THERE is much talk about the attributes, qualities and suitability of the presidential candidates running for office in the forthcoming general elections. Some citizens are advocating Town Hall-type  meetings, etc., but not all citizens can attend such meetings and a great responsibility will fall on the press to accurately report all that would be said. The reports must not reflect the views and sentiments of the reporters who wish to be called journalists. Views and comments must be reserved for commentaries, editorials, etc. The populace would like to hear what would be said by the participants in order for them to form  opinions of their own. The correspondents and others, then, by their articles or reports should try to address their own points of view, to win over the recipients of the candidates’ addresses. I shall urge also that the candidates must be honest in their presentations and so not seek to incite or influence the citizenry with false statements and promises.
Let us take for instance presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC. He promises to make two seats in Guyana’s Parliament available for members of the diaspora. If he were not a lawyer he may be excused for that. But he ought to know that certain conditions apply to those who may be selected to sit in our Parliament. The first requirement is for that person to be registered as a voter in Guyana. Secondly, his name must appear in the list of candidates from which the members will be selected. The seats he will offer to the diaspora cannot be rotated to others. Will they give up their overseas citizenship and come to live in Guyana or will they be shunting from country to country?
Secondly, I see him telling voters of Cane Grove who are suffering a dust nuisance that he will go to the Court for contempt proceedings. Is there a basis for him to get contempt proceedings for example, an Order of Court being disobeyed by someone? Is he honest in his representation to the people who are suffering, or God forbid, he does not know better. For a few votes, is he going to sell his reputation and soul for a mess of pottage?
But then, PNC Presidential candidate David Granger is a different kettle of fish. He is touted as an academic, a brilliant planner and schemer, a historian, a disciplinarian, a family man, etc. etc. When we see such credentials being advanced the inevitable conclusion is that here is an honest man. How intellectually honest do we find David Granger? To begin with the entire world knows that the PNC had rigged national elections in Guyana over the years, the last one being in 1985 which has put to shame the results of those elections before. We cannot forget also the efforts to get things right for 1990 elections when then  President Hoyte used that as an excuse and adjourned the elections for two years and gave himself two additional years as President.
Our intellectual Granger wrote in his book “The New Road – A short history of the Guyana Defence Force 1966-1976”, that national elections were scheduled for July 1973 and the GDF was called in to aid the civil powers and prevent a breakdown of law and order that was planned by the gangsters. Those gangsters according to him were persons recruited by the PPP. Nowhere in the book did he say what the soldiers did with the ballot boxes which they collected at the several polling stations. Everyone knew that the ballot boxes which they collected were taken to the GDF Headquarters at Camp Ayangana in Thomas Lands, Georgetown where the ‘counting’ of the ballots took place. All saw the Camp on ‘mourning’ when black drapes were put over all the windows of the building there. Granger must have known of these things as he was the strategist of the army. He still has time to tell us what took place at the Camp when the ballot boxes were taken there. All will remember when the ballots were taken out of the sealed boxes the ballot papers with votes for the PNC were secured in rubber bands. The thought then was that those ballots were special – that as they fell into the ballot boxes they ganged up and aligned themselves in order and a fairy Godmother dropped rubber bands therein for the votes to be secured. Were the young Indian boys who were killed by the GDF soldiers that election day on the Corentyne trying to protect the ballot boxes and the ballots from those fictional characters?
In 2003 Granger went to Chile and presented a paper entitled Civil Violence Domestic Terrorism and Internal Security in Guyana for the period 1953 – 2003. He wrote about the deaths of 40 African Guyanese as the most alarming slaughter of the disturbances between that period. Interestingly enough, he did not tell the world who slaughtered those Africans. If he had said it was done by the Indians he would surely have asked what happened to the Indians. Little wonder he is called a GDF strategist – protecting the criminals from exposure. Nowhere in that paper did he mention the wholesale assaults, rapes and murders of the Indians who lived in Wismar. He did not tell the world that Indians were forced out of their homes which were then taken over by perpetrators. See how honest this presidential candidate is? He did not tell us about PPP supporters being robbed and females stripped of their clothing and raped in downtown Georgetown in 1998.
Is it any wonder that Wismar became a ghost town compared to areas where Indians were allowed to live in peace?
And what are Granger’s plans for the elections? He wants a female running mate as Prime Minister. Whom will he select? A very prominent female member of the PNCR was most active in the 1992 elections. On Election Day this wonderful woman drove an open-back vehicle, parked it outside the elections headquarters in Croal Street, Georgetown, and proceeded to unload tons of rocks and missiles with which she and her follow women supporters stoned the building. The American Ambassador was injured by one of the missiles. President Hoyte realised what was happening and he ordered the police to take action or he promised to move in the American Marines who were present. A Mr. Freddie Kissoon had and may still have tapes – video tapes – of those proceedings. But no mention is made of these things by Granger in his several writings.
Mr. Granger is recruiting army veterans as ‘scrutineers’ at polling booths at the forthcoming elections. Would these former GDF officials who in 1973 removed ballot boxes to Camp Ayanganna be his scrutineers? And he will supply women foot soldiers in his campaign. Whither are we heading? It is very ominous indeed and when we take into account what Ogunseye preached to his ACDA followers as to what will happen on election night, 2011, may heaven help us all.
One Emile Mervin is in high praise for Granger and is advising that we should not demand of Granger to produce evidence of something he denied. As an aside, how did Granger know of all the things he wrote about and things that happened, but did not know of the rigging and attacks on Indians, etc. etc? But back to Mervin. Good for him to seek proof before accusation. Can he be consistent and ask his followers, colleagues and supporters not to ask government officials about corruption when he cannot produce the evidence and of which government officials have denied involvement? And talking about corruption, can Mervin persuade Malcolm Harripaul to disclose the name(s) of persons, some former GDF soldiers who then switched to Customs and who had been stuffing shoes and socks with bribe money – and about the one whom Janet Jagan found out and gave him the boot. Like Mervin, we suspect this person is living in the USA and campaigning seriously for Granger.