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Tweet Thuggery
Kaieteur News – The top spokespeople in the PPPC Government should get their story straight on those Continental Strategy tweets. First, it was President Ali, then Attorney General Nandlall, and last, Vice President Jagdeo at his last Thursday’s press conference. They are all everywhere on the smears leveled against presidential candidate Azruddin Mohamed, while avoiding getting to the crux of this development. What did the PPPC Government have to do with the Continental Strategy tweets? When did it know that they were about to be broadcast? Who knew and didn’t see anything wrong with them? And now that the government knows of the tweets, and the damage done, why does its leaders dance around the issue through slipping and sliding?
President Ali said that the government didn’t have anything to do with the tweets of the lobbying firm that it hired. If anything, that strains belief close to the breaking point. The group is on a paid retainer from the government, but it has been given what amounts to a free hand to be creative in coming what has some heft in Guyana’s political arena. In other words, it is not held to a standard of accountability, while the Guyana Government takes no responsibility for its actions. It is a recipe for lobbyist excess, for pressing the nuclear button: presidential candidate, Azruddin Mohamed is a collaborator and partner with Maduro. In one way or another, that is red meat for America, especially for a Guyanese labouring under US Department of Treasury sanctions.
America has its eyes fixed sharply on Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro, so any development that feeds its discomfort with Caracas is sure to gain traction. Some US politicians have reacted with the expected zeal and packaged indignation. All are concerned about hemispheric stability and democracy, with none talking about oil or US priorities. Due to the fact that the PPPC Government is so yoked to ExxonMobil’s interests, it is content to be used for anything that furthers US visions, whatever those are. If a feared Guyanese political opponent has to be branded as a traitor, and also as a threat to the US, then that addresses two issues in one blow. In such an instance, the lobbying firm, Continental Strategy, has more than earned its monthly US$50,000 fee.
Then, Guyana’s Attorney General Nandlall, a man with some relationship to the law, one more familiar than President Ali about the appearance of this issue, jumped in to try his hand. The PPPC Government did not orchestrate the slander against its political competitor, Mohamed. Whether not having anything to do with, or did not orchestrate, the “pro-Maduro puppet” tag attached to Mohamed still sticks. Considerable discredit has been inflicted on him, but that old maxim of when things go wrong, there is usually no owner, that’s what Guyanese are experiencing. Truth be told, what else could Nandlall have done in dealing with that hot potato? Go against his leader, and take ownership of what the PPPC Government paid for, but tries futilely to dodge?
Enter Vice President Jagdeo into the tweet fray with his own truths. “We don’t tell them what to do daily. There’s no one in government who said, ‘go after the Mohameds.’” We are uncertain about how much credence to give to what Jagdeo said, since he has compiled such a history of saying pleasing things for public consumption, but spearheading the opposite for political ends. As a former president, the ground on which he stands ought to be higher. He, however, has demonstrated a fondness for operating in gray areas, those where the shadows are deepest. Instead of being satisfied that he dealt with the ugly tweet controversy (“We don’t tell…”), Jagdeo couldn’t resist from delivering a few licks at a dreaded political enemy that was once among his closest loyalists. He had to defend the vile handiwork of his government’s handpicked lobbyist, to wit, the Maduro-Mohamed “connection might be of the illegal export of Venezuelan gold.” Spokespeople for the PPPC Government should be wiser, for there is no knowing who else Mohamed has on texts and tapes.
It’s a vulgar saga: from not knowing to not orchestrating to not telling. But there’s the finishing touch of defending the tweets.
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