VP Jagdeo on PPP comrades benefitting

Feb 07, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- There is an old American comic book character who went by the name of General Halftrack.  The name is the first giveaway, and the title made matters worse.  The US Army was in deep, agh, trouble.

Guyana’s Vice President with full responsibility for the Local Universe, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, comes to mind as a parallel to General Halftrack.  What Guyanese get is half the story more than half of the time, which leaves them hanging halfway between consternation and confusion.  What is emphasized also are the contradictions in Big Boss Bharrat.  Take this issue of Guyanese benefiting from the government business that is available, up for grabs, as in clean competition.

According to a sliver of a Facebook post shared with me, Dr. Jagdeo was stern and unmoving: ‘all Guyanese must benefit from available opportunities.’  Ahem, well said, sir.  How can I disagree with such a position?  He went further, and this is the heart of the matter, the contentiousness generated by local circumstances: ‘PPP supporters must benefit from those opportunities.’

My first thought is why should they not?  My second is that I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Jagdeo, and that is neither lip service nor for the record.  It is where I am and I say it again: PPP comrades should and must benefit from the many opportunities available in today’s oil Guyana.  It is fair, it is right, and nobody should be apologizing for that position.

But the reason I made that reference to General Halftrack and connected Dr. Jagdeo to it is that he fits so seamlessly into that uniform.  Because what Mr. Jagdeo put before Guyanese represented only half the story.  The real story and full story about benefits and who should participate is a little more tangled, and not as sweet.  In other words, the Jagdeo posture about benefits and PPP loyalists start to fall apart, when the playing field is examined.

PPP insiders and hangers on must benefit, but only when the process of them winning those opportunities is free of taint, is lacking in what I call distinctive fixes.  PPP favorites must benefit but it must be on a level ground.  Benefit on the merits, i.e., meeting all the eligibility criteria.  Benefit not through the setup of prearrangement, but a clean and straight standard that is consistently applied and which none can challenge.  To put differently, there must be an absence of any unfair advantage.  How about those my sanctimonious brother Bharrat for PPP cabals qualifying and benefiting?  What can be said about the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board when it stands as a not-so-secret student of all that is scurrilous in Guyana relative to benefits and who are selected and preselected to reap those riches?  PPP favorites benefit from improper awards (as have been seen) and PPP orchestrators and arrangers in the places of review and decision-making benefit from being part of a corrupt culture.  And when the Public Procurement Commission reduces itself to a study in stupidity and impotency, then a third set of PPP workers earn their benefits by acting out an unconvincing imitation of being deaf, blind, and dumb.

When benefits are doled out in this manner, then PPP contractors and donors win on each occasion.  But they benefit to the unfair advantage of others, who may be lower down on the PPP totem pole, or not of any PPP relationship at all.  Taking Dr. Jagdeo at his word, how are all (all, to ram home this point) Guyanese benefiting from the fruits of their land?  I appreciate and accept that to the winner goes the spoils.  But does it have to be all the benefits, Dr. Jagdeo?  Does it have be nothing left for others, outsiders and outcasts like me, Dr. Jagdeo?  If I were to bid for a project, or raise hand for a job, where would I stand in the benefit line, Dr. General Secretary?  I can imagine the shock in PPP quarters, the waves of laughter and mockery.  Do I still count as a bona fide citizen, eligible to join the line, and be honestly considered for any benefit in this country?  By any standards, I fail to meet the qualification of the rent-a-citizen crowd.  So why should I be sidelined, kicked out of the order of consideration immediately, from that syrupy construction of “all Guyanese”, Mr. Vice President?

I am for all Guyanese benefiting.  I am just as insistent that PPP priority citizens (there is that kind, isn’t there) must benefit; must not should.  But no Guyanese who measured up more ought to suffer improper disadvantage and loss.  Dr. Jagdeo knows what I am talking about, and to help him I point to those inexplicable and indefensible awards involving big dollars.  Some Guyanese lost out there, and in the most unacceptable manner.  I am afraid that Dr. Jagdeo’s posture about all Guyanese benefiting easily reads as all PPP Guyanese.  The record stands in support.  Try something new, Mr. Truthteller Jagdeo: give the people the whole story.  Wishes are extended for a blessed day.

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

(VP Jagdeo on PPP comrades benefitting)

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• Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, General Halftrack, hard truths, Vice President

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