No tears for Geeta Chandan

Jun 06, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have known man and wife attorneys, Geeta Chandan and Joel Edmond, a long time now. They were both my students at UG. After that they became friends with me. They still are my friends. As late as two months ago, I requested Geeta’s help in securing employment for someone with a degree injournalism. Her assistance was positive.

Freddie Kissoon

Geeta was victimized as a magistrate because it is alleged that she jailed the son of then Prime Minister, Sam Hinds. I publicly showed my support for her.
Geeta got into a controversy over the Chronicle’s editor, Nigel Williams, firing David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis as columnists. The action of Williams could not be justified by the opaque circumstances in which it was done.
I was walking out of the Aquatic Centre with my dog one night and Geeta and her husband Joel, drove up and engaged me. Geeta wanted me to put her perspective on what Williams did. She thought Williams had no justification for his action and his reasons were flimsy (see my column, of Friday, March 16, 2018, captioned, “Nocturnal encounter with Geeta Chandan of the Chronicle”)
Geeta said as board chairman, she will summon a meeting and request Williams to supply proof for two reasons he cited; one was the lack of readership for the columns, and secondly, the two columnists were getting low hits when internet users go to the Chronicle online edition.
After that night, I never heard back from Geeta. Williams remained on his job. The two columnists were not retained.
I didn’t think it was my place to get an update from Geeta. She was expected to get back to me. She told me so. I knew what happened. She was instructed by her political bosses to let the issue fade. She did. That was a crucial mistake. It has now come back to haunt Geeta.
Board members, Bert Willkinson, Ruel Johnson and Tabitha Sarabo-Halley resigned over Williams’s directive. Geeta stayed to confront Williams. She lost out. It was time to follow her other board members and do the moral thing – resign.
Now Geeta has walked over the Sherod Duncan imbroglio. I am not going to devote much space to the edict by the Prime Minister to reinstate Duncan. It is no secret that Nagamootoo is fighting with Khemraj Ramjattan for the AFC nomination at the AFC congress on June 15 for the PM position in the next general election.
Sherod Duncan last week clinched the chairmanship of the Georgetown branch of the AFC. No doubt he will take to the congress a number of delegates. My opinion is that his return to the Chronicle was done with the desire by Nagamootoo to get those votes. Every vote counts and Nagamootoo and Ramjattan are in a mad rush to collect delegates’ ballots.
Ugly things are being done by both men. It is going to be an ugly congress two Saturdays from now at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre.
Back to Geeta. She was a former magistrate and is the legal advisor in the Ministry of the Presidency. With such status, it was a huge mistake to allow yourself to be dictated to for an entity of which you are a volunteer chairman. I could understand succumbing to political directives in relation to your state job but why put up with what you consider nonsense going on in a state corporation for which you do voluntary work? Even if the board chairperson is paid, it is probably a mere stipend.
When the confusion first started at the Chronicle with Williams and she lost out, why didn’t she say to herself that she has lots of work to do in her legal job and finish with the Chronicle? But she stayed on and now a second scandal has hit the Chronicle and she has suddenly discovered that it is time to protect her professional integrity. The question is; didn’t she know it, if happened once, it will happen again? The answer could be met with another question – which country is she living in?
Geeta and her husband cannot be that naive not to know what has happened to power since the APNU and AFC came into office in 2015. When the PPP ruled Guyana, many commentators would question what next. That was in reference to the daily perversities that accompanied the PPP’s style of governance.
It has not been different with the APNU-AFC regime. The scandals are cascading like a fountain in the lobby of a fancy hotel. So today is it the Chronicle. What will it be tomorrow? We don’t have the specific outline but there will be one tomorrow.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News