Military take over
Over the time this government has been in power, we have seen some strange actions which one would not expect to see from a government which garners support from a minority ethnic group in a country as badly divided as Guyana is along racial lines. I don’t see how I can be asked to condone wrongdoing by a government I fought to place in power. The time has come to speak up. For over four years I have been compiling this list of actions by Government which raised great trepidation in my mind. Several months ago I spoke to Adam Harris about this, so this is not something I concocted overnight, I have been telling my close friends for over 3 years that all of what I have recorded below has been troubling me.
1. From day one ex-personnel from the army were being placed in very high and strategic positions in government.
2. Finding this Oil changes everything for Guyana, oil producing countries basically do what they want in the face of a silent international community, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, are good examples, so it allows some very important fundamental rights to be eroded by such governments without the international community sanctioning them. Most countries which find sudden wealth from one of its resources end up as very undemocratic, dictatorial and corrupt. Countries which really prosper from the resource must have strong institutions, and an ever-vigilant population. It is also clear that countries which suffer this sudden wealth, are more prone to breed political strife and civil war. Is this why they are building up the army in Guyana to keep the civilian population of all races under control? Recently there surfaced in the newspapers a letter telling us that the President of Guyana Granger is finding time to micromanage the GDF, he is even controlling things like promotions in the army, but the same president told the media in this country some time ago, that he will not micromanage his Ministers, who were making many glaring mistakes, and a lot of them were patently corrupt. This statement is totally inappropriate for an Executive President to make, since we voted for him, and it was he who chose his ministers, so he is responsible to us for their performance as an Executive President.
3. This government has not been kind to its business community, using the Revenue Authority to extort money from them, oppressing then with numerous taxes and other Burhnam era outrages have been reported, and capital flight has occurred. But Granger and his government do not seem to care. Why?
4. The sugar industry was indeed a huge drain on our economy. But the East Demerara Estates closure is so unbelievably harsh, that one is still stunned by the political stupidity of it. It was an act which effectively destroyed the collation partner the AFC. Which now cannot obtain one cross over vote.
5 The national service and other paramilitary organizations have been reintroduced! Further militarizing the society.
6 The GDF spending in the 2019 budget is very high [14 billion], higher than the Ministry of Agriculture [9 billion] and the GDF spending is now on the front page of the newspaper promoted by the President himself as being restructured for “Effective transformation for Total National Defense.” And “Securing our Borders”. Now he is telling the army recently that they are ready!! Ready for what? Letters in the newspaper criticizing the high amounts of money, which this Government says that they did not have, to diversify the sugar industry, is being wasted to pay an endless list of army advisors to the President [we are told that there are nearly 500 contracted “advisors” to the Office of the President”. We are told that it is for securing the borders, it is my opinion that they are securing something entirely different. This man has surrounded himself with the biggest, most corrupt, most incompetent government in our history. And it is costing the taxpayers in this country, a lot.
7 The GDF also wasted money on drones which cost almost as much as actual helicopters and shows the incompetence and the corruption of the army’s procurement procedures.
8 We don’t seem to want anyone of competence or independence to chair the Elections Commission! Any selection of a GECOM chairman which excludes Joe Singh as a good candidate, is not legitimate, and can only be viewed as having the most sinister motives.
9 Interference in the judicial arm of this government is very apparent to any casual observer, a notable exception happens to be our current Chief Justice. The judiciary must be independent. It hardly needs mentioning that the Judge being sought to be our Chancellor was a former GDF Judge Advocate, who is not a high performer and was actually sanctioned by the bar association of Belize for not delivering his judgements promptly.
10 We also do not seem to be planning our priorities right, raising suspicions about motivations. We don’t need to be acquiring a new bridge now, it is years in the future, we have the East Bank highway congestion to consider, long before we even think of a new Demerara Bridge, we must establish a parallel road or roads on the east Bank to relieve the congestion on the East Bank Highway daily. We have a Minister who is constantly blowing his trumpet and patting himself on the back, but who is incompetent to understand this simple fact, according to Charles Ceries.
11 The rush to get the border dispute resolved is an indication that we don’t want to have even one area where we can allow international pressure or control to exist. It is also a good excuse to funnel more money to the GDF on the pretext they we have to prepare for military action from Venezuela and it is hilarious, that country has one of the strongest military forces in the world ranked # 43 globally in 2019 out of 150 countries, with 140,000 military personnel, 53 attack jet fighters, 10 attack helicopters, 390 tanks,73 self propelled artillery, 104 towed artillery launchers, 36 rocket projectors . Our 25 buses and 4 canoes would not be much help against them so what is Granger telling the army they are ready for?
12 The other evening, I had the misfortune to be caught on the street in Alboystown at night, as a former MP for the PNC one Guyana, how can we possible have been in power for over 4 years and leave this stronghold of our supporters in that condition? All of those areas East, North, West Ruimveldt, Sophia are in exactly the same totally unacceptable condition. The collation has done nothing to improve it now that they have the power to do so.
13 At all times since the NCM we have been seeing total contempt for the rule of law by this government, they are doing exactly what they want in gross violation of our laws, which is in most circumstances contrary to the constitution, and this government is giving excuses to their supporters which my 9 year old grandchild would not accept.
14 The GDF are now in possession of over 25 buses, these are not army vehicles, the money they have spent on buying these buses appear to me to be more appropriate to mobilize the army in our civilian population. One time supporters of the collation such as myself, must deduce that if this happens in Guyana, we will enter a new level of anarchy and none of us will see any benefit from this oil.
15 At Dora on the highway and probably other areas the GDF is running roads dissecting people’s transported land in complete disregard for our laws.
Given this list of ingredients, what would any reasonable person believe is the menu their government is preparing for them? Democracy or Military Dictatorship? In a military dictatorship no one wins, not even the supporters of the dictators, only the actual dictators benefit. The US did not allow a military dictatorship in Venezuela and have put sanctions on the people and we know the chaos that now exist there, and we must always remember that we stand to lose 5/8 of our country to Venezuela if we no longer have friends in the international community.
