Omar Shariff: Charade or shape-shifting?

Aug 15, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Many years ago, I had an argument with my friend, Colin Smith, the editor of the Catholic Standard. The then Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, had denied that the government was bringing in a consultant from Trinidad. Colin decided that in the event of the denial he couldn’t run with the story. I told him he should still go ahead. Colin said; “but the Minister denied it.” I replied; “the Minister is lying.”
Politicians are forced to lie because if they deceive the public on a matter of exceptional importance, and they are exposed, it could spell the end of their career. Power drives politicians to the devil’s peak. The fear of losing power lives with ruling politicians every second of every day of every year that they remain in power. If a Minister misbehaves and he/she has no excuse or alibi, the trepidation of falling takes over. The only resort is denial.
I have had the experience of politicians calling media houses with anger to proclaim innocence over factual things written about them in columns and letters. Because of time constraints, newspapers do not investigate and power-wielders get away with their lies. There was one such instance recently. Four years ago, I remember then Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand making super-human efforts to get the Kaieteur News to believe her story when I wrote that the number of irrational school placements was greater under her tenure than any other Education Minister. She promised Adam Harris to provide the statistics to disprove me. She never did.
This is a country where wealthy business people lie in the most sickening manner over violations of employees’ rights because they are afraid the media exposure would show people that they have money but nothing else in their character.  I recall a plane disappeared and the employees were presumed dead. The wife of one of the employees, a poor man, told INews that she was refused any compensation.
And to think the embassies, government and business places have these people at their cocktail events making speeches. This society is so jaded morally that we will remain a country of non-recognition. Little St. Lucia produced two Nobel Laureates. Trinidad produced one. Tiny Grenada has an Olympic gold medalist. Little Suriname has an Olympic gold medalist. Trinidad gave cricket, Brian Lara, arguably, the best batsman to ever play the game. Coming close to him is Viv Richards from Antigua.
The best cricketer the game has ever seen, Sir Garfield Sobers, is from Barbados. The biggest superstar in music from the Caribbean is Rihanna from Barbados. Bob Marley in my opinion was bigger than her. He was from Jamaica. The footballer from the Caribbean that made it big on the world stage because he played for Manchester United was from Trinidad. The Bahamas gave the Caribbean an Academy Award winner in Sydney Poitier.  The 2015 Booker Prize winner is a Jamaican. Guyana should be rated as one of the few countries that have the world’s most beautiful women. Trinidad, Jamaica and Grenada have won the number one spot in either Miss Universe or Miss World. Guyana has never had even a first runner-up.
We can go on and on and Guyana will not feature. All we feature in when we are on the international stage are negative occurrences. The percentage of Greeks, Germans, Poles, Koreans and dozens of other nationalities far exceed Guyanese in the US, yet the conviction rate in both criminal violence and civil illegalities among Guyanese far exceed those other nationalities. Is there something morally irredeemable about this nation?
The Kaieteur News did an immense service to this nation yesterday when it carried the statement by Omar Shariff about the recent financial controversies he is involved in. But it juxtaposed his denials with his assets. It made for most intriguing reading. The question that is inescapable as you read the juxtaposition; is Shariff lying? What was most irritating is that there isn’t even a fraction of consciousness by Shariff devoted to the statements of assets that have been documented and published in the Kaieteur News.
It is most natural, almost commonsensical for someone in the position of Shariff to meticulously explain his assets. This is why Shariff found himself in the heat of the volcano in the first place. Because of that fact, there needs to be an elongated statement from him justifying his spread of wealth.  It is the right of any analyst to examine that spread and question whether that wealth came from a mere phone-card business. If it did then Guyana has the largest market in the world for phone cards.

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