Granger must account for PNC’s “sordid past” – Jagdeo

By Michael Younge

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo has blocked any attempt by David Granger, the Presidential Candidate for the recently formed Opposition coalition movement to play the role of ‘Pontius Pilate’, as he called on him to account for his sordid past and alleged involvement in the atrocities committed by the People’s National Congress (PNC) while that party was in Government.

Jagdeo, speaking at his first local press conference since demitting office back in December 2011, said that Granger must account for his track record if he was serious about running to become the country’s next Head of State and President. He wasted no time in lambasting Granger for bobbing and weaving whenever he was questioned about the role he played in the PNC which is accused of rigging several Regional and General Elections and committing massive excesses against the Opposition in the country during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Jagdeo argued that while sections of the Opposition-controlled media, including the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, could continue to shield Granger from answering potent questions about his track record, Granger needed to recognise the importance of coming clean especially since all Guyanese did not have “short memories” and were able to recall his role distinctly in a number of questionable practices. He called out the 69-year-old politician for pretending to have clean hands and a clean track record and past, telling journalists gathered at Freedom House on Robb Street, Georgetown that Granger and his allies were neither new to public life or politics.

Jagdeo explained that Granger was a Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and a confidant of President Forbes Burnham at one point in the country’s history. “He was placed in the Army in a political capacity. Not as a regular solider, he was the politician in the army. He was one of the authors of the ‘paramountcy of the party over the state’ doctrine practiced in that period. In fact, he wrote extensively defending it,” Jagdeo stated flatly.

“Should he not say something about this to the country before you aspire to high office?” Jagdeo asked before explaining that had Guyana been the US, Granger would have never been able to run for the Presidency or even the primaries because the media and analysts there would have dug up his record from the past. Jagdeo, who is both a member of the PPP’s 35-member Central Committee and its Executive Committee, expressed shock that Granger refused to accept and admit that the party he now leads was responsible for rigging countless elections, subverting the country’s democracy and prevailing over Guyana’s declining economic health.

Truth, principles

He said it was astonishing too that his running mate from the Alliance For Change  (AFC), Moses Nagamootoo, who fought tooth and nail against the rigging of elections while he was a leading member of the PPP/C would not set the record straight or disassociate himself from Granger.

Expanding his analysis of the situation, Jagdeo said that soon Nagamootoo would pay the price for assisting the PNC Leader to hide his own track record when the AFC is delivered a lethal blow after Nominations Day. “There will be no AFC…it will disappear, they will only be a name on the ticket, list of candidates, one head of the list …. and the head of the list has the right to recall any member from Parliament. He will decide who will go to Parliament. Since there will be no AFC if Granger decides 80 per cent of the seats in Parliament will come from the PNC, they will have no leverage….,” Jagdeo warned.

Dismal record

He argued that the Opposition Shadow Finance Minister, Economist Carl Greenidge has a record that was dismal, referring to him as the “worst Finance Minister” in the history of the country who failed to allegedly produce audited accounts for over a decade. “Yet he speaks about accountability today,” he charged, arguing again that the “same faces resurfacing in new guises, who want to rewrite the past and want this country to believe, particularly the young people because they do not have the memory of that past, that they are coming to the table with clean hands. They are not.”