MOST Guyanese do not know David Granger. In part, this is because he is part of the Georgetown high-society that basically does not go past Providence on the East Bank, or Montrose on the East Coast Demerara. Of course, Granger was once a top PNC political commissar who was imposed on the military.
That position forced him to do his political work under the guise of the military out of Georgetown, but that is the extent of his familiarity with real Guyanese outside the zone of comfort.
For years, therefore, it appear that he has been mostly a ‘town-man’, petted only by Stabroek News and those who would love to see a politically motivated guy who wore a uniform take power. Outside of these latter, David Granger is a virtual stranger to the average Guyanese.
Two weeks ago, someone asked me if he is a West Indies fast bowler from Barbados. I told the lad the only fast bowler by that name known to me once played for Uitvlugt Cricket Club, and that I don’t think it is the same person. In any event, that Granger was only medium fast.
The fact that no one knows Granger is bad. What is worse is that David Granger may not be up-to-date with Guyanese, and especially with the challenges facing people in the country side. There is a good chance that Granger knows only very little about sugar, the sugar industry, and about sugar workers.
Granger may have backed the use of the GDF to break strikes by GAWU in the 1970s and 1980s, a thought so repugnant, that Granger must forthwith issue a statement for the public record.
Incidentally, Raphael Trotman should also do the same, because he was a PNC big one when the regime forced the professional military into breaking sugar workers’ strikes. Sugar workers really struggled during those PNC years when Granger was a top GDF man.
Granger must also clarify what kind of advice he was giving the PNC political directorate regarding the bauxite industry. The PNC record in the bauxite industry is not a good one, and the speeches to the contrary at Linden would not be sufficient to erase the record of failure.
Lindeners, much like the majority of Guyanese who live away from Georgetown, deserve better. The Jagdeo administration is preparing hundreds of house lots in the Linden area, and the president has been there few times over the past year. This writer accompanied the president on those trips.
I was also with the president in Berbice two weeks ago when he delivered his tribute at Babu John to former presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan. It is astounding how the Granger charlatans have twisted that speech. Most of the charlatans, of course, live in Georgetown, and almost all have a policy of not going to Berbice or anywhere in countryside. 
Like Freddie Kissoon and Arif Bulkan, they hate to see country people brushing their teeth in their own yards or taking a shower by their own standpipe. Maybe it is because in the PNC days there were no tooth-brushes or toothpaste.
President Jagdeo made the simple point that under the PNC misrule, too many Guyanese lost their lives for political reasons. That is the fact and if Granger is objecting to that then how can he be trusted to tell the truth about other important things such as ballot boxes and political intimidation?
Granger’s weakness is that he has no experience with legitimate governance. His party of choice after all has the dreadful record of rigging its own elections, something the party itself has admitted. More than that, Granger’s party really does not know how to wage a good political campaign aimed at winning votes the right way. It is like the WPA in this regard. The PNC has relied too much on either rigging or intimidation in the past, and no apologies from opportunists and extremists will change that.