Coalition Govt should accept responsibility for current state of affairs in Guyana

Dear Editor,
David Hinds and Eric Philips were both cut from the same bolt of cloth. They are only interested in the welfare of Afro-Guyanese, and brand the PPP as a racist party.
Their biggest fear is that Afro-Guyanese, who now see this “good life” as just an elusive dream, will see past their lies and find the PPP an attractive alternative to the failed Granger Administration.
Adam Harris is frustrated and feels betrayed by the many failures of the incompetent Government he supports. Yet he can hardly write a critical editorial of this government without some comparison to the PPP/C that suggests the PPP/C may have done the same thing or worse.
And the Dem Boys Seh column in the Kaieteur News can hardly mention Jagdeo’s name without the words “that scamp” preceding it.
Lincoln Lewis is a known Jagdeo-hater. His venom came about years ago when he took a personal loan of over US$20,000 from the bauxite company, to buy a car at the time he, as head of the bauxite union, was representing the interests of the bauxite workers at Linden. When his duty-free concession for the car was cancelled, he blamed it on Jagdeo who was at the Ministry of Finance at that time.
Everyone knows Freddie Kissoon has his own selfish motive for hating Jagdeo and the PPP. He blames the PPP for his dismissal at UG. But the truth is, at the time of his dismissal, he had passed the age of retirement, and never published anything of substance to keep his job, a basic requirement of an academic.
Kissoon also blames the PPP for the “dismissal” of his wife from GO-Invest. In fact, Freddie’s wife served well into the Jagdeo tenure, and took an early retirement from her government job with full honours and gratuities after that agency was restructured.
Kissoon despises former President Jagdeo for revoking his privilege of swimming at the Castellani swimming pool. But this was only done after it was discovered that Kissoon was using the venue to eavesdrop on the conversations of other pool guests, and was using the information he was getting clandestinely to write his Freddie Kissoon columns in the Kaieteur News.
Some time ago, Kissoon complained that after a meeting with the former President to discuss getting a duty-free concession for a car, Jagdeo was so harsh with him that he lost his sight temporarily when he went out on the road.
But despite his known hatred for Jagdeo, Freddie Kissoon always had access to the former President: In the swimming pool at Castellani, and in his office to ask for duty-free concession. I wonder how much access he has now with a President he helped put in office.
No one mentions about the positive things the PPP has done to bring about economic growth and prosperity in Guyana from a bankrupt nation in 1992, but the “blame Jagdeo and the PPP” syndrome continues.
Jagdeo was accused of giving away land to the owner of the Two Brothers Gas Station. That is, until the businessman, Shiraz Ali himself refuted this claim as preposterous as he was never friendly with the PPP Administration, given his well-known support of the People’s National Congress (PNC) long before Jagdeo even held a ministerial position.
Jagdeo was accused of giving away 11 radio licences to “family, friends and cronies of the PPP”, but no one mentions the names of the six non-Indians that were given radio licences.
Jagdeo again was accused of giving away all of Guyana’s forest and off-shore oil blocks until those too were proven to be lies. Yet no one in the Government has the decency to apologise to the Leader of the Opposition.
It is time that the Granger Administration accepts responsibility for the management of our nation. They can no longer blame Bharrat Jagdeo or the PPP for their incompetence, ineptitude, and the sufferings of the Guyanese people. They are in Government now. Whatever needs fixing, they must fix it.
After promising to give free land in Guyana to hurricane victims in the Caribbean, Hurricane Granger swept through Sophia, wreaking havoc and destroying 21 homes and the livelihood of poor Guyanese, leaving women and children homeless and exposed to the elements.
Surely, this cannot be the “good life” Guyanese voted for in 2015. If we have land to give to foreigners, we must find land to give to the less-fortunate among us. Charity begins at home, Mr President; you can’t blame Jagdeo for this one.

Harry Gill
PPP/C Member of
Parliament