Dear Editor
I REFER to Ceon Rollox’s ‘Teixeira’s inflammatory statement”, Guyana Chronicle of July 30.
I have read Rollox’s letter which is a response to one of the senior PPP/C propaganda mandarins, as per her “Matters of Public Interest”, telecast via CNS Ch. 6; and although he did not elaborate on Gail Teixeira’s, the main thrust which said that: “’’ President Granger wants a GECOM chairman that he can instruct what to do” – I do believe that she had mouthed such slander, if not libel.

Editor, it is part of this PPP/C spokesperson bag of political putridity which ever so often she seeks to unload on viewers from the confines of a privately-owned channel, which her party, while in governance, caused to be closed down in retaliation for telecasts which the then regime claimed had offended the government. In fact, the well- known television station which had been instrumental in exposing the duplicity of PPP/C governance, exposing the two extremes of daily living in Guyana, proved a daily thorn in the side of the PPP/C’s dishonest government. It was punished for having dared to do so.

Immediately, one should recall the daily, nasty attacks levelled against the former GECOM Chairperson, Dr. Steve Surujbally, whom the PPP/C caused to resign, because he stuck to his professional remit by casting the deciding vote that dismissed Gocool Boodhoo for his dishonest act of attempting to rig the 2011 national elections in favour of the PPP/C. Teixeira cannot claim ignorance of such a despicable act, on the part of Boodhoo. She should now be asked to explain her party’s unfair and ugly actions against Surujbally.

No need to, really. Her party expected the latter to always be their man, following its dictates.
But back to the point in her accusatory and libellous statement against the President, which can be interpreted to mean that GECOM lost its autonomy since this coalition government entered office in 2015, and that it has since continued to be controlled/dictated to, by the President.

Teixeira ought to be ashamed for such a misleading claim, because President Granger, from the onset of office, is on record, ad nauseum, of emphasizing not only the constitutional autonomy of the national electoral institution, but its right to function as such, detailing its abiding exclusivity of being the organ, the only one, that has the sole authority to decide on its readiness for national elections as well as advising him of such a readiness. One only has to look back at the shameful attacks that both Commissioners, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn, led against the former chairperson, purely of a racist nature, to understand that Ms. Teixeira’s party never wanted an African Guyanese to lead the electoral body.

So who is Teixeira trying to hoodwink with her disgusting lies and misinformation?
Further, in President Granger’s numerous explanations prior to his appointment of the former retired Justice James Patterson as Chairman, he had again stressed a choice that is “fit and proper”, meaning someone who will be independent of mind and act in the constitutional interest of the nation. And of course, when Justice Patterson delivered a credible, free and fair Local Government Elections in November 2018, there were no comments from the PPP/C.

Ms. Teixeira must be reminded that those initial lists were flooded with well-known PPP/C sympathisers, cronies, friends, vested interest type, and a well-known supremacist – all Indo Guyanese, with a smattering of African Guyanese as tokenisms. They were an insult to the President, and deliberate in the broader plot against the coalition to create social strains. At best, they were meant to be provocative, while denying him much scope for choice.

It was the same pathway her party boss took with the second, recent attempt which, initial submissions, betrayed a PPP/C mindset of wanting an Indo Guyanese as chairperson rather than a GUYANESE WHO WAS ABOVE ETHNIC PARTISANSHIP; A CANDIDATE IN WHOM FULL CONFIDENCE COULD BE REPOSED, AND ACCEPTABLE TO ALL GUYANESE. The Stabroek News cartoon of July 30, 2019, is instructive in its interpretations and lessons for what it says of the fossilized mindset of a party whose undying appeal to race epitomizes the current state of our national politics and this is inclusive of Ms. Teixeira’s mindset.

In the final choice of Madame Justice Claudette Singh as chairperson of GECOM, President David Granger, a proven democrat, has once against demonstrated his unyielding commitment towards a Guyanese who will serve in the best interests of Guyana, and not for reasons of partisanship. One wonders how sincere were the publicized comments of Jagdeo that he “was very, very happy.” Such a statement will sure[ly] be put to the test.
Regards
Earl Hamilton