Old Kai: Chronicles of Guyana… : Opposition backtracks on weeding out corruption stance

OLD KAI is not surprised at the opposition’s hasty retreat from one of the favourite topics they use to lambast the PPP/C Government: Corruption.

After all their talk of corruption in the public sector, it was just a matter of time before ‘Jook-fuh-Jook’ Granger, ‘Haul-Yuh-Ass’ Ramjattan’, and ‘Shut-Yuh-Suh-and-Suh-mouth’ Nagamootoo were elevated to sainthood status.

But now it seems that may not be possible, after they have taken a complete U-turn on efforts to weed out corruption, as they moved to attack the suggestion by President Donald Ramotar that the use of integrity testing, popularly referred to as the ‘lie detector tests’, could become more widespread in the public sector.

In a most remarkable sequence of events, Opposition Leader David Granger is now apparently suggesting that it is ok to keep corrupt officials in their positions, once they are good at their jobs. How else can one interpret his statement, as quoted by the media: “I have no faith in the President’s proposal at all; I have never heard of it… You are bound to get people who are good at test and bad at performance.”

Obviously, if a head of an agency is ‘good’ after being administered a ‘lie detector’ test, that individual has his/her integrity intact; and as a result, the public will be more confident in the functioning of that agency.

But David Granger has turned logic upside down, and is indicating that it is not a big deal to establish whether someone has been compromised; rather, all that matters is if that person performs. He gives no indication of what his idea of performance entails, but if the infamous telephone recording of his current security adviser, Winston Felix, is taken into consideration, I have a pretty good idea where he is going with this.

Can you imagine Winston Felix taking an integrity test? Question: Have you ever attempted to frame an innocent citizen, a supporter of the very party you represent, by placing drugs on her while you were Commissioner of Police?
Question: The Number One you referred to in the conversation, was it someone from Congress Place or was it Dr. Evil’s trusted adviser #1 in the movie, ‘The Spy Who Shagged Me”?

Question: Did you ever try to cover up the real perpetrators of the Agricola massacre, based on instructions from Congress Place?
Small wonder Granger is not sold on ‘lie detector’ tests, and has sprinted from the idea faster than Usain Bolt.

The current Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney should have introduced these tests, and invited Granger to give evidence to establish exactly what he knows about that period, and if he was involved. Old Kai does not want to be the reason why the Opposition Leader suddenly develops an acute case of diarrhea, so I will shift focus.

Maybe Khemraj Ramjattan can put to rest, once and for all, the contention from the disabled man that he swindled him out of his property.

He can put aside doubts that he is covering up corruption within his party, involving an elite cabal which has caused so many members to publicly pack up their bags and move on.

We can know for sure that he was not trying to kill establishment of the Specialty Hospital because the company which employed him lost its bid for the contract to construct the facility.

Similarly, Moses can dismiss allegations that he is aiding Ramjattan in this process, and give clarity on who exactly removed those Mirror newspapers (his former place of employ when he was a PPP member) which detailed the period in which Dr. Walter Rodney was killed.

But, alas, this will apparently never be a reality.

Old Kai expected that the opposition would have jumped at the idea of having these integrity tests; after all, they have accused senior members of the PPP, who are Government Ministers and hold other portfolios, of being involved in corruption. Now, if indeed these officials were involved in corruption, basic common sense and a good understanding of the public accounts system would tell you that it will have to involve a great deal of collaboration within the bureaucratic apparatus. There are many forms of checks and balances to guard against instances of corruption, and there is the fact that Ministers are not the financial accounting officers of their respective Ministries.

In some cases, if certain accusations by the opposition were true, it would have meant that entire Boards of Directors, which comprise a wide cross section of professionals and members of the very opposition, would have been compromised.

Hence, expanding the scope of integrity tests would easily confirm if this were indeed true. But alas, the Opposition has now turned around and attacked the suggestion by President Donald Ramotar.

This now calls into question the motive of the opposition. Do they have something to hide in all of this? By their new stance, they owe an apology to the public servants whom they have castigated in the past. Don’t you find it strange that the Kaieteur News has remained silent on the issue when not a day goes by without it making an allegation of corruption?

Old Kai has an idea: Let us invite the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Kaieteur newspaper to do an integrity test, then we can all rest assured that the numerous accusations against these two have been false, and everything that appears in the newspaper is genuine. No make-believe sources, no human smuggling, no lies, no malicious attacks, no corruption, no evading taxes, no encouraging corruption by paying bribes for information etc.

Notice also that the Guyana Chapter of Transparency International has remained silent, along with other like-minded opposition front groups.

In the end, the People’s Progressive Party has been vindicated, but, sadly, we may never know how Congress Place acquired that large amount of foreign currency which allegedly disappeared, and the real motive behind the shooting and theft of a canister from the party’s general secretary minutes after he had left the party headquarters.

This stance by ‘jook-man’ Granger now raises even further speculation regarding the true reason for the opposition’s consistent effort at stalling the implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism amendment legislation, which will be a significant boost to the PPP/C Government’s anti-corruption efforts. After they had run out of excuses, we are now told that they do not have a problem with the technical aspects of the amendment, but their concern is now political in nature. No specifics; just a broad, ridiculous statement.

Yet, the paragons of virtue, who enjoy attacking the Government for everything under the sun, pretend that the disturbing actions of our political opposition are non-existent.

The representative from SASOD, who attempted to break up a PYO vigil a few nights ago and was adorned with a placard #Bring back justice and accountability, should have instead gone in front of Congress Place and wherever the AFC office is currently located to picket.

But even in this day and age, that individual would not try that with ‘jook-fuh-jook’ Granger; or, then again, the effort at breaking up meetings might have found warm reception. As the old saying goes, ‘monkey does know which limb to jump on’.