Source: Guyana Times
Dear Editor,
I, Sasenarine Singh, am not the financier of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and I have given the AFC under US$1000 between 2013 and 2015. The financier has provided the AFC with over US$200,000 between 2013 and 2015.
So let me set the record straight:
1. As Dr Asquith Rose did state, in 2012, the AFC Leader, Mr Khemraj Ramjattan did sit in a meeting in New York silently where this financier unilaterally banned two members. The two members who were banned at that time were Rab Mukraj and myself. The majority of the members of the leadership in Georgetown took a principled stance and continued to recognise the membership of both Mr Mukraj and myself. The position of the party then was that if someone was to be banned, they should be given a fair hearing – the financier never did this.
2. Mr Mukraj then ceased supporting the AFC with two other members, Dr Tyrone Khemraj and Dr Asquith Rose and joined the APNU support group in New York, while I continued with the AFC. I was even being promoted to the highest decision-making body of the AFC – the Management Committee because of my policy skills, and not money.
3. I then resigned in 2013 because of my professional commitment in Washington DC. (This was in the Guyanese newspaper). But I still continued to share ideas with the leadership in Georgetown whenever I could. I am a firm believer in providing ideas, equipment and tools needed for an election, not money.
4. Both myself and Dr Rose chose to join the AFC Queens Group sometime in 2015 and the President of the AFC Queens Group approved these applications. Since then a new leadership team was selected for the AFC Queens Group. By consensus, at an Executive Committee meeting on November 22, 2015, the entire leadership present at that meeting voted to not join the AFC financier and his family picnic which is trying to rebrand itself using autocratic means. They have an unelected arrangement that only recognises friends and family.
5. So, you can imagine how ticked off this financier was when he was advised that the AFC Queens Group will not join his undemocratic arrangement. A few days ago, the same financier conducted a kangaroo investigation on some emails between three members and again exceeded due process and his authority and again unilaterally banned two members of the AFC Queens Group as a reaction to the AFC Queens Group rejecting him. Again, the same process was followed, the accused was not given a fair hearing and he took the position of judge, jury and executioner and again he got the full support of the Leader of the AFC – Mr Ramjattan. Can you imagine what this has done to the democratic credentials of Mr Ramjattan? Now get this, the two people banned were Dr Asquith Rose and myself. Of course, both persons chose to ignore this system of jungle justice. The matter has again been referred to the AFC leadership for deliberation, but we do not expect justice since the AFC under Sheila Holder and the AFC under Mr Ramjattan is not the same.
So, in the final analysis, the newspaper got the wrong end of the stick – I, Sasenarine Singh, is not the financier, but a victim of the bully tactics of this financier.
Mr Ramjattan personally told me that if he has to make a choice between us with the brains vs the financiers with no brains, he would always choose the financiers because money is the “mother’s milk of a political party”.
Regards,
Sasenarine Singh
Editor’s note:
The Guyana Times in its Wednesday’s edition misinterpreted the truncated content of Dr Rose’s letter and inadvertently named Sasenarine Singh as the Financier of the AFC at the centre of an internal power tussle when in fact he was one of the victims of the alleged excesses of this individual. While the financier is known within the Diaspora, this newspaper will not mention his name until Dr Rose and those complaining about the party have done so with supporting evidence of their claims.
