Dear Editor,
AFTER 10 odd years of following the political struggles and developments in Guyana, I have come to the conclusion that I do not understand the politicians, or maybe the type of politics, in Guyana. It was Socrates who said, “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”
Hence, let us examine the world in which we live.

On January 19, 2019, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) elected Irfaan Ali as the presidential candidate. Many persons strongly argued against the use of the word elected; they are of the view that Bharrat Jagdeo selected Irfaan, even the party used the word selected on their Facebook page when the announcement was made that Irfaan was the presidential candidate.

From the onset, let me say, I’ve always supported the PPP. However, this time I’m not so sure. I’ve been placed between a rock and a hard place; and with every passing day, I’m leaning more and more towards not going to the polls whenever elections are held. Many will lecture that blood was shed to give us the right to vote; to them I say, yes I know, I’ve read about it all. I know the history, but how can I support a man like Irfaan?
Irfaan Ali is accused of academic fraud. In an attempt to dismiss the accusation he released a plethora of certificates and letters from various institutes. However, the very action has done Irfaan more harm than good.

Among the plethora of certificates that Irfaan boasts, three have been identified as fakes. In the interest of space, I won’t go into details of how these fakes were identified, but in another letter all will be revealed. What is even more interesting, is that he claims that he will provide transcripts from his various universities to show that he has not committed academic fraud.

Editor, we live in an age of technology. It takes a minimum of three to four days for any university in the world to provide to a student, who has attended that institution, a transcript. But in the interest of argument, let’s assume that some universities take about two weeks, maximum, to process such a request. It has been over a month that Irfaan claims he wrote to his universities to obtain transcripts. To date, no such transcripts were ever released.

Further, he has never released the name of the university where he obtained his first degree, which was the root of all this in the first place. Needless to say, he has not produced the transcript from that mystery university either. How can the PPP ask its supporters to vote for such a man? Bharrat Jagdeo has doomed us all!

Regards
Vickram Seth