By The Piper

[www.inewsguyana.com] – At some point those who control state power will have to find some ways of sparing the Guyanese people the indignities we are asked to live with due to abuse. The PPP, PNC, and now the APNU/AFC are all guilty of skulduggery. Let us take a look.

When the PPP/C was in office it complained night and day about media abuse.  Kaieteur News and President Bharrat Jagdeo were in an endless war, with the bestselling paper in the country landing new accusations of corruption with telling effect. The PPP apparatus, and at times Jagdeo himself, used every possible method to push back against the evident damage to the reputation of those with state power in their hands. President Jagdeo and his people, including a rambling Roger Luncheon, often had good grounds for their complaints, but not always. The case of land deals with Ed Ahmad is clearly a case in point.

The APNU/AFC has now confirmed what Kaieteur News had repeatedly stated – that is, Edul Ahamad had profited from corrupt land deals with the Jagdeo government. When the PPP was in office it denied these charges. Now the PPP is saying that the notorious deal was cancelled before it left office. I am sorry, but that is not good enough. To lease prime land in Georgetown for GY$500,000 annually is corruption by any definition. There is also background noise that the same Mr. Ahmad was gifted a sweetheart land-deal on the West Coast of Demerara.

It is clear that the PPP abused state power through it land-deals with a political handler. Let us now turn to APNU-AFC abuse of state power.

During the last election cycle a spurious charge of racism was made against then President Jagdeo. The opposition used the charge to hammer away at the PPP and specifically at Jagdeo. Of course, in Guyana everyone is a racist, but a criminal charge against a sitting President had really pushed the envelope too far. Jagdeo moved to the High Court to have the charge thrown out, and he won.

Enter Basil Williams, the Attorney General of Guyana, who has now entered a different zone of state power abuse. The charges had barely been dismissed when Basil Williams started to counsel a private party that fresh charges may be brought against the now Opposition Leader, Jagdeo.  Basil Williams would be forced to resign his office in any country where the rule of law actually prevails. His intervention is not only a callous abuse of state power, but one that is without personal dignity. Williams has shown that in addition to misusing state power, he is willing to destroy his own professional reputation just to please the private party that brought the charges in the first place. 

William of course, is not to be outdone. His own skulduggery is being upended by Joseph Harmon who has instructed the nation that corruption and friendship are the same things. Harmon has come to the aid of Richard Van West-Charles, who in his new position as CEO of GWI promptly offered a top job to a buddy of his, without advertisement or interview. In any country where the rule of law prevails, Van West-Charles would have to promptly resign. Instead his abuse is now being used by the Granger administration to promote yet another invention in Guyana – corruption is actually friendship.