We have reached a point in Guyanese politics where it may be best for the preservation of our psychic integrity that we ignore the hypocritical tsunamis rushing into our homes from the mouth of every PPP leader. Every conceivable act of depravity in the annals of authoritarian politics the PPP leadership committed since its return to power in 1992.
Yet this political animal sees nothing morally repugnant in their action when they criticize the APNU-AFC regime for being undemocratic.The record of authoritarian output by the administrations of Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar were horrendous, but the PPP leadership addresses this nation and appeals to its people for support in 2016 as if the PPP leaders are strangers that must be welcomed to this land. The question is; what do we do about this hypocrisy? In many ways the PPP in opposition under its Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, and its General-Secretary, Clement Rohee, are damaging people’s faith in politics and there isn’t a damn thing the respective leadership of AFC and APNU can do about it.
How do people feel when they hear the PPP on the opposition benches in Parliament demanding fifty percent increase for public servants? How do people feel when they see GAWU urging sugar workers to strike because the sugar industry is being weakened by the present government? The shock may be too great for some when they realize that the people who are shaping this kind of confrontation with the Government have been in power for 23 years and only lost power nine months ago. If that isn’t mentally confusing to a non-political mind, then, what is?
There are only two ways for the Government and democratic forces to cope with this kind of incredible politics from the PPP. One lies in hope. It is hoped that the Guyanese people will ignore the barefaced demagoguery from the PPP and continue to see them as people who committed horrible depravities under Jagdeo’s hegemony.
The other way has to do with state activism. It has just been revealed that a judge investigating corruption has summoned former Argentina President, Christina Fernandez, before him. Here is the aspect of that case that should raise the curiosity of all Guyanese. It is taken from Reuters; “An Argentine judge has summoned former President Cristina Fernandez for questioning in a probe into the sale of dollar future contracts at below market rates by the central bank just months before she handed over power in December.”
Doesn’t this remind you of Guyana under Jagdeo? Here is another quote from the same Reuters’ story: “Under Fernandez, the central bank routinely sold dollar futures to prop up the peso, partly in an attempt to anchor double-digit inflation in Latin America’s No. 3 economy. Two lawmakers last October filed a complaint alleging that the price at which the contracts were sold constituted a serious financial loss for the state.”
Doesn’t this bring into sharp focus, the scandal of Pradovile 2? Let us juxtapose the two situations. The two Argentine Parliamentarians are saying that the Fernandez Government sold the dollar future contracts under market value thus the state lost money and person(s) got rich. In Guyana, state land was sold at an enormously low price, far, far below market value at Pradoville Two.
Enormous sums were spent to landscape the area, sums totaling 257 million Guyana dollars. There is a similar case before the Belizean court. By state activism, I mean the state’s exposure of and criminal investigation into corruption and abuse of power under Presidents Jagdeo and Ramotar. It is only that direction that will probably cool down the torrid propaganda campaign that the PPP is currently on to fool its supporters and the Guyanese people that they are democratic.
If these leaders are charged based on evidence it will destroy the PPP. Not even the tip of the iceberg is showing. I was in Mr. Glenn Lall’s office and he looked at me and said, “Freddie, you think you know about the corruption that went on?” He was trying to say that we think we know but we haven’t seen anything yet.
What we haven’t seen should be shown to us by SOCU, SARU and the Government of Guyana. Time is moving on, the new government seems to have settled into office and it is obligatory of them to describe for the nation the Augean stables of corruption that weakened the resources of the state and strengthened the bank books of the cronies of the PPP’s hegemons.
Unless this government begins to prosecute big leaders of the past regime, the PPP will continue to show-off.
