The Jagdeo/Ramotar era; easily painted from memory

Mar 03, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I walk my dog in the evenings at least four times a week at the back of Giftland Mall. The mall ends where the gated, private commercial housing estate of Eddie Boyer of National Hardware begins. The humungous space was sold to Eddie Boyer during Jagdeo’s reign, far below prevailing market value.
Without remiss, I would stare at this resplendent enclave each time my dog bolts from my hand towards Mr. Boyer’s gate. There are some extraordinarily expensive houses in that estate. Of course nothing is wrong with people owning jets, yachts, mansions, etc. Everything is sick about the tax system that favours the wealthy classes.
The rich do not pay taxes in Guyana and it is one of the most diseased perversities in this wasteland of a country. Don’t fool yourself – a new commissioner in the tax collection depot hasn’t changed a damn thing. Wealthy folks who own mansions in Guyana do not pay their fair share and the system is so broken that no one cares or gives a damn. I didn’t mind being offered to head the GRA after the great AFC toppled the PPP, but I didn’t ask after 2015. Better late than never; I’m asking now.
There is a deeply moving reason why I look at that private estate each night I am with my dog in the vicinity. It wasn’t Jagdeo’s land that he sold so cheaply. It was land that Bookers once owned and on which emancipated slaves, and indentured labourers and 19th century sugar workers toiled with their broken bodies.
Those lands belong to the descendants of former slaves and indentured servants. Mr. Boyer received the land that belonged to the people of Guyana from Jagdeo, in turn sold it to the mansion-builders, and made incredible profits. As I stared at Mr. Boyer’s empire Friday night with dog in my hand and my discman playing the songbook of Burt Bacharach, sung by British Singer, “Rumer” that Aubrey Baptiste sent for me last Wednesday, pure anger pierced my psyche.
Hundreds of thousands of labourers worked the lands that Bookers inherited from our colonial conquerors, and how many of them got the deal that Eddie Boyer received from Bharrat Jagdeo?
That wasn’t the only source of my tempestuous rage last Friday evening. This very former president wants to control the government of Guyana again.
Do you know how many persons in this country have implored me to get house lots for them. Honestly, the number is endless. One lady defied her parents and supported the AFC. She gave her time and embrace to the AFC during the 2015 campaign. And she couldn’t get a house lot to build a home for herself, while the lands owned by the people of this country were given away by Jagdeo and Ramotar to their wealthy friends.
I met this very woman as I was coming off the wall with my dog four months ago. She pleaded with me for a house lot. There and then, I drove to Kingston to see Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, who has overall jurisdiction for housing. I know Ronald a very long time now, before he ever dreamt of becoming a politician.
He was attentive and kind. He said he would do it and he did it. This woman deserved that little plot. The people who Jagdeo gave Guyana’s resources to, do not deserve it. There is a funny story that vividly drives home the point to me that the PPP should not rule Guyana again. I take Campbell Avenue all the time when I leave home at Turkeyen.
Often, I would see this character. He rides an old bicycle and is always shabbily dressed. I suspect he lives on Campbell Avenue. Each time he sees me as I slow up, he would yell to me, “Fredaay, Fredaay, PPP coming back bhai, we coming back, Fredaay.” No question about it; he is a frenetic supporter of the PPP.
One day, as he rode away, I gazed at his bicycle and his clothes. These are the types that will kill for the PPP to come back. And in seventy years from now, he will still be that character on his bicycle that the PPP didn’t do anything for. But the folks like Eddie Boyer will get what they ask Jagdeo for.
There is another story to be told; this one is not like the bicycle fellow. This tale is about the supporters of APNU+AFC. They chose not to hold their leaders accountable. Their leaders have made so many incredible mistakes that the bicycle character feels his party is riding so high that it is coming back to power. I hope not.

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