John Fernandes Ltd, Stabroek News and my DNA

Oct 16, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I want to publicly state my profound appreciation of the Stabroek News (SN) for one of the best editorials (last Friday) to come out of Guyana in years. I have been critical of the newspaper over a long period of time but when people do good and positive things, one must be ethical, principled and appreciative and give praise where praise is due.

Once more I extend my admiration to SN for a fine piece of elaboration of an ugly wrong committed in this country. When I read that editorial, I recognised my DNA in it. This has been my DNA since I was a teenager growing up in Wortmanville in south Georgetown. It symbolises the essential me. This is who I am and will always be.

What SN did in that editorial is what I have advocated in my 34 years of a presence in the media. I have implored civil society groups, the media and other sections of the Guyana not to direct their anger at centralised power only but power in general. That is a continuous thread of mine over more than 50 years of human rights activism.

In Guyana, rights violation, assault on human dignity, oppression of helpless humans, cruel mistreatment of those without access to resources take place in all quarters and not by government only.

The list includes the judiciary, the media, local government authorities, the business sector, doctors, lawyers, churches, civil society organisations, etc. But all we have energy for is to direct it at centralised power.

I hope the editorial of SN is the beginning of a new era in Guyana where the rich and famous do not remain untouchables. The editorial is a strong condemnation of what John Fernandes Ltd (JFL) did to poor people in Beterverwagting (BV).

We must expose super-rich people who do not have a conscience. I remember when I read in the letter section of the newspapers a complaint by the staff of Muneshwar Store that they had to buy their own toilet paper and hand-washing liquid, I had to write on it.

If there is anything I felt compelled to write on was this outrage. There and then I advised my wife and daughter never to set foot in that store again. The Muneshwar family is one of the richest in the Caribbean.

I will never set foot in any retail outlet owned by the family that owns John Fernandes Ltd. This is a trillion-dollar (yes trillion) family business and they sought to buy 143 acres of land from the NDC of BV for $250,000 per acre.

When the scandal was exposed by certain citizens of BV who actually owned part of the 143 acres in December 2021, the NDC accepted that it had no legal right to sell. The NDC agreed to cancel the deal. JFL told the Guyanese people that they didn’t know it was African ancestral land and agreed to the NDC’s decision to cancel the business deal. The NDC refunded JFL.

Now in October 2022, we are seeing a deception by John Fernandes that is absolutely unbelievable. JFL fooled an entire nation. In reality it did not walk away from the transaction but passed on the sale of agreement to an obscure entity (according to the SN editorial), named Mohamed’s Sons and Daughters Trading (MSDT).

According to SN, when it checked out the address of MSDT, it was a deserted site that reminds one of the investigation of the 1968 rigged election where addresses of people who voted by proxy from the UK did not exist.

MSDT is demanding from the NDC that it is now the legal party in the sale of agreement and the NDC has to sell the land. The NDC has to sell 143 acres of land at $250,000 an acre. Now here is the crucial omission in what is otherwise a brilliant editorial.

SN did not ask the question – it is possible that there is no biology in MSDT and that it may be a creation of JFL and if MSDT wins the case in court, then ownership may change hands.

I implore the Attorney General to inform the public if JFL committed a criminal offence in the transfer of the sale of agreement. This thing stinks to high heaven and there should be a police investigation.

The editorial in SN is three times the number of words of this column so for more dimensions of this incredible conspiracy (one of which is sickening to the core), you will have to read the entire editorial. I don’t care who organises a picket against JFL, I will join it. Let’s protect the poor and powerless of this helpless nation.

(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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