Irfaan Ali must ‘manners’ Jagdeo

Mar 09, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Even before the elections of 2020, Bharrat Jagdeo could not restrain himself. He announced publicly that he was going to be part of any incoming PPP/C government.

He took it upon himself to announce this even though it is the President of the country, not the General Secretary of the PPP that has to determine who would constitute his government. But that was the temerity of the man.

Jagdeo, no doubt, made this announcement to provide comfort to the powerful economic class that has co-opted the PPP and the government. He wanted to assure them that he would be there within the government and as such, they had nothing to fear.

He has now taken it upon himself to discuss government business at a party’s press conference. It is difficult to distinguish when he speaks as General Secretary or as Vice President.

So cloudy is the present situation that the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) is telecasting live his weekly press conferences. It is strange that he is attuned to every misdeed of the APNU+AFC but does not recognize the partisanship being demonstrated by NCN by its weekly broadcasts on radio and television of the PPPC press conferences.

At last Thursday’s press conference, Jagdeo publicly canned a proposed sand pit project which media reports suggested involved a partnership with two senior police officers. The matter could have been better handled without having to bring the names of the two senior officers into the public domain.

There was also no need for Jagdeo to make any announcement. It has caused public embarrassment to the persons involved.

The President should reverse the decision that Jagdeo took and remind him that he is only exercising oversight over the oil and gas, the environment and finance. He has no authority to make any such decision and, even if it is a government decision, he should not be the one communicating this to the public.

Jagdeo has offered some bizarre explanations for what he says is the government’s decision in relation to sand pits. The present announcement, by Jagdeo, that the government has put a hold on all sandpits along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway is at odds with what he said six months ago. Then he said that the country needs all the sand it has because there is a huge demand that has pushed up the price of sand. He announced then that the government has had to intervene by opening a sand pit and may have to do several more.

Given the sustained high demand for sand, it is hard to understand why the government would want to run a sand pit project that would supply the country with much needed sand. Well, as usual Jagdeo had an answer. But it was highly unusual.

He said that there is a situation on the Soeksdyke-Linden highway with people occupying lands without any documentation. But the massive squatting taking place along that highway did not prevent the government from allowing sand pit operations or even opening its own sand pit. So why now?

Jagdeo also provided the answer to that question. And from that answer, it can be deduced that the government does not want sand pit operations near to the site where it is building its playground of the superrich, known as Silica City.

The bourgeois class that controls the PPP and the government wants greater ‘privacy’. It wants its members to live away from the general population to distinguish itself from the ordinary masses.

And the development of Silica City fits into this narrative. What is going to emerge there will be the Monaco of Guyana, where Prado 2-styled mansions will mushroom.

The President needs to intervene and manners Jagdeo. He needs to immediately reverse this announcement made by the PPP/C General Secretary since the proper thing to do would be for the subject Minister or the President to do so, if indeed the government has made such a decision.

But the President needs to also let his Vice President know that when he speaks as General Secretary of the PPP, he should stay clear of making announcements on behalf of government.

This is just one of the reasons why there needs to be a return to the days when weekly Cabinet press briefings were hosted by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, a position that is yet to be filled by the Irfaan Ali administration. No wonder Jagdeo gives himself so much liberties!

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

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• General Secretary, Government, Irfaan Ali, President, restrain

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