No one in this world should trust David Granger

May 28, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Do the analysis for yourself, without help from others, if you are neutral in the current political crisis but you are leaning toward accepting David Granger over the other election contestants. You owe it to yourself to do that.
Here is an analysis with plausibility that shows Granger is not to be trusted. My arguments of Granger’s deception are not new. Granger has the inclination of using his Burnhamite approach to power in his emanations. Should the population trust a president or prime minister who in the 21st century held three press conferences in his five-year rule?
What is the answer? I believe he lacks self-confidence and is afraid that he will fall down with hard questions. Here is where Granger lacks any knowledge of Guyanese sociology. Almost eighty percent of our journalists are not university trained. Almost eighty percent do not engage in substantial investigative journalism. If Granger is fearful of facing hard questions from them, will he ever sit down with a sharp, independent intellectual and defend his politics?
Granger’s presidency is replete with dangerous interpretations of politics, power and events. I have dealt with his proclivity to interpret constitutional decisions in frightening ways never before seen in any previous president in the CARICOM region.
He went to extreme levels, which also involved comedy when he said a persuasive remark by the CCJ president meant that he could submit to himself a list of GECOM candidates, consult the Opposition Leader, then accept one from his own list. He went so far to summon a meeting with all diplomatic envoys to assert that illusion in his mind. Is this the president a modern country deserves?
One more example before I discuss his current deceptive outlays. He had four ministers looking into the oil industry as it was being put on a sound footing. When the head of the department of energy was chosen, none of these ministers said they had an input into the selection of Dr. Mark Bynoe. It turned out that Dr. Bynoe was not trained in oil economics or petroleum engineering. There are many more instances of Granger’s dangerous deportment that needs to be put under constant scrutiny. Here is the latest.
In the same interview in which he is advocating inclusive governance, he again displayed his proclivity to put his ridiculous definitions on sensitive issues thereby exposing his autocratic personality. “My only desire is that the media should be truthful and explain to the Guyanese people what has occurred since the second of March and I believe if the media were truthful, if political parties were honest, we would be able to overcome some of the anxieties and apprehension. There has been a lot of misinformation, there have been fake reports and this has caused the confusion.”
Make no mistake; he is not alluding to the Chronicle. Make no mistake; he has the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News in mind. Make no mistake; he is not referring to the naked skullduggery of Mingo. Make no mistake, he has not included the blatant depravities his political party has introduced into electoral behaviour never before seen in this country.
Make no mistake that if he should head the next government and accept inclusive governance, it will be on his understanding of what inclusive governance is and his meaning will differ from international examples and the fundamental pillars on which inclusive governance rests.
Granger loved the ambience he was in when he made those remarks. It was an ambience in which he did not have to search for intellectual answers. Enrico Wolford put a self-serving, leading question to him and he ran with it the way a toddler goes after his first chocolate taste. This is the president who wants inclusive governance yet he makes unsavoury use of State resources to propagandize.
So the question is; after inclusive governance in which he is president, will he allow the state media to employ independent journalists who will examine objectively the direction of the state and heap praise on non-PNC ministers who excel and report on mediocre PNC ministers who can hardly reason? Or will Guyana see President Granger did what he did to his coalition partner? He invoked the constitution for the AFC and asserted his constitutional right to name his own prime minister, choose his own ministers, and designate which portfolios which minister should have.
I grew up in politics with people like Rupert Roopnarine, Clive Thomas, Eusi Kwayana, Moses Bhagwan, etc. They were all critical of Burnham, Jagan, Hoyte, etc. What do these gentlemen think of Granger? You never know in life. Maybe they think that in Granger, Nietzsche’s Übermensch has arrived.

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