WHENEVER Joel Bhagwandin is on the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show, on the way to our cars as we leave, I would say to him that I am fading from the scene and it is left to young people like him to become ramparts in the struggle against class domination of the middle-class elites of this country who have deep-seated problems with culture, ethnicity and religion.

I have been in this thing since 1968 when I was a PPP polling agent at Saint Thomas More Primary School on D’Urban Street, right next to my home. The year was 1968. Total up the intervening years and it is time the likes of Joel Bhagwandin replace the likes of Frederick Kissoon. I also tell Joel whenever we meet, to add political theorising to his financial analyses.
Joel takes on the Mulatto/Creole Class (MCC) who sees the oil and gas industry as their main strategy to the PPP-led government after it defeated the APNU+AFC formation that the MCC brought into being.

His latest reply to the MCC makes for the type of reading every democratic-minded Guyanese must access. Joel informs us that Janet Bulkan and Andre Brandli live in foreign countries and give their services to the universities there.
Joel then raises the issue of moral obligation. I will quote him; “I doubt whether either of them (Bulkan and Brandli) ever dwelled among or lived among our Indigenous people in the hinterland regions. I am proud to say that unlike those two individuals, I did. I have lived and dwelled among our indigenous peoples for three and a half years back in 2013–2017. I was working with one of the largest commercial banks at the time that had established a branch in Region One, Port Kaituma. During my tenure there, I’ve worked with almost all of the Village Councils of that region to establish their bank accounts… so, I am very familiar with the development activities, the needs of those villages, and at a firsthand level, how the Village Councils operate.”

The point Joel is making is that he is saying he knows the environment that the foreign-based MCC personalities are speaking about, and they are speaking about an environment they know nothing about.
But more importantly, who gave the local MCC and foreign-based MCC the right to speak on behalf of Guyana? The most appropriate response to the constant, repetitive propaganda of the MCC is to look at what they wrote in the letter sections of the press on December 13, 2022 about the oil and gas industry and to describe to Guyanese who these people really are.

I quote: “We are deeply concerned that the government’s policy to pursue economic development based on oil and gas is bad for Guyana…oil and gas are a threat to Guyana. We cannot support the policy to produce oil and gas when gas pollution causes loss of life in African countries. We call for a national moratorium on all petroleum operations to allow for us, Guyanese to pause so as to take stock of the oil and gas situation.”

Let’s see who these people are:
1 – Dr. Janet Bulkan serves the University of British Columbia.
2- Dr. Alissa Trotz serves the University of Toronto
3- Dr. Nigel Westmaas serves Hamilton College in New York
4- Dr. Maya Trots serves the University of South Florida
5 – Isabelle DeCaires lives in her homeland of the UK where her son plays cricket in the country championship for Middlesex
6 – Abyssinian Carto is of Rastafari orientation and lives in New York. He left Guyana a very long time ago
7- Dr.Cary Gildarie lives in New York. He left Guyana years now.
8 – Terry Roopnaraine lives in his homeland of the UK. He may be nearing his 50s.
9 – Pauline Melville moved to the UK since the early 1950s.
10 – Alma O’Connell lives in Canada
11 – Christina Samaroo moved to New York in 2008
12 – Luke Daniels lives in the UK

I am not going to mention children and family members who live in the developed world. Some of these names on the list have left our country over 30 years yet feel they can impose their narratives on us. Some on the list were born outside of Guyana to Guyanese parents.

Who gives these people the right to expatiate on developmental issues when they do not live here, do not contribute one cent in taxes to this country? But more importantly, do they consult us? The answer is no. MCC personalities that live here have no idea how ordinary people exist, because they dwell in their wealthy cocoons. We must confront these people each time they put pen to paper.