Manickchand’s speech was not written for her

Jul 09, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
In my Sunday column, I expressed the opinion that Manickchand’s delivery was not written for her. I took the position that given the way the PPP operates, I could have envisaged a situation where Manickchand was told to go there blazing. But I doubt that the actual speech was written for her.
Manickchand is one of the big contenders for successor to the PPP’s gerontocracy and because of that she is allowed excessive liberties.
It was Manickchand who openly disagreed with the court’s ruling in favour of then Commissioner of Police Henry Greene with regards to the rape allegation. She was the only Minister who went on Benschop Radio. If there are others I don’t know. I know when he was with the PPP, Ralph Ramkarran refused to give Benschop Radio an interview.
Manickchand does these things to up her profile because she knows she is in the race to succeed those in the house of troglodytes at Freedom House whose leadership is coming to an end. There is a heated competition going on among five younger PPP apparatchiks for that position. If you look at Robert Persaud’s media outfit, INEWS, you can clearly see that Robert Persaud is in the race. INEWS gives negative coverage to Ashni Singh and Irfaan Ali and Priya Manickchand who are Ramotar’s favourites.
It was INEWS that first carried the photograph of the way Ashni Singh looked after he exited his car in a vehicular incident. That photo was incriminating.
Anil Nandlall is in the arena too. He told the media that he disagreed with the daily quotes in all the daily newspapers from the Rodney Commission that vilifies the PNC and paid for by GINA. He told the media that it was in bad taste. Luncheon fired back and publicly castigated Nandlall by saying; “He wasn’t speaking for me or the Cabinet.”
I think Manickchand went to the US function with the intention of blasting away to keep her profile going. It was her language. When it caused a national scandal, she obviously called her backers to come to her rescue. Ramotar was out of the country so Luncheon took his role. To save Manickchand, Luncheon did the most logical thing – he said that it was a speech the government handed her. He said Cabinet scripted it. It was not true.
One Cabinet member told a leading opposition figure that such a speech never came to the Cabinet and the US function was never discussed at the Cabinet level.
I am surprised that all the opposition politicians and critical letter-writers believe Luncheon. It looks good to them because they think the government is now in a bind because it wasn’t Manickchand only.
But the government came to the rescue of Manickchand. And Luncheon has got away with the deception.
That is all. They couldn’t leave her out in the cold because the clamours for her resignation would have been unstoppable. She got off because the country was told that the culprit was not her but the government itself. Manickchand is one of those favoured by Luncheon and Ramotar in the leadership race for one simple reason – she is one of two among the five contenders who are open to being a messenger in power.
Robert Persaud is feared because the troglodytes believe the he would let Jagdeo run the show. I am just surprised that we believe Luncheon about this speech thing.
Finally, it makes sense to protect Manickchand because if it was left as she being the nasty person, then it opens her up for visa sanction or American displeasure if she succeeds Ramotar as PPP leader.
All of that is inoperable now because the government said that she was merely the messenger. She was not. She went to the function and did what she always does – behave as if she belongs to a section of Bourda Market.
Frederick Kissoon

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Manickchand’s speech was not written for her

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