The West is speaking out on corruption in Guyana. Why now?

Jul 11, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In my last Sunday column (“Every country has ministerial rascals but …”) I asked the question why the ABC diplomats here are now speaking out about corruption. It cannot miss the notice of almost everyone familiar with Guyana that from the time Mr. Jagdeo settled down in office after the 2001 election, his junta became enveloped in horrible stories of corruption that were on par with other depraved States know for massive corruption. That was almost twelve years ago.
It wasn’t your everyday skullduggery. The scams involved billions of dollars that devastated development in Guyana. Corruption since 2001 is killing Guyana. The textbook of corruption says it is the worst enemy of development in the Third World. Clive Thomas, our premier economist and others like Dr. Tarron Khemraj need to tell us about how much Guyana has lost through the siphoning off of money by governmental actors since 2001. It has to be dozens of billions of dollars.
Where were the voices of the West after 2001? Was the West asleep or blind? The manifestations were too graphic to miss their eyes. As soon as a young man became a Minister, a mansion and swimming pool emerged on his land in Region Three. Another fellow chalked up just about four years of service with the regime and built a huge residence with state of the art swimming pool not far from a famous drive-in cinema.
A woman in the corridors of power is at the moment asking for a million American dollars for a house near to a police station not too far from where I live in Turkeyen.
A small businessman became a tycoon comparable to any in the US after monopolizing state contracts. A real non-entity who was a mere truck driver is now one of Guyana’s richest men. Guyanese were not fooled. They know these tycoons were the fronts for corrupt politicians.
The only people who didn’t know what was going on in Guyana were the Western diplomats. Or is that they didn’t want to know?
From 2001 to May 2013, did the Americans know about the extraordinary levels of corruption in Guyana? The answer is yes. The question is why did they stay silent until June 2013? I repeat from my Sunday column what one of Guyana’s most prominent lawyers told me in the National Park.
He said that it is foolish to think that the Americans do not know that almost every conceivable influential actor in the PPP is engaged in massive financial theft. For him the silence of Canada, the UK, the US, IDB and World Bank was due to intelligence cooperation that the Guyana Government provided the Americans on the Hugo Chavez Government. He was dead serious. He said there can be no competing explanation.
A strange thing began to happen. From June 2013, all three diplomats from the ABC countries began to speak about corruption in Guyana. Some of the language used was not subtle or diplomatic at all. Yesterday I got an email from a Guyanese-American lawyer with an important occupation in the corporate world in the US (I have since erased the mail but would talk to my trusted friends about his analysis). He wrote to say that he read my Sunday piece and has a theory based on contacts he has. His theory is that the June 2013 volte face of the ABC diplomats is a response to a new dynamic in US foreign policy.
He believes that the West is entering a new phase of geopolitical rivalry, this time with China who seems to have become the newest imperialist designer in the world. Statistics of China’s penetration of the Third World is frightening. China is literally buying up Africa.
My friend feels that the PPP cabal is encouraging Chinese hegemony in the Caribbean. If you think China is swallowing up Guyana, then study their investment in Suriname and Jamaica. It is larger than in Guyana.
The West may be entering into a rethink on its relation with the PPP Government. This can only be in the best interest of this country. And it is for the opposition (both APNU and AFC) and other stakeholders like Transparency Guyana, ACDA, People’s Parliament etc to pressure the ABC diplomats to up the pressure on the PPP junta to pursue good governance including immediate local government elections.
I end on a personal note. Chinese imperialism will not help this country. Unlike Western imperialism which has cultural, historical, philosophical, and language ties to Guyana that led to small forms of understanding, sympathy and generosity, the Chinese have no such historical connections and don’t want such ties. Chinese imperialism is the return of Genghis Khan.

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