The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has been questioning cabinet members of the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government and others in relation to the acquisition of land at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, derisively dubbed Pradoville 2.
This name has been given by society as characterisation of what is perceived as the questionable and opulent lifestyle of the owners. The land belongs to the state and the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), having done its investigations, concluded that its acquisition did not follow the law.
But as with almost everything in this country that has to do with politics and governance, the temptation to reduce them to histrionics is irresistible. On Tuesday,PPP/C Member of Parliament,Anil Nandlall,made known to the public that Leader of the Opposition,Bharrat Jagdeo,was invited by SOCU to its headquarters for an interview, and though he is not disinclined to this, he is unaccepting of the venue and wants it to be changed.
Mr. Jagdeo is a former President and under his leadership the land was acquired and its development occurred. He also owns a property there. Where some argued that given the office he held and the one he presently holds,the investigators should have gone to his Queenstown office and interviewed him is not a matter of dispute. Equally, it is understood the views of others that he should have presented himself to SOCU headquarters.
The histrionics that accompanied the investigating officers who went to Mr. Jagdeo’s office to arrest Dr. Roger Luncheon,him having been invited and refused to turn up, create speculation as to the motive behind the PPP/C’s actions. Mr. Jagdeo was sitting at that table and with the media in full attendance he ventilated, then in accompaniment with Dr. Luncheon and others went to SOCU headquarters.
If the PPP/C intended Tuesday’s action to mirror the party’s action, during the colonial period when its leaders were arrested, it cannot compare to the Pradoville 2 investigation. The arrests of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and others in the 1950s were the result of their militancy to bring about political independence, under a political ideology which the colonial authority saw as a threat to the status quo and their view of the world order.
There can be no national political mileage to gain in 2017 as against the 1950s when society wholeheartedly supported those leaders’ fight for independence;and here is where the current PPP/C is being less than smart. Few people if any would countenance corruption and not wanting to see the society be rid of it. Even Mr. Jagdeo has repeatedly called on A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government to go after corruption, irrespective of where it leads.
If SOCU, based on the information provided by SARU and the reports of the forensic auditors, feels the Pradoville 2 acquisition warrants investigation, surely Mr. Jagdeo should have no problem cooperating. It is not unreasonable for society to think,since he was president when the land was acquired,he would be happy to bring credibility to the process or dispel allegations of corruption surrounding it. It is also not unreasonable to expect Mr. Jagdeo would have encouraged all who benefitted from this development and any who had relation to it that can be of material assistance to the investigation to make themselves available when called on.
It is even more startling,having left SOCU headquarters,Mr. Jagdeo told the media he refused to answer any question, pleading presidential immunity. The United States of America has what is referred to as “Miranda rights,” where persons held by law enforcement are read it, which in short allows them to remain silent because anything they say can be used against them in a court of law. Colloquially,it is known as ‘pleading the 5th ’as in the Fifth Amendment in the U.S Constitution.
It is a sad day for Guyana when someone who held the highest office of this land, whose leadership is tainted with allegations of corruption, sought to reduce presidential immunity to pleading the 5th. A serious investigation like Pradoville 2 which also brings into disrepute Mr. Jagdeo’s leadership, he should feel a sense of responsibility to help the process in arriving at answers and delivering justice. Mr. Jagdeo himself has been repeatedly calling on government to do exactly this. Society hopes he rethinks his view on immunity and listens to the voice of the man in the street saying, ‘if you do nothing, fear nothing.’