I spoke with Charran yesterday

Nov 01, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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A mutual friend of Charrandass Persaud indicated to me that Charran always conveys to him the need to chat with me. It has been a long time we conversed and one reason for that could be security. I don’t trust my phone.
This friend was fixing my computer yesterday so he called Charran. First things first; he said he is returning after the election. In our long conversation, I expressed a sentiment that I have literally conveyed to hundreds of persons in Guyana – reply and state your case in public because history will record the nastiness people compose against you as truths.
National figures at all time must confront the fictions written about them. Of course, many such depravities are not known because few people read certain publications. But once your detractors hit the mainstream media, and these detractors are well known personalities occupying power, wealth and status, then defend yourself.
Everywhere I go, as recent as last Sunday to Parika Market with my wife, people asked questions based on things they read. They must have turn over these things in their minds and they want answers. I get questions all the time about Charrandass. This entire country for the past year has been talking about Charrandass.
Since December 2018 when he created one of the biggest constitutional and political crises in the history of this country, there is hardly anything in the mainstream media by Charran. I said to him in our telephonic exchange yesterday that he must write and adumbrate his vexations that triggered his impulse to vote against his own government.
Year after year Charran told me about his absolute disgust with the Alliance For Change. The boiling point was reached in 2017 when at a birthday party at a mutual friend on David Street, Kitty he said if there was a no-confidence motion (NCM), he would vote against the government so there can be fresh elections. With a tiny smile on his face he told me days before the no-confidence vote (NCV) in December last year that, “Freddie watch what will happen.” I know from those simple words what would have happened.
Yesterday he said he doesn’t feel like explaining himself to the Guyanese people. He intoned that he did what he felt was necessary and he thinks that is sufficient. I disagreed. I kept saying to him that he must write; people want to hear about how he felt and why he did it. In other words, justify yourself for the historical record.
I told him if he doesn’t write, then history cannot record the infamies of the AFC. I suggested three areas. Here there are. In early 2018, Charran told me he raised with Ramjattan the question of a junior minister of agriculture because that ministry was not performing to the maximum. He said each time the subject was broached, the AFC leadership poured scorn on it. But in 2019, President Granger reshuffled the Cabinet and appointed a junior minister in agriculture.
Instead of me explaining right now the depravity of the AFC, Charran should have described for Guyana his mounting frustration with the AFC which led to the climax – the NCV. The second area was how the AFC treated him as the parliamentary representative in Berbice.
Ramjattan declared in Berbice a few weeks ago that the idea and policy of closing down the Berbice sugar estates came from the AFC. But Charran as the parliamentarian for Berbice affairs read about the closure in the media. It was not Charran himself but his friend, fellow attorney, Ryan Crawford who publicly described what Charran was going through.
Crawford said while playing dominoes on Charran’s bridge, sugar workers would hurl the vilest cuss words at Charran. These are the things Charran should be writing about because they justify the holding of an NCM and the removal of the AFC from continuation in government.
Finally, the mistreatment of Dr. Ramaya. This columnist saw an email exchange between the AFC leaders on an advisory note President Granger sent the AFC urging acceptable employment for Ramaya. After the 2015 victory, Ramaya was offered the title of Berbice liaison for the Prime Minister. It carried a state car and a salary of $90, 000. I campaigned with Ramaya. He brought in votes for the AFC. In another column, I will release an email exchange with Minister David Patterson in which he tried to deceive me about the AFC’s offer of the Ministry of the Environment to the personal friend of three AFC top leaders. The woman never lifted a finger to campaign in either the 2006, 2011 or 2015 elections for the AFC. I insisted to Charran – start exposing the evil inside the AFC.

(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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