Gaskin has finally returned to his natural habitat – the PPP

Jun 10, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to Ramon Gaskin’s letter of May 21, 2013 advocating the removal of the Georgetown City Council. This is a self-serving analysis from someone who has re-entered the kingdom of the PPP. The letter is notorious for the facts it left out as for the misanalysis it contains. First, this is the same Gaskin that freely condemns elected City Councilors (they were elected and no one from a minority government can replace them; only Parliament can do that) but was the agent employed by Evan Persaud, who was hauled before a UG disciplinary for engaging in the expression of sexual vocabulary in his classroom over a ten year period. Gaskin acted as Evan Persasud’s defence attorney. Maybe UG Registrar should comment on the style of Gaskin’s defence. How I regret I was not on that committee
Both Gaskin and Persaud are names on a PPP list to be on an IMC to replace the City Council, with Gaskin being slated to be the Chairman. Gaskin left out that acting Town Clerk, Ms. Sooba, worked closely with him May last year when Gaskin’s friend, Minister Wittaker put him as head of a committee to reform the City Council (who elected Gaskin?) and who gave him a consultancy last year which was not advertised so others could have applied.
Ms. Sooba is a PPP supporter and never hid that fact as a student at UG. During the industrial unrest at UG in January last year, she was very vocal in open support of the PPP and was involved in an incident at the Law building that was demonstrative of her political loyalties. Ramon Gaskin knows this very well and his letter is a PPP inspired act to help a discredited Sooba. Gaskin has finally returned to his natural habitat – the PPP. In his missive he likened the Council’s attitude to Sooba to the AFC/APNU boycott of Rohee, which he used cynical semantics to describe. Maybe we will see a consultancy for Gaskin from Rohee’s Ministry soon

Gaskin claims the City Council is illegal. This is an egregious mischief from Gaskin. On Thursday night, I spent two full hours with Michael Carrington at Demico House in which he produced a plethora of documents and Bills to show me how the PPP has frustrated local government elections. Carrington is the AFC’s point man on local government, having sat for a full term as a Region 4 councilor. Carrington also showed me how year after year Parliament has postponed the elections. I am grateful to Michael Carrington for the knowledge he provided me on the history of local government legislation. I did not know it was the Hoyte Government that removed the authority of the Minister to name the date for local polls and that the PPP government restored that authoritarian mandate. I mean no insult to Gaskin, but his knowledge of the City Council’s legal travails is infinitesimal in comparison to Carrington’s.
Finally, on the abominable omissions in Gaskin’s letter. Nowhere has this man mentioned the virtual strangulation of the City Council by a power lustful government since 1992 that is hell bent on destroying local power and is inflexible on maintaining centralized control over all locally elected bodies. Only a fool does not know that the City Council has absolutely no authority to raise its own revenue. Only a fool does not know that the Georgetown City Council is a victim of Guyana’s traditional dinosaur – power lustfulness and race. Can GHK Lall please send Gaskin a complimentary copy on his new book on the race monster in Guyana?
Now for the equally obnoxious contents of his letter. Mr. Gaskin will find Ms. Sooba a natural companion. They are both authoritarian figures. Gaskin, known for his Stalinist deportment when he served the PPP, will get a rude awakening if and when he becomes the IMC chairman. The people of Georgetown will not accept further PPP domination. I hope Mr. Gaskin tells his PPP friends about the anger out there but I doubt he knows about it because Gaskin does not mix with the ordinary folks.
Mr. Gaskin wrote that the City Council is annoyed that Sooba was chosen by the Minister instead of someone the Council wanted. So why not? Why must Wittaker choose Sooba? And why must Wittaker chose to replace elected NDCs with IMCs that consist of PPP members? Gaskin is silent on that depravity. Gaskin went on to opine about the unpopularity of the City Council. I live in Guyana and I see an equally unpopular government, the very government that awarded Gaskin a consultancy to study the books of City Hall.
Gaskin laments the demonstrations and pickets against Sooba by the City Council. But how glad we should be that the protest mentality has reached another section of the Guyanese society. We are too silent and sheepish a nation
Maybe Gaskin should seek a consultancy to investigate the amount of recipients receiving old age pension during the tenure of Minister Manickchand. Chris Ram, who Mr. Gaskin knows very well, twice publicly said that given the census the numbers are way too high. He wrote about this in a Stabroek News letter and repeated it at a TUC symposium in April 2012. We will see how popular political parties are when city council elections are held. I can assure Mr. Gaskin that I will be up against him in the campaign
Frederick Kissoon
(Editor’s note: This letter was inadvertently cut in our Sunday Edition)

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