The people are pawns in a game controlled by powerful businessmen

Aug 01, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

People should be circumspect about those to whom they pledge their loyalty and decide to follow. Those leaders do not always act in their interests. Time and again these leaders have deceived the ordinary people. Time and again they have betrayed them on behalf of rich and their rich business friends.
During the election season, rich and powerful businessmen lined up to make donations to the political parties. Most of them did so because they see these donations as an investment; an investment in their own interests.
When the political parties they support win, they will go knocking for their repayment. Nothing is given freely. Most business donors set aside two sets of envelopes during election season. One is for the PPP and the other set is for the PNC. They grease both sides. Whoever wins, they do not lose. They have hedged their bets on both of the main parties.
Then there are those who come knocking after the election. They come with their suitcases of money, ready to cut deals, including some under the table. These deals represent a betrayal of the rank and file supporters of the political parties.
The attempts at rigging which is presently taking place is being done to cover-up some of the deals which have been entered into and which, if made public, are going to put politicians and their rich friends in an uncomfortable position.
The APNU+AFC hid the signing bonus from the country for almost one year before it was exposed by this newspaper. The signing bonus is not being used to provide relief to the hundreds of persons who turned up outside of the President’s former home after hearing rumours that $50,000 was going to be shared out per person.
The financiers get concessions and land and contracts. The poor people rumours. This is the price which people pay for supporting political vagabonds. The first withdrawal from the signing bonus was devoted to paying the legal fees of the lawyers representing Guyana before the International Court of Justice. This is why the signing bonus was negotiated. To pay legal fees not to compensate Guyana for the exploitation of wasting resource.
The APNU+AFC refused to disclose the controversial contract it signed with Exxon for 18 months, before it was forced to make its details public. Who do you think benefitted the most from that contract? And why was it kept secret from the Guyanese people?
Just prior to and just after the elections, massive property and land sales were being inked. Over a billion and a half dollars was spent to renovate a hotel into a sanatorium for COVID-19 patient. Where is the contract for the works on this facility and what method was used to determine the contractors and award the contracts?
Poor people are waiting to have their land applications – for small plots – approved, but the rich and powerful have been able to have their leases and land purchases approved because they have the connections and they are deemed investors.
No one has asked why are lands which belong to the Guyana Sugar Corporation transferred to NICIL? What is NICIL planning to do with these lands and who are likely to receive them?
There was a controversial acquisition of ventilators which the Ministry of Public Health said the country was preparing for even before the outbreak happened. These deals are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg,
The iceberg of deals – especially those which lie below the surface – are suspected to be responsible for the political desperation of those who are bent on rigging the elections. They are rigging not for their supporters but for their sponsors, the powerful financiers whose interests they are protecting.
Does anyone truly believe that it is the average supporter of the APNU+AFC that is forking out the US$40,000 each month to pay a lobbyist in the United States. These fees are being financed by rich financiers who will have deals to protect or have been given promises.
Who do you think is paying the legal fees for those high-priced lawyers? They do not come cheap? What makes you think that they are doing this for free? Somebody has to pay and it is the financiers who are most likely shouldering the legal costs associated with the electoral challenges?
There are persons who have been granted licenses in this country. These licenses have brought them untold wealth and incomes. They are fearful of these licenses being taken away and them losing the lucre.
The people are just pawns in this powerful game. The pieces are being controlled by rich and powerful businessmen. You don’t see them in public. They weave their plot behind the scenes. This is what this rigging is about. It is about a plan to pawn Guyana to rich and powerful businessmen.

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