LAST week, we looked at the collusion between the Barbados-based pollster CADRES and Guyanese newspapers in the publication of a push poll to engineer public support for the Alliance For Change (AFC). We reported on the People’s Progressive Party’s condemnation of this poll as a bogus one and showed the connection to Chantelle Smith’s husband, Floyd Haynes, of the Washington-based Newton Group who commissioned and paid for the poll. Further research now indicates that Mr. Haynes is the owner of the Newton Group which is involved in “Management Consulting” in the Washington DC metro area.
We also revealed that CADRES provides Political Management services and that “Political campaign management services were conducted in Guyana in 2006 and included such services as strategy formulation; constituency reports; political advertisements and materials.”
We asked you the readers to draw your own conclusions in the face of all the evidence presented and went on to state: “It is natural to conclude that there was some amount of bias in the conduct of this poll, especially since CADRES was involved in Guyana as a Campaign Manager in 2006. From the results of the polls we can draw our own conclusions as to the party which benefited from the political Campaign Management services offered by CADRES and wonder whether they are still on retainer.”
We further pointed out that there is a connection between Peter Wickham and Hartley Henry. According to bajan.wordpress.com, CADRES polls in Barbados were biased as “Peter Wickham was/is a member of the DLP, is on very friendly terms with the PM and is known to be a strong supporter of the government. Peter Wickham is just what he is, part of the Hartley Henry gang, talking up the DLP in the face of a mountain of domestic problems.”
In another post we learnt that a press conference by Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson in February 2009 was “hosted by Peter Wickham who appears to possess the ability to speak to all issues.”
Like with his associate Peter Wickham, a Barbados newspaper pulled the plug on Hartley Henry’s column shortly after the last Barbados election. Their reason was that he was a consultant to the Prime Minister and they were not in the habit of using such senior persons that close to the Prime Minister to write columns.
It is common knowledge in the Caribbean that Hartley Henry has been embroiled in controversies in several Caribbean countries, with a female lawyer in Antigua and Barbuda accusing him of making sexual advances. He and CADRES President, Mr. Peter Wickham, worked together in June 2007 and were accused of helping the then Labour Party government in St Kitts and Nevis with its plans for an early election before proper electoral reforms were implemented.
In August 2009, Henry again made headlines in Barbados after he reportedly telephoned SUNDAY SUN editor, Carol Martindale, threatening to tarnish her reputation if she did not “do the right thing” regarding the handling of a report on a CADRES poll – which rated the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government favourably.
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) endorsed the position of the Barbados Association of Journalists (BAJ) on the threats against Ms. Martindale, noting in their press release that “This incident has been documented and the complaint disseminated to our regional umbrella organisation – the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, as well as to various international press monitoring organisations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.”
According to the Bajan Reporter, as far back as March 2007, Henry harboured ambitions of marketing his services further afield. “In Barbados, he tried to run on a DLP ticket and did not show his spurs. In Antigua, there was a similar result, now Hartley Henry seems to be making a hat trick of useless consultancies – this time in Bermuda where the track record is even worse?” A letter leaked to the Bermuda Sun said Henry could be headed for a fourth defeat because the opposition party he was advising in Barbados was lagging behind in the polls.
This week Henry was caught meeting Raphael Trotman and Winston Murray at the Pegasus Hotel. True to form, Henry refused to respond to reporters and provided no answers to legitimate questions on the clandestine meeting.
Surprisingly, however, Raphael Trotman and Winston Murray, who are always eager to speak to the press, also refused to comment on their meeting when approached by the press. Winston Murray even left the scene and hurried away when approached by reporters interested in obtaining the facts.
The AFC has apparently sought the services of Henry as a political consultant amidst its current leadership crisis. The AFC, as recently as last year, criticized the Barbados Government, with whom both Henry and Wickham are associated,  for its stand on its immigration policy, going so far as to purchase a full page advertisement in the newspapers to castigate the Barbadians.  It is therefore surprising that they have done a complete about face and are now seeking the help of those associated with the benching of Guyanese.
