‘DEBATE PANEL’: In photo, from left, are Glenn Lall, Christopher Ram, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Winston Brassington and Dr. Ashni Singh

And one could almost feel sorry for the representatives of the collective opposition as they were stripped naked of their pretences to reveal the ugly truth of their actions and intentions.

Why Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall subjects himself to public scrutiny of his intellectual challenges is unfathomable. Only recently he had a similar encounter with the ANSA McAL bigwigs, when he ‘poped’ the company’s press conference and tried to bluff his way past his gaffe in publishing damning lies about that entrepreneurial giant in his usual campaign to defame the PPP/C government.

Almost daily the headlines of Kaieteur News scream of one instance of corruption by government entities and personnel after another, and when the real facts are revealed, most often neither the publisher nor the editor has the grace to publish the reality as against their fabrications and allegations; or if they do the retraction is so insignificant and infinitesimal that it is rarely noticed, which led former President Bharrat Jagdeo to dub them vultures.

But their latest victim, NICIL head Winston Brassington, was not prepared to allow his good name to be besmirched, with no justification whatever, without calling the perpetrators on the allegations impugning his character and the entity under his management, so he challenged the accusers to a public discussion on national television so that the nation could judge for themselves who are really corrupt in the national construct, and to reveal the truth as against the constant fabrications by the opposition collection – the political parties and the press hostile to the government.

And Glenn Lall took up the challenge. One has to give the man kudos for courage – (or is it bravado?), because he took on Ashni Singh himself. The President ought to consider giving him an award for bravery, because this was like the intellectual David and Goliath, and this time the slingshot pelting lies and fabrications did not prevail, but the armour of facts and figures did.  He got into even more trouble when he called for backup from Adam Harris, who also found himself caught at the slips and having to apologise to Dr. Ashni Singh for his lies.

QUOTE: After months of grandstanding the AFC loudmouths, Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, slinked away without a whimper. Both of them were invited to participate in the debate but they were a complete no show – and no tell.

In campaign after campaign, one public figure after another, one private sector entity after another, have been subjected to relentless pillorying as non-issues that have been bloated out of all proportion in what Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo once referred to as “The Corbin Syndrome”, which is the opposition collective stratagem for diverting attention from its own spurious actions and rhetoric by casting aspersions on others; and it works.

Or it did until last Tuesday night, when the government team debunked one allegation after another in a debate televised live on NCN, with the panel comprising, initially Kaieteur News publisher, Glenn Lall, Guyana’s self-professed social conscience Christopher Ram, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon, and Head of NICIL, Winston Brassington, with Adam Harris joining in later as Glenn Lall’s back-up brain.
After months of grandstanding the AFC loudmouths, Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, slinked away without a whimper. Both of them were invited to participate in the debate but they were a complete no show – and no tell.

Then the rout happened. Allegation after allegation, accusation after accusation, contention after contention from the opposition were debunked by the government panelists, leaving the opposition protagonists flapping for responses and loudly whispering together, even as credible responses were being proffered by the government team.
Brassington accused the opposition cabal of engaging in ‘jumbie arithmetic’ and ‘pulling figures from thin air’, as the trio were relentlessly exposed as either being liars, or deliberate manufacturers of unproven allegations.

QUOTE: As the debate concluded, the entire nation recognized that, while the government was presenting factual data and analyses based on sound premises, the opposition upstarts, who have abrogated to themselves the right to speak against any positive programme the government initiates, were seen to be filibusters and charlatans of the worst kind, persons who would concoct lies to destroy the entire development programme of the PPP/C government.

The PPP/C administration had challenged the collective opposition to debate any issue and to vent in the public arena any misconceptions about governance and related matters; but this became a pressing need after the consistently negative press has been stymieing national development by scaring away potential investors in the country, because it is a fact that investors would not invest their monies in an unstable political environment, as Brassington pointed out when he revealed that no less than 4 investors backed away  from the Marriott deal as a direct result of the negative press by opposition parties and media houses hostile to the government.

