Dear Editor,

I AM certain that the Ministry of the Presidency will, in due course, respond to the disrespectful attack made on the person of His Excellency David Arthur Granger, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. But, permit me, as a citizen, to respond to the perpetrator of a behaviour, that is not only synonymous with the leader of a party that has suffered electoral defeat, but of a former president whose general profile was/still is one of being a bully and in perpetual cuss mode.
First of all, about the lists that Jagdeo had submitted for consideration by President Granger for his consideration of a new chairman for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). According to Jagdeo, he is of the opinion that those persons are very qualified, and “more technically” than the President, and some members of his cabinet. He even had the temerity to opine that the Head of State is “probably not fit and proper” to make a decision.
What an attempt to insult the credentials of a most academically accomplished and well- rounded Guyanese, a known scholar, that is now our country’s Head of State and Government!
Retired Brigadier-General, David Arthur Granger, retired as commander of the Guyana Defence Force, in 1992, after 27 years of distinguished service. Of course, he was a product of Queen’s College, still the nation’s premier secondary school, that has produced three of the Republic’s presidents, inclusive of Forbes Burnham.
It should also be stated that he had been a Queen’s College cadet, during his sojourn at that noted institution of learning.
His list of academic and scholastic achievements is many, beginning with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Guyana; Post-Graduate Diploma in International Relations, from the University of the West Indies; a Hubert Humphrey Fellow/Fullbright Fellow at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland.
Other academic engagements and accomplishments include:
*Urban Policy Development Workshop, University of California
*Defence Planning and Resource Management course, National Defence University
*Counter-terrorism Educators Workshop at the Joint Special Operations, University of Florida

He also held the chairmanship of the Central Intelligence Committee, Co-chairmanship of the Border and National Security Committee, and held memberships of the Guyana Defence Board; the National Drug Law Enforcement Committee, and the Disciplined Forces Commission.

He was always associated with academic and scholastic affairs, and is duly recognised as an Academic/Historian. Among the many related institutions which he headed, and actively participated as a member were:
*President of the History Society of Guyana
*President of the University Guild of Graduates
* President of the Guyana Heritage Society
* Member of the University of Guyana Council
*Member of the Association of Caribbean Historians
*Member of the Caribbean Studies Association
*Member of the Book Foundation
As an accomplished academic, his publications have been many and comprise the following:
* Co-editor with professor emeritus Dr. Winston McGowan and professor Dr. James Rose, on Themes of African -Guyanese History
* Publisher of Guyana Review, and Emancipation Magazine
There are also monographs, inclusive of
*Five thousand Day War
*The struggle for Haiti’s Independence, 1789-1804
*The British Guiana Volunteer Force, 1948-1966
*The Guyana National Service, 1974-2000
*The Guyana People’s Militia, 1976-1997
*The Queen College Cadet Corps, 1889-1975
*Guyana’s Coinage, 1808-2008
*The Era of Enslavement, 1638-1838
*The Village Movement

His many academic prizes, supported his distinguished academic life. These awards are:
*President’s Medal for best graduating student (Valedictorian)
*Denis Irvine Prize for greatest contributor to university cultural life
*Council of the University Prize
*Elsa Goveia Medal of Excellence
*Guy de Weever History Prize
*Mary Noel Menezes Award for History
Department of History Prize

Normally, one ought not to dignify persons who speak without even giving due thought to what will be said. But, not Jagdeo. He is deliberate in this instance, and also wicked in his frantic attempt to denigrate the distinguished person of the current president, by his scurrilous statements that question both the President’s qualifications and his ability to make decisions

Do I need say more, Mr Jagdeo? Who on those three lists is more technically qualified than our President? And as an aside, that first list was meant as a provocation.
Surely, his understanding of the meaning of “technically qualified” and the ridiculous suggestion that the president is “probably not fit and proper” can only be derived from his dictionary of distortions.
Jagdeo should understand that it is the President’s prerogative to make a final determination, and a very fair and impartial one. This is not about Bharat Jagdeo. This is about all of Guyana.

Sincerely,

Earl Hamilton