STATEMENT BY Roy Beepat
Dear Coalition,
My many years as a Bridge player has thought me to connect the dots and follow the line of logic, every fiber in my being tells me that the stopping of the count on Tuesday March 3rd and these continuous stalls since then has only one direction, that the charade of establishing a recount at the Arthur Chung Center is another one, these are in the long line of complicity, between yourselves, the Public services and the entire Gecom Chair & team, this is done to delay the recounting of the votes long enough to swear President Granger in on the false declaration, I base this on all the circumstances which have led up to this, and it is my belief that the Appointment of the Hon Minister Harmon in charge of the Covid19 response is a foreshadow for a planned acceleration and declaration of Covid19 cases, along with the Constitutional crisis which has another week expiration date, plus the need for Parliament to reconvene to deal with emergency funding for “Governance” this will be used to as the excuses to make this swearing in materialize, and at that time you will continue to claim that everything is being done under the “Constitution’’ and the discrepancies of the false and illegal declaration will be asked to be dealt with by the PPP by means of an Election Petition, please believe me that there is no credible observer both locally and internationally who will buy this. If this does not happen, and the count is done and credible results declared, then I will publicly make my apologizes to you, in fact I would be the happiest of men to publicly tell the world how wrong I am. My friend Imran Khan ex Minister of Public Information, please refute me right now and tell me I am wrong and there in no way, that this will happen.
I want you to consider the impact which an illegal unrecognized Government will have on ALL Guyanese, not only the ones here but away, we started this year with bright sunlight engulfing the Nation, the hopes and dreams for myself and many of my generation of finally seeing the long awaited promise of our potential and planned development of our country, where the wealth accrued will be shared with all its citizens and act as an enticement for the return of the over one million Guyanese and descendants overseas, some who have never even visited here , making plans to share in this new bright future of ours, and for our beloved country turn to finally shine and change polarity, from one of the poor, to a wealthy nation. For myself I was willing to give it a few more years before my retirement, like most Guyanese I have worked my life to be able to retire and enjoy the fruits of my labor, all this now stands to disappear before many Guyanese very eyes.
Instead of prosperity, we are now faced with an illegal unrecognized Government , we will be ostracized by the International community, sanctions will be placed on us, and we will in one fell swoop return to the days of shortages and be in a worst position than our neighbors in Venezuela. Persons like myself with ability and something to offer the development of this country will vote once again with our feet, and we will restart a cycle that we should have left behind with the reestablishment of democracy by the Carter Center in 1992, all the gains, and credibility which we have earned in our young democracy will have gone, vanished overnight.
I understand your concerns of the excesses of the last Government, and I feel your pain, I was with you on the long road and the flourishing functioning of our democracy to have you installed as our present Government, I have many who I called friends within your Cabinet, however you will have a chance again in another 5 years, where I guarantee you that there will be many talking points and with the right approach you will have a chance again for a return to Government even with the possibility of Constitutional reforms, in the meanwhile, I urge you to allow the recount and validation of the results, take you place whatever they be in Parliament , let your voices be heard there in a democratic manner and play by the rules provided under our Constitution.
In closing I plead for you to have empathy for all Guyanese, as this road which you have embarked on is fraught with danger and uncertainty, believe me no good can come of this, the people you are supposed to be representing will suffer the blunt of the actions which will be initiated with a false declaration, the dreams and aspirations of all our people rest in your hands to do the right thing, and there is the distinct possibility that your plans will be short lived and it will not end nicely for you, heed the warnings which are being sounded by the international community.
