Latest update January 11th, 2025 4:10 AM
May 01, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
In yesterday’s article, I argued that after Mingo tried barefaced methods to rig the election which were silly because all the important international observers saw what he was doing, the AFC adopted a stratagem that was bold and innovative.
Realizing that the defeat of APNU+AFC could not be reversed, the AFC turned the election impasse into a geopolitical drama. Cathy Hughes and Khemraj Ramjattan, using the campaign office of APNU instead of their own offices, (Railway Road in Kitty and Campbell Avenue in Campbellville), conducted a press conference in which they accused the Russians of trying to interfere with the elections.
In philosophy, something may be inherently wrong, but could also be logical. What the AFC did was indeed logical. Victory was lost, so the AFC literally appealed to the Americans to accept APNU+AFC’s remaining in office, because a Russian team came to Guyana and tried to tamper with the process so the PPP could win.
Any evidence of that would spell trouble. The Americans and the West, once they found that accusation credible, would have done their own investigation. It didn’t work for the AFC, because the timing of the information was blatantly stupid. If Russians came here with electronic gadgets to rig the election and the government caught them and deported them, why were the nation and western embassies told this the very next day after Mingo was openly seen trying to shape victory out of defeat for APNU+AFC?
It was really an idiotic thing that the AFC tried and failed miserably to implement. First, that is sick intrusion by a foreign government that the world was entitled to know about. Secondly, because it involved the Russians and not the Nigerians or Hondurans, then it was obligatory on the part of the intelligence agencies in Guyana to inform the US embassy. Guyana shares intelligence data with the Americans.
Thirdly, the arrest and deportation of Russians trying to tamper with the elections is not something an incumbent government would not want to publicize. Obviously, there is enormous political mileage to gain from informing the world.
The stratagem backfired because the Americans knew it was a con game. No Russians came. No Russians were deported.
After weeks of shameful embarrassment, a section of the PNC, without informing President Granger (I firmly believe Granger did not know because if he did, he would not have allowed himself to be described as an American citizen), contacted Michael Granger (MG), the PNC’s point man in the US, to lobby American legislators, senators and high government officials into accepting the PNC’s continuation in power.
A caveat is in order. I chose not to say “to lobby these American personnel to accept that APNU+AFC won the election.” MG knew he could not have walked in that direction. The question of victory was not a live issue. That was dead like a door nail – killed by Mingo since March 4.
MG knew that if the Americans were to depart from their stance of transparent election results, he had to do what the AFC was smart enough to do since March 4 – forget about the election results and convince the Americans that the PPP in office would put Guyana into the orbit of the Chinese and the Russians.
MG did exactly that in his dossier. Read the dossier and you will see that it is essentially a paper on geopolitics. It is badly written, badly researched, and poor in polemical points. I suspect that MG had assistance from two sources – one is a PNC diaspora academic who once held a top position at UG and the other is another diaspora personality who wants us to think that he has access to the political world of Washington D.C. through his liaisons for Guyanese exporters.
I chose not to call names, because I don’t have time to defend silly libel writs.
David Granger has scuttled MG’s dossier. He cannot lobby Washington D.C., because MG no longer is authorized to submit the dossier to the Americans. The question that is likely to be asked is: if President Granger did not intervene, would MG’s geopolitics thesis have been accepted? The answer is no. That is because the research officers working for American legislators and senators would not have accepted the nonsense MG penned, but do their own research.
Two facts would have emerged – one is; the dossier was to deflect one of the worst rigged elections in the 21st century. The other is that there is no evidence available to suggest that the foreign policy of the PPP and APNU+AFC when in government is any different. Even GECOM’s major players cannot keep APNU+AFC in power.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)
Jan 11, 2025
Kaieteur News- The body of 39-year-old Fu Jian Wei, an employee of China Railway Construction Corporation (International) was recovered from the Demerara River on Friday, the Ministry of Public Works...Dem Boys Seh… Kaieteur News- Dem boys bin pass one of dem fancy speed meter signs wah de guvament put up fuh tell drivers... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]