The opposition cabal had been accusing Brassington of corruption at NICIL.
The Finance Minister pointed out that NICIL has been subjected to considerable “estimation, misinformation, misrepresentation and misinterpretation” of recent weeks”, which despite repudiation by Brassington as head of the entity, and other state officials, with explanations of facts by way of letters to the press, media interviews and at various fora, the collective opposition continued to peddle their outrageous accusations,

However, Dr. Singh is adamant that NICIL has, over the years, performed an “extremely important role” and in more recent times, has been pivotal in catalyzing important investments in and for Guyana, the proposed Marriott Hotel being a case in point. NICIL, emphasized Dr Singh, has discharged its obligations in a most commendable manner.

The company was incorporated in 1990 by the PNC government and served as a holding company for government’s equity investments in other companies. In 2002, under PPP/C administration, a Management Co-operation Agreement was signed appointing the Privatisation Unit (PU) as exclusive manager of NICIL, for the collecting and accounting of privatisation proceeds, rents, dividends and other income of the combined entity would be done in the name of NICIL.

Ram is contending that he had requested a copy of the Management Co-operation Agreement, along with NICIL accounts for 2006 to 2011. He referred to this as tardiness in supplying financial information. However, the government’s response is that all public documentation is always in the public arena under various regulatory bodies, but the opposition are clearly not interested in facts, but merely in creating red herrings by way of which it could make unsubstantiated accusations against government officials and entities.

Both Lall and Ram admitted that most times the premise of their allegations is not based on actual information, which elicited a biting final comment from Dr. Luncheon, who stated that, while using NICIL as an example, "the way the issue is treated in the media really epitomizes some of the weaknesses and some of the more objectionable practices. Our two colleagues here (referring to Glenn Lall and Christopher Ram) have made the point incessantly tonight that I suspect that they will continue making...'we don't have information, the government is not forthcoming'...and I would want to make the same point that in the context of this lack of  information and lack of forthrightness by this Administration  on what basis is this profusion of info about; ... it is just poured out and anybody who reads cannot help but believe that these journalists/critics are privy to information, sound information that they are offering to the public and yet they come tonight and sit in front of the public and confront us with the situation – ‘we are speculating, we are forced to speculate’.”

Coming out of the debate, Brassington avers that NICIL has done everything in its power to ensure its accounts are audited. "We have submitted in a timely manner our accounts to the Auditor General (ag). We have completed up to 2005 consolidated accounts. The Minister of Finance had tabled over 80 sets of audited accounts for NICIL and its subsidiaries. The AG has said by end of June he is looking to have the consolidated accounts for NICIL completed all the way up to 2010."

But the opposition and its media partners has no interest in facts and truths, because Adam Harris was forced to admit to publishing lies about Dr. Ashni Singh, in full public view, and he apologized; albeit not without being prodded by Dr. Singh.
Glenn Lall confessed that he did publish misinformation, but this is on the word of (opposition) politicians.

Ram conceded that he premises his allegations on assumptions because of a dearth of information, that “....we are speculating, we are forced to speculate,” thus admitting that their scurrilous accusations against public officials and entities are created within their own imaginations, most often without a shred of truth in their allegations.

As Dr. Luncheon scathingly said, “It seems to me and this is something that must be repudiated, that the press is actually saying that we don't have information so we are going to write anything we feel like writing to force the administration to come clean ... I want to know whether if this is indeed an approach, whether if this indeed motivates Glenn Lall in his criticism of government policy and government operations and I feel if this is so, it is utterly reprehensible and needs to be confronted."

As the debate concluded, the entire nation recognized that, while the government was presenting factual data and analyses based on sound premises, the opposition upstarts, who have abrogated to themselves the right to speak against any positive programme the government initiates, were seen to be filibusters and charlatans of the worst kind, persons who would concoct lies to destroy the entire development programme of the PPP/C government.