Dear Editor
CERTAINLY, Bharat Jagdeo did not reckon for the kind of response that stripped him bare of the deceptive veneer with which he has always clothed himself, to mask who he really is, and will always be – a divisive person. These are unflattering brands for any politician to bear, as a known description for one who had been a former president, and now leader of the opposition.

It was another attempt at one who is adept at the disingenuous tactic of seeking to transpose the criminalities of his former regime, the most corrupt and criminal in the history of CARICOM, on to the coalition government which faces the challenge of incising the cancerous tentacles of corruption which this former president’s administration would have facilitated its institutionalisation.

To accuse the coalition government of facilitating a massive “land grabbing” exercise, especially in the wake of the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) was indeed a carefully contrived lie, with the use of authentic, but stolen documents, from the GLSC, with the help of “moles”, who are really subversives, and enemies of the state. It is time that they be unmasked, and be booted from the public service.

But if Jagdeo thought that there would have been a delayed response from the GLSC, but more so, from the specific persons whom he deliberately targeted and slandered – he was in for a severe shock. In fact, what came out of his intention to bring the government into disrepute, and placing it at odds with its programme of combatting corruption etc., were examples of the naked favouritism of land being given to party officials, including Irfaan Ali, the recipient of 20 acres of land on the Linden Highway, according to a Kaieteur News report; a well-known businessman and party affiliate, Eddie Boyer, for housing development purposes; acreages for the proposed construction of a university; China Paper; Bai Shan Lin; BK International; and Sun and Sand of India.

These were the graphic revelations made by Ceres, that detailed a defined policy of both favouritism and discrimination, if one were to carefully note the lease prices being of a higher value for the renowned engineer and hydrologist; for example, $1000 per acre for land in the Canje Creek, while China Paper had only been pegged at $50.00 per acre! There was even further revelation of “gold lands” being sold to Sun and Sand of India, for the paltry sum of $10,000! If this is not a giveaway, then what is? One is certain that there have been other land giveaways made by the PPP/C during their tenure of office, which information, I understand, may be guarded by confidentiality. As a matter of fact, all land transactions are supposed to be confidential.

This particular episode of Jagdeo’s attempted lies and misinformation has been brutally exposed for its criminal intention of distortion and vilification. Call it a putrid piece of lie, filled with its wicked plot to vilify influential Afro Guyanese whose individual land transactions were all done within the fulsome years of the Jagdeo regime.

Which includes the inexplicable case of Ms. Allen, a victim of PPP/C spite and vindictiveness, because she re-claimed her seized acreage, by way of a judicial order since the 1990s; she only received her lease in 2016! One wonders what ingenious scientific contraption that Jagdeo had employed to teleport these land matters that pertained to African Guyanese, and concluded during the life of his regime, into the current existence of this administration.

Editor, this is irrefutable proof about the policy and deliberate marginalisation of African Guyanese, as exacted by the PPP/C regime. It was about ensuring that this section of our country be kept out of the sectors of the national economy from which they would be able to benefit substantially, become self-sufficient, and grow in economic power.

It included a marked strategy that prescribed African Guyanese being pushed out of the mainstream of all lucrative state activity, with all of the nation’s resources being strategically placed in the hands of one section of the nation. No doubt the imbalance, no doubt the difficulty in bridging the economic gap, and no doubt of the bitter taste left in the mouths of African Guyanese, compliments of the Jagdeo PPP/C governance policy.
Regards
Troy Garraway