that he wants to eat his cake and have it too. Our old folks have a saying; “you make your bed, you must lie on it.” Mr. Gouveia chose to support the Jagdeo presidency. He is entitled to do that; it is his fundamental right. But it is the basic, inalienable right of Benschop to criticize him if Benschop feels that he is supporting a dictator. I am confused as to why Gouveia would want Benschop to stop posting criticism of him on guyanaobservernews.org
Is Gouveia saying that person don’t have the right to judge his politics? Mr. Gouveia I believe would reject the label of dictator when Jagdeo was the Leviathan in charge of Guyana. Others saw Jagdeo as a deadly, dangerous tyrant that lacked even the elementary principles of accountable behaviour. Speaking for myself, I think he is the worst thing the Caribbean has produced and if there was an opposition victory the new administration should have prosecuted him and jailed him for a long time. The Kaieteur News in its Friday and Saturday edition, quotes its owner, Glenn Lall as saying that Mr. Jagdeo should be jailed for corruption
Finally, now that Mr. Jagdeo is out of office, I would hope that political analysts would evaluate the role a certain type of character trait played in the shape of his autocratic behaviour. All scholars writing on Jagdeo have stayed away from this aspect of Mr. Jagdeo’s personality but it is extremely important in understanding Mr. Jagdeo’s use of power. I once did an analysis on that theme for guyanaobservernews.org. It is still relevant and I would have it re-published shortly. It is a major variable in assessing the style of governance of Mr. Jagdeo and it is obligatory on the part of scholars to look at this seminal characteristic in the study of Jagdeo’s politics
Frederick Kissoon

---

---