Kads Khan disappointed with Coalition Politics

Apr 28, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Reference is made to “Former PNCR MP Kads Khan passes on (KN Apr 21). His death was very shocking. I will like to share some anecdotes of my engagements with him.
I am not a friend or associate of Kads Khan, and we only met a few times although we spoke several times on the phone. He left a very positive remarkable and indelible impression on me on his ‘take’ of the politics and about his desire to contribute to Guyana’s national economic and political development. A former executive of the opposition PNC, and one time member of parliament, he was not pleased with the direction of the party since it was returned to office in May 2015, and he was critical of the coalition although he did not want his views to be on public record, fearing victimisation. He assailed the coalition’s performance saying it would take a miracle for it to win re-election unless of course, it were to rig the election, which, like me, he had expected. He urged me to become involved in ‘a new politics’ that would lead to good or better governance; I politely declined his offer as I did not and do not have interest in active politics, turning down many offers from politicians.
I had heard of Kads Khan since the time of Hoyte’s presidency. His name was in the papers and as a political activist, I keenly followed developments in the homeland. He was strongly affiliated with the PNC becoming treasurer. And he successfully raised funds for the party for electoral contests especially post 1992 when Hoyte, acting against the wishes of his colleagues and the majority of its supporters, decided to restore democratic governance in Guyana after 26 years of dictatorship. The PNC was in political decline post 1992 and facing serious economic crisis to fund its activities. Kads told me he bore the burden of funding activities of the PNC. He noted that the PNC encountered problems in paying staff and putting out a party publication after its defeat in 1992. He raised funds to help out. He also said he received concession rates from the late CEO of a newspaper in order to publish the PNC organ over a period of time.
My first encounter with Kads was through a common friend in Georgetown. Kads was very close to him. They were in a meeting and I happened to visit the friend who introduced me to Kads. This was around 2018. Kads said he was very pleased to meet me, telling me he knew of my political and academic history since the 1970s when I was a university student in New York. I did not know much about Kads other than what was in the public domain. He began showering accolades about my polling work, political activism in the diaspora, my writings, analyses, and other aspects of my contributions to Guyana and the diaspora. In the presence of the common friend, he discussed the politics and the governance of the coalition including its many unforced errors. Kads was not pleased with coalition rule, using epithets I can’t pen for publication; he was also displeased with the opposition. He invited me for breakfast at his home the following morning, which I accepted. There, he continued berating the political parties and making a strong case for political change to bring about honest, clean governance. He expressed fear that Guyana would be heading into a repeat of a dictatorship pre-1992 pleading upon me to play a more active role and help bring independent political forces and interested players together saying my integrity commands respect in the public. I resisted his appeal and politely told him that my interest was polling and independent political analyses. He respected my position on political independence.
Following breakfast, Kads drove me to his mechanical engineering workshop and gave me a tour. It was an impressively huge workshop with all kinds of tools and equipment. His aide served coffee, and he shifted the discussion to economics. He said he was in transition to modernise the workshop for the oil industry, claiming oil companies had expressed an interest to partner him. He was teaming up with oil people in Texas, UK, and other places. He had several workers of all ethnicities and genders. They admired and respected him. His driver was African as was one of his closest aides. He didn’t see race in employment practices. He merely wanted competence. He was unabashed in reprimanding workers who messed up.
Kads expressed some of the most excoriating remarks about coalition rule, questioning competency and honesty of several appointees of government (names were given of whose fingers were in the cookie jar with examples of acts). He was praiseworthy of Joe Harmon, Amna Ally and a few others and he announced then that he would support Harmon as Chair of PNC in party election. But I knew it would be a hard fight for Harmon against Volda Lawrence; Basil Williams had no chance as I had penned in the press.
On APNU+AFC coalition performance, Kads and I agreed that the government badly erred in closing down the sugar estates and that it would be their undoing. It doomed the coalition. He was most disappointed that AFC did not stand up for the farmers and workers to prevent the closure of the estates since sugar workers and rice farmers were the base of support of the AFC in 2011 and 2015 elections. He said I was spot on in writing about the anger of the sugar workers and rice farmers against the coalition government. He went into a rage against Nagamootoo and Ramjattan for allowing the estates closures and lack of assistance to farmers. We both concluded that the coalition could not win re-election without rigging. And he was certain what would happen in next election, revealing confidential information of a rigging plan. Kads was against rigging as was I. He was of the view that PNC could not rig the way it did pre-1992. He went into the rigging method and the figures placed in strategic offices to facilitate rigging. Kads himself was very close to figures who were/are well known for rigging. I did not reveal any of the confidential info on rigging to anyone, but I utilised the info to help combat planned rigging of the March 2020 elections.
Kads and I spoke after the election. He had mixed feelings about the change. But he was a pragmatist. He embraced the Irfaan Ali administration. Although he belonged to the PNC, the PPP administration has given him land and the sugar packaging plant for oil related enterprise that would provide employment for many. He died a man pleased with aspects of governance of President Ali and the PPP.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram

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