Dear Editor,
THE recent historic “yes” vote in the National Assembly by AFC member and APNU+AFC MP Charrandass Persaud sent shock waves throughout the country with a tremendously negative effect on the government and its supporters.

Even before the dust was settled, information began to emerge of the involvement of wealthy Trinidadian business interests in what was clearly a political conspiracy by Jagdeo, his party and their Trinidadian allies to bring down the elected coalition government.

The validity of the information of foreign interference in our domestic politics and the accusation that MP Charrandass Persaud was bribed to vote in favour of the opposition will stand or fall at the conclusion of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) current investigation into the matter. This is not the first occasion that the PPP and Trinidad business interests have collaborated to pollute the political atmosphere in Guyana. It will be recalled that the 1997 election results were tampered with by the involvement of the Depoo brothers, well known T&T IT experts, who, working in consort with the then GECOM IT Manager, was able to successfully manipulate the system to allow for a “resounding PPP victory” at those elections.

It is also widely known that the PPP has also established strong economic relations with powerful interests in Trinidad, which benefited that party when it was in office and is doing so even now when it is in the opposition

Guyanese may recall that the first public manifestation of this collaboration emerged when the PPP/C instituted a discriminatory policy in relation to contracts for road construction in the country, post-1992 elections. Trinidadian contractors, some with unproven track records, were overnight, imported into and dominated the sector to the dismay of local contractors. Lucrative contracts were secretly negotiated in Freedom House, headquarters of the PPP/C. It was argued in that party’s circles that this was necessary because of the deficiency in local capacity. More importantly, the intention was to build up a core of contractors loyal to the PPP and in the process, develop a collaborative relationship with a set of persons who would willingly engage in assisting to rape the resources of the country and sharing the spoils with the political rulers.

In pursuit of these objectives the PPP/C, when it believed the occasion required it, encouraged joint ventures between its local syndicates and Trinidadian business interests. This deepened the efforts at creating a new set of contractors and companies, mainly of Indian PPP supporters. Not surprisingly, it worsened ethnic relations in the country while at the same time sharpened the contradictions in the Indian community between the haves and have-nots.

Given the above narrative, it is not too difficult to understand why Trinidadian business interests allied to the PPP/C facilitated the financial aspect of Charrandass’s defection to the PPP and guaranteed his support of the PPP’s no-confidence motion in the National Assembly. It has been rumoured that the Trinidadian businessmen’s renewed interest in Guyana has to do with the decline in the Trinidad oil and gas industry and the pending rise of Guyana as a major oil producer. Having lost ground in their homeland, these business interests are prepared to do whatever they deem possible to ensure the PPP’s return to office, since it will be favourable to them. In that scenario, an APNU+AFC government is for them an unacceptable alternative.

I wish to point out that in this discourse, we are not dealing with conventional CARICOM relations, but with political machinations, not dissimilar to the doings of the criminal underworld. To our own undoing, Guyanese are politically conditioned to unconditionally support the actions of their respective political parties. In the process, they usually fail to interrogate these actions even within the domestic theatre. They reflectively assume that whatever their parties do is in their ethnic interest, often overlooking the hidden hands of external forces, whose interests very often hold sway over our own. It is in this context that the Indian supporters of the PPP/C instinctively see Charrandass’s crossing the floor and bringing down the APNU+AFC government as an action in their interest.

But time may prove the short-sightedness of this perception and demonstrate that what is good today, for Jagdeo, the PPP/C leadership, their Trinidadian allies and their business syndicates, may prove to be politically and economically counterproductive to the best interests of the Indian community.
Regards
Tacuma Ogunseye