We will not return to the hard years of Govt. abuse

Mar 17, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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BUSTED! In his characteristic finger-wagging style that he practiced even then, President Jagdeo spoke to the nation in 2005, well before the 28 August 2006 National Polls, explaining the reason(s) why as President, he could not set a date for National Elections. These are his own words: “Now, we said to GECOM … the Law says that GECOM shall define the form of verification … or may decide on what form it will take – not the PPP, not the PNC, not any party … GECOM! That’s a constitutional body, independent just like the courts”.
If it sounds familiar it is because H.E. President David Granger has been saying the same thing to the Nation since December 2018 when the Opposition staged a No Confidence Motion in Parliament. The Opposition Leader has since been haranguing the Government, demanding a date for elections, threatening all kinds of mayhem, and worst of all, openly encouraging supporters to “chase out” any member of Government who enters their communities.
People are wondering, what could be the reason(s) for the PPP’s desperation to return to office. Apart from the obvious, the prospects of a rich treasury, one other reason could be the fact that many citizens throughout the nation have been talking openly about the new developments that are making their lives easier. Even in remote villages and hinterland communities, citizens are very pleased with their new bridges, proper roads and other infrastructure; potable water, better electricity from solar panels, free Internet, markets for their farm produce, farming and sports equipment, and free transportation to school, just to name a few.
The Opposition does not like it when Drainage and Irrigation engineers go into farms in Berbice or Essequibo to fix the farmers’ dams; nor when a community comes together and takes control of their ICT hub with free computers that their children use to do their research assignments. The PPP doesn’t like the fact that citizens are not complaining anymore that the Government does not care about them. So Jagdeo takes to the podiums and screams at the people, essentially suggesting that they break the law.
Do they believe that the population can forget in 3 ½ years the stress and strain, the shame and embarrassment we all lived under from 1992 to 2015? Let us take a brief look back:

2015: PRODUCTIVE FOREST CONCESSIONS ALL GIVEN OUT
Minister Trotman reported to Parliament that nearly 100 percent of the lands set aside for productive forest use have been given out by the PPP Government through “questionable joint ventures” and other arrangements. The nation was understandably angry because the same PPP Government had given a commitment to the world to avoid deforestation.
Minister Trotman asked, “How could any responsible government just give up the nation’s wealth (incl. 40 million acres of untouched rainforest) without any regard for future generations?”
Jagdeo had received the Champion of the Earth award for 2010, and he used the accolade to lure donors and investors into paying for the protection of Guyana’s forests through the sale of carbon credits or investments in eco-tourism and pharmaceutical discoveries. Guyana adopted the UN Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme and we went on to encourage the rest of the world to see how protecting the forests is more economically prudent than cutting them down.
But after all the commitments, he went ahead anyway and distributed large swathes of rainforest to private timber producers with no provisos for replanting those forests. But, like everything else, this Government is fixing that too.

2014: OMBUDSMAN’S REPORT EXPOSES REASONS BEHIND FIRING OF NBS MANAGERS
A damning 2006 report from the Office of the Ombudsman concluded that the police had wrongfully charged the New Building Society’s CEO Maurice Arjoon, and two of his managers for allegedly defrauding the bank of G$69 million. It turned out to be an act of spite.
The Ombudsman had launched an extensive investigation following complaints by the accused NBS Managers that they were framed. According to the Report, Mr. Arjoon had refused to illegally endorse a ‘loan’ of G$2 billion to the Berbice Bridge Company. Instead, he made the decision to lend G$350 million. That decision changed the lives of three people, and not for the better.
Thirteen years to the day he started working at the New Building Society (NBS), Operations Manager Kent Vincent, was told that he would be charged in connection with a G$69M fraud committed on a customer’s account. Vincent was reportedly one of the signatories to the cheques issued to a person who used a fake Power of Attorney to carry out the fraud.
For the next seven years, his and his colleagues’ lives became persecuted to hell even though the court had dropped the case after the main witness – the account holder– stopped going to court.
In 2006, Ombudsman, retired Justice Winston Moore’s investigation found that the police should never have arrested and charged the three men. His report described the case as a grave injustice and recommended monetary compensation for each man for the loss of seven (7) productive years.
These are only 2 items on a long list of injustices committed on the citizens of this nation. This is not how any citizen expects Democracy to work for them, but this is what the PPP is demanding that we return them to office for – a life of fear. The nation has had enough of the PPP. Instead, we choose to build!

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