The ABC countries facilitated the victory of APNU+AFC in 2015

Sep 25, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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I want to be recorded so that when these columns are consulted decades from now, my position will be verified. I support the EU, American and British and Commonwealth pronouncement on the constitutional crisis in Guyana.
Guyana is a small country with geo-strategic value, and thus the West has from time to time covertly and overtly intervened in Guyana’s politics to shape the fortune of office-seekers. The 2015 election was accompanied by an extensive presence of Mr. Bryan Hunt, then acting Ambassador of the US Embassy.
I saw nothing wrong with what Hunt was doing. I still don’t. I’m glad the PPP lost. Hunt favoured the APNU+AFC coalition in the 2015 battle. Hunt was also involved in exerting influence on the Elections Commission, particularly one important person in the Commission that Hunt had undue influence on. The ABC countries (America, Britain and Canada) wanted the PPP out, and they did not stand with their hands to their sides and watch on.
Maybe those who are condemning the West for their statements are doing so sincerely. But they need an education into the role that the ABC countries played in APNU+AFC securing victory in 2015. Maybe the leadership of both the AFC and the PNC should tell them. Maybe a maverick mandarin in the PPP leadership should break ranks and write about the role of Bryan Hunt and Hunt’s pressure on that particular GECOM bigwig.
Long before the 2015 elections, the ABC birthed the Alliance For Change. When President Jagdeo moved to expel Khemraj Ramjattan for giving information to the US Embassy, media operatives had long known that the ABC countries had advised Ramjattan, Sheila Holder and Trotman to form a third force.
Holder had extensive connections with the US Embassy from 2009. So did Trotman. Both Trotman and Holder initiated Ramjattan into the political intrigues of the ABC matrix It was through the instrumentality of the US Embassy that Alston Stewart from Jamaica, came to Guyana to advise the AFC on its 2011 and 2015 campaigns. It was the US Embassy that financed the Dick Morris poll for the AFC in 2006.
Most analysts who study Guyanese politics, and media operatives, would know from around 2006 when Jagdeo was serving his final term, the ABC countries showed an interest in an alternative government. And they initiated formidable moves to see that there was an alternative to the PPP
The ABC shied away from backing Robert Corbin. They did not want Corbin as the president. The ABC countries proposed two strategies – Corbin should step aside and subsume the PNC under an umbrella grouping, and the AFC must have a predominant say in a Coalition Government if the Coalition wins.
A secret poll financed by the US Embassy in late 2014 showed a new PNC with new leadership, joining with the AFC, would win the election. Stewart was brought in again, and the AFC was told that it should seek accommodation with APNU. When Dr. Ramayya kicked up a stink about AFC joining with the PNC and behaved wildly, Nagamootoo and Ramjattan were dispatched to Berbice to prove to him that victory was assured by the ABC countries.
The PPP knew the US Embassy and the other western embassies were working to see APNU and the AFC win the election. They knew the embassy had financed the “vote like a boss” campaign to get out the Georgetown vote. So Teixeira and Manickchand went with the intention of confronting the US Ambassador, Brent Hardt on American Independence Day.
Roger Luncheon, who knew everything the ABC countries were planning, was so pleased with what Manickchand did, that he described her output as a feral blast. Hunt was livid at what Manickchand did, but the PPP refused to apologise because it knew what the embassy was up to. The secret 2014 poll did predict victory, but not such a close one.
The reason for the coat of varnish in the election results was that the PPP ruthlessly exploited the Freudian fear of the PNC that inhabits the Indian psyche. When a recount was refused in Region 8 where the PPP lost by one ballot, there and then, the PPP knew that the ABC countries had succeeded. Do you know why the recount was refused?
Leaving aside these facts on current Guyanese history, it is perfectly logical to understand why the government and its surrogates are denouncing the West’s call for adherence to the constitution. All governments in Guyana that benefitted from the West’s interference are afraid of the implications. But seriously, what is wrong with Guyana’s traditional allies in the West calling for adherence to the constitution? The current government is not constitutionally clothed.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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