It is interesting to note that the other leaders of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder, were nowhere in sight at the Pegasus Hotel meeting.
Trotman, born 1966, is a lawyer and a politician in Guyana. Trotman was initially elected to Parliament in 1998 as a member of the People’s National Congress Reform. Trotman resigned from the PNCR on May 27, 2005 but did not resign his Parliamentary seat until 27 December 2005, well after the launch of his new political party, the AFC.
Trotman co-founded the AFC in 2005 with Ramjattan and Holder.
Officially launched on October 29, 2005, the AFC received 8.3% of the national vote and won five of the 65 seats in the August 2006 elections. Both Ramjattan and Holder were parliamentarians who refused to vacate their seats in Parliament but were elected on the AFC ticket to the current House.
Murray resigned from the chairmanship of the PNCR but still retains his seat as a PNCR parliamentarian in the current House. Some political analysts have suggested that other dissident elements discarded from political parties may very well be encouraged to join the ranks of the disenchanted in the hopes of forming a winning coalition for the next election.
Here is a coalition of individuals whose heady track record of “successes” has been interrupted by their failure to get along with their own party thus prompting them to join the ranks of the rejected. What have they done to prove to the voting public that they should not be similarly rejected?
Those who are being approached to join up should look at the record of the movers and shakers involved in this venture and ask themselves if the purpose is to move or simply to shake the unwanted baggage thus enshrining the current leader with a mandate to retain the helm.
During the course of this very year, Trotman deemed recent attempts suggesting that his party was considering merging with the PNCR, as deliberate bids to create mischief.
At a press briefing at the Ariantze Hotel, the AFC leader stressed that the party had never had any bilateral discussions with the PNCR about coming together. Trotman was responding to a full-page advertisement placed in the Kaieteur News allegedly by a group of concerned PNCR members which strongly hinted that a merger between the PNCR and the AFC was on the cards.
Clearly, Mr. Trotman was not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth as he has now be
en caught consorting with prominent members of the PNCR.
It appears, however, that he has no intention of merging with the PNCR, after all; he simply intends to absorb some, if not all, of their dissident elements while cycling out the founding members of the AFC as was done in the past.
Significantly, the AFC failed to resolve its leadership impasse after a one-day meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) recently. AFC insiders said the party has not adhered to its public commitment for revolving leadership and this has made Trotman the favourite for its 2011 presidential candidate.
Ramjattan’s backers have been pushing for him to replace Trotman at the helm of the party in keeping with a leadership rotation agreement but the NEC could not break the deadlock at the meeting. According to AFC sources, the Ramjattan faction is not comfortable with this development and his backers are exploring options, including forming a breakaway party. After its meeting, the AFC said the NEC also “reaffirmed its total commitment to forging compatible alliances”.
Speaking on the leadership issue, Trotman said, “Our party holds dear the principles clearly outlined in our Constitution for the selection of our candidates and contrary to speculations by Kaieteur News and the Government Information Agency, there was never any possibility that these procedures would be disregarded.  All the nominees  for the positions of Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates of the AFC for the 2011 elections, which more than likely will number more than two persons when received will be reviewed by our National Executive Committee who will make the necessary recommendations.  Should the party be successful in its election bid in 2011, the two top positions will be rotated as voted on.”
A check of the AFC website for the party’s constitution to check the clause(s) on the leadership issue generated the following response: “Constitution not available: Error 404 – Not Found. We’re very sorry, but that page doesn’t exist or has been moved…”
This could very well be interpreted as a sinister symbol of things to come given the perceptions about the quality of the team being gathered.
Back in 2006 when the AFC was launched, a promise of “CHANGE” was continuously made to the people.
It appears that the process of change has commenced and what the rank and file of the party, including Ramjattan, are displaying can be simply described as resistance to change.