Red House and the redness of the PPP’s insane rule
If you ask Americans what they think will happen under Trump there is fear and trepidation. The signs are taking shape – the introduction of Senate legislation to abolish Obamacare, the removal of an Ethics Committee to sanction erring legislators, the pressure on a major car manufacturer to pull a plant in Mexico, the imminent transfer of the US Embassy to Tel Aviv. The Canadian Prime Minister is concerned about the dismantling of NAFTA that he made a video address to US lawmakers.
Back here in Guyana, we have the “angels” versus David Granger. Some of the supporters of the “angels” had barbwired their mouths and hands when Mr. Jagdeo and his surrogate president, Donald Ramotar transformed Guyana into a totalitarian state for 15 years. In those fifteen years, I probably was living in Timbuktu so I didn’t see the corruption, naked power, incestuousness, uncivilized conduct of government and racist politics of that oligarch, Bharrat Jagdeo.
I wasn’t living in Timbuktu. I was in Guyana where I spent 26 years at UG and watched Jagdeo weaken the University of Guyana. Today, God knows where the supporters of the “angels” have emerged from, but you let the Granger Administration dismiss a UG lecturer, and the President becomes the Devil Incarnate. You let The APNU+AFC Coalition give a citizen a concession to build a boatyard, and David Granger becomes the worst dictator in the world.
The real dictator that ran Guyana for 15 years is now in front of Red House with his supporters protesting the halt to what he has done for fifteen years – give the country away to relatives and friends. The protest outside RED HOUSE is logical though it may sound strange. I watched Jagdeo and “Bruk Up” Benn wading through the high waters during the recent flood meeting citizens. The Freudian expressions on their face told the story of men who believe they are still in power.
That Freudian psychology is on show on High Street outside the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. The oligarch and his band of troglodytes cannot believe they have lost power so who dare reverse their policies of incestuousness and nepotism. As they look at Red House, they tell themselves that it belongs to them. And to make it their own, they bought it over.
They bought over a heritage building. But that is only one aspect of the depravity. They didn’t call in a Wall Street advisor to determine the real estate value. They decided how much they will pay for Red House; they paid less than what a cheap Chinese fried rice costs. But let’s return to the supporters of the angels.
We are going into 19 months of the Granger Administration, and one of Jagdeo’s pick to become GECOM’s Chair told us about the “conceits and corruption” of the David Granger Administration. Here is the reason why I use the word “angels,” If in 18 months the Granger Government is conceited and corrupt then by any aspect of logical thinking, Bharat Jagdeo had to be an angel because he held power for 15 years (unless 15 years are 15 months).
It is for this reason, I ask; where have these supporters emerged from?
Where were these people when every conceivable public and national institution in this country successive PPP Governments beginning in 1992 with Cheddi Jagan assaulted? It was Bonita Bone-Harris, someone who is not involved in any kind of politics the past 25 years who said the Jagan Government sold out what was then Republic Bank and hid the negotiations from the Board of which she was a member.
From Jagan to Ramotar, Guyana became a tragic land. The protégés of the “great” Cheddi Jagan destroyed it.
Now look what these people are fighting for. A private group took ownership of a heritage building located in an area of prime real estate and did not have the decency to set up a quasi- government committee or a committee of national stakeholders to administer it.
No! It was administered by that private group only – the People’s Progressive Party. After 18 months in office the supporters of the “angels” tell us that the Granger Administration must leave public property in the hands of a private party that bought it for a song.
One can become morbidly facetious and ask that St. Stanislaus Sports Ground on Carifesta Avenue become leased to me and my siblings. That is where my father spent a lifetime working as a groundsman. That is where I played for years as a child. The possession of a heritage building by the PPP is an indecent act that can only be supported by an equally indecent mind.
