Brigadier Phillips has maintained an untainted character

Oct 23, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Please permit me a few column inches in your newspaper to respond to unsubstantiated and fallacious claims by PNC/R executive Rear Admiral Gary Best, who, out of sheer desperation, attempted to discredit the credentials of an outstanding patriot, Brigadier (Ret’d), Mark Phillips.
Rear Admiral Best, a former army chief himself, at one of the PNC/R’s Friday rants sought to make the case that Brigadier Phillips is no match for his Party’s leader, Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger- a most outlandish statement from a man who we once entrusted protection of our borders.
I wish to remind Rear Admiral Best of a few facts. Firstly, Brigadier Phillips led the Guyana Defence Force with distinction and has maintained an untainted character post-military.
Brigadier Phillips is also highly qualified, both as a military officer and an academic. He is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Management from the University of Guyana and a Master’s Degree in Public Sector Management from La Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic.
Brigadier Phillips has held several appointments, including Colonel (Administration and Quartering), and Colonel (General Staff) in the GDF’s Defence Headquarters, during his 30 years of military service. He was also Guyana’s Head of Delegation to the Inter-American Defence Board from 2008 to 2009, and was up to 2011 Guyana’s non-resident Military Attaché to Venezuela. Over the years, brigadier Phillips has demonstrated his ability to manage.
Brigadier Phillips is an outstanding orator with hands-on knowledge of our national security architecture. He has never violated our constitution and has always demonstrated respect for the rule of law.
Having listened to Brigadier Phillips’s presentation on a recent televised interview relating to national security, one can easily conclude that he is au fait with the current state of our national security and has a vision of how to correct this mess created by the Granger led APNU/AFC.
Having outlined the impeccable record of Brigadier Phillips, let us now examine Brigadier Granger’s record, both as a military officer and President of Guyana.
Granger was never seen as fit and proper to lead the Guyana Defence Force and was never appointed to such a post due to his poor management skills or lack thereof. As a matter of fact, both President Burnham and President Hoyte bypassed him appointed others. His failed government is testimony he is unfit and improper to lead or manage anything.
Despite his promise, Granger failed to devise a national security plan for Guyana, even though he is surrounded by the likes of Best and others who claimed to have all the answers to issues of national security.
Granger has violated and continues to violate the constitution which he swore to uphold, both as an officer of the GDF and President of Guyana.
Further, he has very poor knowledge of national security and continues to bungle on this issue every time he attempts to speak to this matter, making him a mismatch for Brigadier Phillips.
Editor, I would also like to highlight that Rear Admiral Best has no moral authority to question the intelligence and integrity of anyone. He publicly supports a coalition whose tenure in office is wreaked in corruption, cronyism, nepotism, incompetence and disregard for the constitution and the rule of law. Brigadier Phillips on the other hand is not a member of any political party and has never supported a government that has violated our constitution.
Rear Admiral Best speaks of integrity, but lives on a plot of land at Pradoville 11 where Best constructed a sprawling mansion for which Former Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, is facing politically-concocted charges.

Yours respectfully,
Edward Layne

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