Who compiled and has the list on Jagdeo’s reign?
The former President has taken over the role of Champion of Foolishness from Clement Rohee. The nation knows that Guyanese cynically referred to Mr. Jagdeo, when he was President as Champion of Dirt given the way he left Georgetown to die in dirt even though he was awarded an international title of Champion of the Environment.
Mr. Jagdeo, as Opposition Leader, has announced a policy whereby his party will be compiling a list of illegal edicts issued to state officials by the governmental leadership. The document will be used in evidence against the APNU-AFC leaders should the PPP regain power. Only the self-destruction of the current government can bring Jagdeo back in power
At first glance you laugh when Mr. Jagdeo spoke his nonsense. And the laughter was automatic because here was a politician when he was governor, committed egregious, repugnant and culturally debasing things, an enumeration of which should land him, as what we are seeing in Latin America, before a court of law. Let’s discuss the damning edicts of the Jagdeo’s administration. Wasn’t there a similar compilation when Jagdeo was the hegemon of Guyana? Who did it and who has the list? Well I know about some items on the list. We start with the Chief Justice.
On the High Court verandah, in front of Chris Ram, I told the then Chief Justice, Mr. Ian Chang, that I knew he wrote the President for the President’s intervention after his request to the GRA for his duty free car was turned down with instruction that the application be made through the Chancellor of the Judiciary rather than directly from the Chief Justice himself.
The Chief Justice was quite happy to discuss the issue in front of Mr. Ram. Jagdeo must answer if he interfered with the work of the GRA in this context.
Who in the civilian government gave the police the order to charge Mark Benschop for treason when Benschop was three corners away when demonstrators invaded the Office of the President? Who gave the police the order to arrest army officer Bruce Munroe, his wife and the Munroe family friend, Mr. Wharton for treason?
These three accused were freed at the preliminary hearing after the only piece of evidence was a contorted, distorted, inaudible cassette in which the hardly discernible voices of the three are heard having an informal conversation.
Who gave the order to CANU that failure to pass a polygraph should be the basis of dismissal? Nine persons suffered that fate which was not backed by law.
The same illegal direction was taken at the Guyana Energy Authority where there were multiple terminations after the polygraph failure. Did President Jagdeo order this illegal test?
Connected to this depravity was the fact as revealed in the recent audit of the Energy Authority that there were retentions among those who failed the test. One can only conclude that Jagdeo ran a cowboy government in that, the rule of law was ignored and the state was administered through the moods of Jagdeo.
Who gave the order to allocate land at Sparendam behind the police station at far below market cost to Mr. Jagdeo and his acolytes and subordinates? The site is now facetiously nicknamed Pradoville 2.
Who instructed Lands and Survey to do the paper work? Who mandated the then Ministry of Works to do the landscaping of the area and the removal of the NCN transmitters that were on the land?
Who instructed GWI to lay pipelines and GPL to install electricity? Does Bharrat Jagdeo know anything about these transactions that could lead to his prosecution?
The publisher of this newspaper, Glenn Lall, told me that I can quote a conversation we had in his office. He related to me that even though Jagdeo was not the President, it was through the instrumentality of Mr. Jagdeo that GRA pursued him on evasion charges on two vehicles.
If Mr. Lall is correct not only was Jagdeo the de jure President giving orders to state officials that were in clear violations of Guyana’s laws, but he also continued with that abomination when he was de facto President under Donald Ramotar.
Readers ought to know that the brief enumeration here of Jagdeo’s violations is not even the tip of the iceberg. As President, Jagdeo ran this country as a typical 19th century Latin American oligarch. I close on a personal note. I know Jagdeo, de facto President in 2012, had given the order to terminate my UG contract. So who has the list of Jagdeo’s illegalities? I do.
