Dear Editor
A letter dated Tuesday, May 26th and penned by Mr. Christopher Ram caught my attention. That letter captioned “Aide Memoire binds Claudette Singh and GECOM to a declaration based solely on the recount”. In that letter, Mr. Ram made a number of outlandish comments and claims which I feel compelled to respond to. After reading Mr. Ram’s letter, I am almost convinced that he probably sees himself as part of a privileged group of men, that deem itself the sole voice of reason, bestowed with the ultimate authority to speak on all matters Guyana. The tone of the letter is both “bossish” and “all knowing”. Ram appears to assume the role of chief instructor and director of the Ministry of the Presidency and GECOM.

He boldly sought to instruct the GECOM Chairperson as to what she should or should not do at the end of the recount, while attempting to chide the Ministry of the Presidency and the president for responding to Kit Nascimento’s attack on the president. Ram seems to be saying ‘how dare the President respond to a member of his privileged group!’ In his first paragraph, he took the time to “educate” the Ministry of the Presidency of how “formidable and fearsome” Nascimento is, according to him. He pontificated that his comrade is some journalistic and communication expert capable of obliterating the President and Ministry with his unmatched talent. He therefore warns that the President should dare not respond to the tirade of his privileged associate, Nascimento.

According to Ram, if Granger responds to Nascimento “he would regret!” What a bold reprimand, if not a threat! The subtle rationale in his comments seems to suggest that no one challenges “the privileged men”, the men with the “ultimate voices of reason” must not be opposed. Ram projects his self-assumed pre-eminent status by repeatedly referring to the president of Guyana by his last name “Granger” or by renaming him “Historian David Granger. Seems like, he would not dare belittle himself, and refer to the president by his official title. Apparently, the thinking is, to say President Granger would be giving the president more respect than the “privileged men” would cede to the president. I am surprised that men would carry their petty feelings this far, for clearly there seems to be some serious feelings here.

In an almost incoherent and convoluted manner, Ram continued to lecture “Granger” as to why his privileged associate, Kit Nascimento, must not dare be sued by the president. Then, he went on to ramble on about what he referred to as, “those dark days” and “terrifying years of Burnham” and “sequence of rigged elections”. Ram stated that many people “migrated from Guyana to escape” those years in which, he contended, were filled with food shortages and “grand incompetence” in the government. Clearly, Ram was trying to paint a picture that seems to suggest that some people are incapable of managing a country as, they might be too incompetent.

For those of us who are actively engaged on social media, we have seen this suggestion and insinuation by many who purport to be PPP supporters. If this is not Ram’s thinking, why then would he ramble back to Burnham and skip the PPP’s 23 years of mismanaging Guyana, if we want to talk about “dark day” or “terrifying days”. I rather suspect that his strategy was to merge the Burnham/PNC years of government with the APNU-AFC government because he wanted to attack those supposedly “incompetent” managers of the state; a very disingenuous and telling revelation. How can any reasonable Guyanese speak about “terrifying” or “dark day” in Guyana without referencing the recent 23 years of the PPP rule! Didn’t Christopher Ram live through that period! Didn’t the brutal and gruesome images of young black men being slaughtered almost daily, by death squads, bother him and his privileged clan!

It is obvious that Ram wanted to attack the PNC government and the current APNU-AFC government, for reasons only he and his “privileged” group seems to know of. Guyana is a very young country, with more than 60% of the population below age 50. Therefore, a significant portion of us have experienced our darkest and most terrifying days under the PPP’s recent 23 years rule. To attempt to obfuscate or disregard that fact is disrespectful to those families who are still trying to get past their pain. When you speak of “dark days” and “terrifying days” in Guyana, many of us identify those days with the Bharrat Jagdeo PPP rule.

Ram was there when the slaughter of young black men by a phantom squad, purportedly sanctioned by the Jagdeo PPP government, dominated the landscape. Ram was there when young black men were being kidnapped, or disappeared almost daily. Ram was there when gunmen and members of the phantom squad terrorised entire communities and committed unthinkable atrocities across the country. Ram was there when these dark and terrifying days engulfed the nation. However, these events seemed to have been erased from the minds of Ram and his group of “privileged men”, but for some reason he remembered “food shortages” during the Burnham government to be “terrifying years”. The terrifying events of the PPP rule are unimportant to these “privileged men”, for obvious reasons.

However, Ram must know that people, like me, take serious umbrage with him and others’ who attempt to pretend that the lives of those who were slaughtered by the death squad do not count or matter. We take exception that you would attempt to trivialize the unthinkable terror that was unleashed on innocent Guyanese during this terrifying period of our history. Christopher Ram claimed that many people during Burnham administration escaped the country because of food shortages, but he failed to state that many Guyanese could not sleep in their own homes or walk the streets, much less attempt to escape to go anywhere, during the terrifying dark days of the PPP rule.

