There are lessons to be learnt from the downfall of Cush

Feb 27, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to my letter of Sunday, February 26 captioned, “The Rise and Fall of Ifa  Kamau Cush.”  I wish to follow up on that missive and thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Editor. When information on the fees for parking was made public, it led to a public outcry that the cost of the parking meter project to Georgetowners and to Guyana on the whole was prohibitive. It forced the intervention of the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General.
The Ministry of Finance condemned the contract and said that it should be renegotiated. This was not done; instead there were several amendments to the original contract and a reduction in the price for parking. Even these changes failed to get the support of the public. A citizens group, MAPM, was formed and the organizers mobilized a successful boycott of the parking meters and also staged protest demonstrations outside City Hall which were attended by hundreds of citizens across political persuasions.
A photograph in one of the daily newspapers showed Mr. Cush and the manager of SCS mingling with the protestors in front of City Hall, apparently, trying to convince them to support the project.  However, it was on his Facebook page that Cush vented vicious abuse on those protesting, accusing them of having a slave/indenture mentality and much more. In spite of the public backlash he received and a statement from the company condemning and distancing SCS management from his reprehensible and toxic remarks, he subsequently posted on his Facebook page yet another statement in which he indicated that he stood by his previous remarks, showing neither remorse nor common sense and certainly, no political or business savvy.
While I was not surprised by his stubbornness in not retreating on what he had said, I must admit that I was flabbergasted on two scores. (1) That Mr. Cush who prides himself as a Pan Africanist would have chosen to invoke the question of slave mentality, which he is aware has its roots in White racism; and (2) in spite of living and doing business in the USA, he displayed that level of contempt and disrespect for Guyanese in a politically sensitive, business controversy without any consideration for the consequences on the company and himself.
A second Presidential intervention led to an announced 50% reduction in fees, a temporary relaxation of punitive measures for violations of the parking system, a 50% drop in fines and consultations with stake-holders by the Mayor and Town Clerk. These initiatives have failed to defuse the public outcry against the parking meters. Evidence of this fact was demonstrated by yet another successful demonstration outside City Hall. It is now anyone’s guess when and how the protest will end and whether the parking meters project would ever have public acceptance.
Politically, as Mr. Desmond Trotman pointed out on Walter Rodney Groundings (a WPA TV show) that Mayor Chase Green and Town Clerk Royston King in imposing the draconian parking meter project have succeeded in doing what the opposition PPP failed to do, that is,  mobilize citizens of Georgetown in protest in the heart of the APNU+AFC support base. Kamau Cush, the pliant lackey of SCS must be seen as one of those responsible for these series of protest actions in Georgetown.
The announcement that Smart City Solution board has demanded and got the resignation of Mr. Cush from his position in the company is not surprising. This act against Cush by SCS must be seen for what it was – a jettisoning of a “disposable”. It was in keeping with the practice of companies embroiled in controversy over their business dealings. In those instances they moved very quickly to rid themselves of officials who they believe have the potential of worsening their situation.
The Board of Directors of SCS, faced with Cush’s defiant cussing out of the citizens protesting the parking meters project, acted in what they concluded was in the best interest of the company. It is hard not to conclude that they were saying to him – you have received your thirty pieces of silver and we no longer have any uses for you.
In closing Mr. Cush’s sudden rise and his subsequent fall from grace is a result of his own doing. However, from the perspective of business and politics the developments surrounding SCS has interesting lessons for those overseas Guyanese who, because they enjoy some leverage with local officials, are anxious to align with foreign investors and introduce them to Guyana’s landscape in conditions not conducive to advancing Guyanese political, economic and social interests.
It also challenges local officials who are zealous to ink deals with these foreign based companies that they have the duty and moral obligation to ensure that from the outset, everything that will ensure transparency and legitimacy of a “deal” is done. Only time will tell whether Guyanese at home and abroad have learned any lesson from the missteps of Mr. Ifa Kamua Cush.
Tacuma Ogunseye

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