Why was Granger listed as a US citizen?
President David Granger said his government did enter into a contract with the PR firm JJ&B of the US. But why would a ruling party enter into an arrangement for a white American citizen to compile a political analysis of Guyana’s election controversies with a background assessment of the country and not inform the head of the party?
That does not happen in modern politics. When a country is going through a volcanic crisis as Guyana is with the election depravities, its war room meets maybe more than once as day. The Prime Minister, or the President who heads the ruling party, is on the phone every minute with his trusted lieutenants.
My contestation is if Granger did not know (and I believe he didn’t), then this is by any standard a serious scandal for which Mr. Granger will obviously kill his political career if he does not discipline his party leaders. Such dramatic aberrations do not occur and the head of government accepts the contempt shown to him.
The scandal has two dimensions, one of which is sordid; the other is related to high moral standards. First the intellectual bankruptcy of the PNC. The PNC (I don’t think the AFC was ever consulted out of contempt the PNC has for it) went to a white American man by the name of Michael Granger to prepare a dossier on Guyanese politics. If you read the dossier, it is not only an argument that is justification for the APNU+AFC victory in the election, it is much more than that. It is an analysis of contemporary politics of Guyana.
I am not aware that Michael Granger’s scholarship takes in Guyana. But Granger obviously has tasked out the project to junior researchers. None of these researchers can be Guyanese or students of Guyana’s sociology because the dossier is appallingly poor in analysis and facts, and in fact is self-destructive because it contains material that when examined meticulously could be used against the APNU+AFC government and APNU+AFC leaders.
So the obvious question – why a white American? Well if Guyanese do not know the answer then the people of Guyana has to blame the mediocrity of Guyana’s journalists. Michael Granger’s PR firm was hired by the PNC to advise the PNC on the 2020 campaign. He came here in August 2019 and set up business at Congress Place under a project named, “Operation Palm.” He left one of his subordinates in charge who had as her liaison in Guyana, the PNC’s campaign consultant, Dr. Mark Kirton.
PNC leader, Granger, invited the AFC executive to meet with his namesake at State House. A quarrel broke out in the AFC because Cathy Hughes suggested that only a selected group meet with both Grangers so not to let information out on Granger’s presence in Guyana. Ramjattan insisted that the invitation was to the AFC’s executive. The AFC leaders and their sycophants met the American Granger at State House in August 2019. Please see my column of Wednesday August 14, 2019. The press never asked Granger, the PNC and the AFC about that meeting at State House.
The second dimension of the dossier relates to President Granger being named an American citizen. In February, a prominent Guyanese sent me an email stating that both Granger and his wife were American citizens. The person said the First Lady lived in the US for a number of years. I don’t know but I am kindly asking the First Lady if she ever lived in the US. I dismissed the email. I simply cannot remember who that person is. I get too many emails, a majority of which I delete. If that person reads this column, please make contact again. My phone number is 614-5927. My email is fredkissoon@yahoo.com.
I cannot see a successful American PR firm wildly and stupidly listing the President as an American citizen. That is too serious to just put into your research. My right is to express my beliefs and I am expressing one now. I am not accepting President Granger’s denial until research proves otherwise. Politicians cannot be trusted. President Granger said at his second and only press conference in December 2017 that he has no intention of rigging elections.
Khemraj Ramjattan told this nation on Tuesday at Kaieteur Radio that the AFC would not accept rigged elections. I am older than Ramjattan and I am saying to him that I have seen rigged elections in my country and what I have seen from March 4 up to now is the worst form of election tampering in Guyana’s history. Both Granger and Ramjattan have accepted an APNU+AFC victory in an election that was horribly manipulated.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
