THE OBSERVER
– Sanctimonious words belie their actions and Machiavellian intentions
In Sunday’s edition of the Kaieteur News the headline in the AFC column read: ‘Updating the Diaspora on Govt’s “corrupt practices” ’, wherein it was reported by one Adit Kumar, from an abridged reproduction in the Indo-Caribbean World on the 25th November that former Central Executive member of the People’s Progressive Party and co-leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) in Guyana, Khemraj Ramjattan, was in Toronto over the past week meeting and updating the Diaspora on the “corrupt practices” of the PPP Government.

What a sweeping statement by someone who has no idea of the real issues in this country, and the identities and agendas of the protagonists comprising the joint opposition parties, all of whom change their positions more often than they change their clothes in their opportunistic pursuit of power in the nation.

In the same edition of the same newspaper was carried a letter by one Prakash Persaud, who is suing the mother of Raphael Trotman, Ms. Sheila Chapman, of the legal firm Trotman, Chapman and Associates, for fraud through a crooked transaction which Raphael Trotman signed legal documents as witness to, thus authenticating that transaction that robbed one person of properties valued at millions of dollars.

This purportedly ‘principled’ co-leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, had accepted payment to represent Prakash Persaud and failed to do so.

His non-attendance at court resulted in Persaud losing the case then, when Persaud took Chapman to the Bar Association for malpractice and fraud, Ramjattan chastised him for so doing, stating that he had to consider ‘fraternity’.

Where was this much-vaunted integrity of Ramjattan’s when he accepted the fees from Prakash Persaud, who was an associate of his, and who paid him in good faith, thinking that he would deliver the professional services which he had essentially contracted to provide upon acceptance of the payments he had requested?

He broke that verbal contract and caused much loss to Persaud, because he considered he should have more loyalty to his co-leader rather than to his client.

And why does Raphael Trotman not make restitution to Prakash Persaud for his losses, since he is purporting to have had an epiphany and has now developed a voice of conscience, which he seemingly lacked during the years he was an integral component of the PNC’s destructive and devastating actions, until he fell out with Corbin over leadership issues?

Integrity is a cheap commodity when it is merely rhetoric, but some so-called self-proclaimed leaders of this country need to ‘put their money where their mouth is’ and reimburse the people they have robbed before deigning to speak about corruption.

Only if one is incorruptible can they credibly point fingers at others on charges of corruption.

Many administrators depend on the experts to advise them on given situations; and yes, sometimes they are misled, but, by and large, monies intended for use on developmental programmes are spent on those programmes.

Funding agencies do not just hand over monies. They monitor projects, and the continuum of financial assistance being provided, accompanied by the positive, sometimes glowing, reports from International Funding Agencies (IFAs) on the Government’s capital works and its investments in its social sector, as well as in other areas, belie the constant and continual criticisms of those who aspire to the corridors by denigrating the efforts of this administration in accelerating the developmental works in this country, which will only redound to the benefit of the common man.

Given the track record of these opportunistic self-proclaimed leaders, could they better the performance of the current administration, given the same set of circumstances, and could they strategise as brilliantly as a Bharrat Jagdeo if they head this country?

Again using the example of the case of Prakash Persaud, when fraud use was made of the man’s money and property, if these persons had access to large sums of money, whose pockets would they fill with it?

Anyone who preaches integrity would not successively strategise to use a benefit provided him as a lawmaker of this country to profit dishonestly by it, as Khemraj Ramjattan did with the duty-free vehicles he bought and sold, knowing fully that these concessions are not given to them for profit-making.

The Ramsaroops, Boyo and his son Gerhardt, pretend that they are conscientious objectors and that this is why they left the PPP, whereas everyone knows that Boyo Ramsaroop owns miles of properties that he cannot use in several lifetimes, but became very angry because the PPP did not help him to dispossess a poor family of their home to provide him with more property.

This is the motley crew that forms the core of the AFC – the prime leaders of which dishonestly occupied seats in Parliament to which they were not entitled by virtue of the fact that those seats were won by votes accrued to their former respective political parties.

They pretend to care for the people of this country by criticising everything that this administration does in efforts to alleviate the problems of the people and enhance their lifestyles, yet they can offer no real solutions.

Instead they hijack the strategies of Guyana’s brilliant President – witness the LCDS, which they initially derided, but are now trying to score political points with.

Their latest gimmick, in correlation with their sidekicks in the PNC, is to pick holes in the Supplemental Estimates that the Finance Minister tabled in Parliament last Thursday.

Finance Minister Ashni Singh, in his presentation, said that the monies are intended to strengthen our sea-defences; boost the low-income housing programme; deal with the solid-waste disposal problem; and fast-track education for all.

Intended, also, is the promised $400M support to the rice industry.

For the first time ever the needs of our hinterland communities are being addressed in a holistic fashion, but the El Nino phenomenon is causing severe dislocations in some areas. Some of this proposed expenditure is intended to address the problems being currently faced by Guyana’s First People.

There are communities all across the country that urgently need additional infrastructural works done, and the sufferings of the peoples of those communities are real, so it is imperative that their needs are met.

The EU sugar cuts have propelled great hardships to the sugar industry and, while the Government’s strategic plan for the sugar industry is in its experimental and developmental stage, there is need for governmental support for the industry.

The new GPL Power Plant going through the normal teething problems that are expected from any new venture, but the criticisms are relentless, with no credit being given for the unrelenting efforts being made to solve the energy problem by this Government.

The PNC, of which Trotman was an integral part for decades, and seemingly still is, given that they take similar positions on every issue, destroyed this country and the unity of our people to where it seemed almost unsalvageable, yet to hear them talk they have all the answers to make this country a paradise.

Judge them by their actions, not their words, what would they do differently, if they were in Government?

More to the point: What would they do better?
Examine their track records, because therein lies the answer.