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The PPP and corruption
Dear Editor,
When the PPP/C entered government in 1992, after 28 years in the political wilderness, one of the first acts of the Cheddi Jagan administration was to publicise the details of the bank accounts held by leading members of the ousted PNC in an attempt to substantiate the narrative of endemic public corruption under the PNC. This narrative persisted in spite of the fact that the former president had used his modest, private residence as his official residence, that he did not possess multiple properties or businesses, or fleet of vehicles, or even a million dollars in his bank account, and that he was, by today’s standards, a veritable pauper. Again, when the PPP/C returned to office in 2020, after being out of office for 5 years on this occasion, among the earliest actions of the Irfaan Ali government were the institution of criminal charges, alleging election fraud, against political adversaries and GECOM managers; the commissioning of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on election fraud; and the pursuit of public corruption charges against former ministers of government. Five years on, not only has the PPP/C administration failed to secure any convictions, they have failed to produce an iota of evidence in press conferences, COI report or criminal proceedings after claiming to possess troves of evidence of election fraud, specifically numerous statements of poll (SOP) that contradicted official productions and invalidated the tabulation process even though their unverified claims led to the vitiation of all SOPs and election results and the resort to contingent elections and a different result.
For years and decades, before and after elections, the mainstay of PPP/C campaigns has been based on vilification and vindictiveness and unproven allegations of corruption, cronyism, electoral fraud and racism. In all of these instances the PPP/C failed spectacularly to provide evidence of high-level public corruption and election fraud in spite of the massive and incessant propaganda and high cost of professional services. Today, the target of the PPP/C’s smear campaign is not the PNC, which the PPP/C does not view as a significant threat, but Azruddin Mohamed and his WIN party and the allegations against Mohamed are hardly more substantive. Moreover, the usual effectiveness of this strategy has been diluted and the PPP/C has been forced to play defence as lurid allegations and revelations of its own systematic and widespread corruption and vote-buying schemes swirl around. It cannot escape even the visually and auditory impaired that this election, due in two weeks, will be largely determined, not by rally sizes, manifesto quality, grandiose promises or by infrastructure, but by public perceptions of corruption, election manipulation, abuse of power and regard for integrity in public office; in other words, which party can be best trusted with the public patrimony and welfare.
The incumbent PPP/C has been in office for most of the last three decades and its stewardship of the public trust, in spite of growing abundance, has led to increased inequality, want, mismanagement, corruption, abuse and loss of rights which it cannot attribute to its opponents or pretend is development. This election offers the opportunity to, at last, identify real (not pretend) corruption and to repudiate it, and it is unthinkable that a majority of Guyanese would vote to perpetuate this obscenity and clear and present danger.
Sincerely,
Oscar Dolphin
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