As it related to incompetence on the part of government, Ram, in a hopscotch fashion again, skipped the PPP’s 23 years and jumped many years back to the Burnham administration to claim that there was gross mismanagement in that government. This Strategy I find to be very disingenuous! Clearly, this privileged citizen now has a brief for the PPP. Why else would he refuse to speak about the mismanagement of the economy and rampant corruption by the Jagdeo administration which led to Guyana becoming labelled a narco-state? How can Mr. Ram forget this! Is his feelings hampering his ability to think straight! Mr. Ram decided to speak of “mismanagement” by the Burnham government when he was one of those who regularly pointed out the many instances of bag governance by the Jagdeo administration. Did Ram forget this, or is his present exercise a ready response to the “coalescing of the forces” call! It is actions like these that cause men/women to lose whatever credibility they had.

In his letter, Mr. Ram also decided that he would instruct and direct GECOM’s Chairperson, Justice Claudette Singh, on what she must do regarding the ongoing recount. Ram selected three bullets from the agreement signed by Opposition Leader Jagdeo, President Granger and CARICOM to bolster his demand on Justice Singh, who he refused to refer to as Chairperson of GECOM. I guess there are some more feelings here too. Ram stated, in his letter; “Clearly, bullet point three binds Claudette Singh and GECOM to a declaration based solely on the recount. Granger and Claudette Singh cannot be so incapable as to not understand plain English”. According to Ram’s thinking, the Courts of Appeal decision that nullifies that CARICOM agreement is of no moment. Why is he referencing an agreement that has no legal value regarding the count! These “privileged men” believe that they are so intellectually superior to the rest of us that they can use obvious and simple facts to hoodwink us. CARICOM’s present status or involvement in the current recount is observatory and not supervisory. The Courts made it clear that GECOM alone has supervisory authority over its operation. That authority it cannot loan or lease out. Mr. Ram continued to talk about Justice Singh as if she is a mere simpleton, unfamiliar with the law and her role.

However, the last time I checked, Justice Claudette Singh had already completed years of service sitting as a High Court Judge prior to Ram being considered for a place in Law School. In fact, she was the deciding judge in the 1997 Elections Petition case– Esther Perreira vs the State. Therefore, her depth of experience in legal practice makes her a veteran compared to Ram’s now baby steps in law practice. He spoke glowingly of his compatriot Nascimento’s supposed experience in journalism and communication, but strangely, he does not respect Justice Singh’s sterling, lengthy and valuable contribution to the local legal system. I guess “privileged men” are threatened to acknowledge the power and value of “women of worth!” From the time Justice Claudette Singh was appointed Chairperson of GECOM, I saw the subtle and sometimes bold attack on her womanhood, In fact, I called out those sexist attacks when I saw them.

Ram, using the authority he bestowed himself, sought to instruct Justice Singh that she must make a declaration based on the recount, and that if she fails to abide by the CARICOM unconstitutional agreement, there would [be]“consequences far more grave than her reputation”.

Speak about authority! Ram seems to think that he has more power than GECOM and the Appeals Court, combined. Someone ought to remind Mr. Ram that his nomination for GECOM chair was rejected on the basis that he may not have been fit and proper for the job, and his present display helps to confirm that his rejection was justified. Ram must be reminded that GECOM is an independent constitutional body, and the chairperson is in control of that body. However, the “privileged men” wants the nation to believe that they are in control. So, Mr. Ram wrote his letter to instruct Justice Singh that she must, in the face of overwhelming evidence of fraud, do the following; 1. Look the Guyanese people in the face and say to them, no fraud occurred, or that the nation must ignore the fraud.
2. Disregard GECOM’S ten lawful declarations and use the PPP’s bogus numbers to declare it the winner of the elections. 3. GECOM must ignore the judgement of the Appeals Court and cower to the propaganda of the PPP and their friends, thus use an unconstitutional arrangement to make a declaration at the end of the recount. There seems to be no concern for the Guyanese people, in all of this. I want to say to Ram and his comrades that unless the Guyanese people, the ultimate stakeholders in the electoral process, are confident that the process used to cast their votes was free, fair and transparent, there will be problems. The issue of the dead and bogus voting must be of concern to all Guyanese who value democracy. Like the “privileged men, the vote of every legitimate voter, including our men and women in uniform, must count.

Lastly, I have lost all respect for men and women who proclaim to be impartial and objective when they decide to engage in selective outrage and pretensive ignorance. Over the last two months, I have seen many letter writers taking to the printed media to pontificate on those things they purport to be intellectually connected to. However, these very men and women refused to condemn brazen and brutal attacks on children by PPP thugs and hooligans. Those children’s only crime was being on a “Granger school bus” on their way home.

I lost respect for men and women who remain mute when PPP thugs openly unleashed terror on members of the Guyana Police Force, beating some until bones in their bodies are broken. I refuse to respect men and women who use their pen and voice to speak of all things that matter to them but refuse to speak out against a Commissioner of GECOM who assaulted a young doctor who was merely working to protect the health and well-being of the said commissioner and others. I refuse to respect men and women who refuse to condemn the racist attacks perpetrated against citizens almost on a daily basis. I refuse to listen to those who refuse to use their so called “privilege” to speak out against the uncovering of fraud during this recount process. Some people have lost all moral terrain to speak on anything if they deem themselves too “privileged” to speak out against attacks on the most vulnerable, our children, amongst us. I have lost all respect for many people! I used to respect Christopher Ram. However, pretense, political hopscotching and fakery also have shelf life.
Sincerely
Lurlene Nestor