HENRY JEFFREY in an exchange in the newspapers with Professor Randolph Persaud, cited his “achievements” when he was a minister in the PPP Government. I counted the words enumerating his achievements and they amount to over 300. If I was to reproduce those “magical” moments of Jeffrey, it would have amounted to half the space of this column.
Jeffrey cites huge success as the minister in four portfolios – Housing, Health, Education and Labour. Jeffrey had a fifth portfolio – Foreign Trade. Commonsense kicks in here. If Jeffrey could state that, as a minister, he had a solid record of accomplishments, then other ministers had to have the same record.
If you reject that Jeffrey’s ministerial colleagues were not “phenomenal” as he was, then, there can only be one conclusion – Jeffrey alone had a magical capacity to perform. Since that argument cannot hold, then two questions Jeffrey has to answer. Does he agree that in those years when he was performing, his Cabinet colleagues were also doing great in their respective portfolios?

Secondly, are there similar performances like those Jeffrey excelled in right now among Cabinet ministers? If Jeffrey answers no to both questions then obviously, Jeffrey was the most incredibly positive minister the PPP had since it took office in 1992.
Knowing Jeffrey, I am quite prepared to say that Jeffrey is barefaced enough to answer both questions in the negative. If and when he does, a charge of narcissism can be levelled against him. Surely a minister cannot state publicly that he was a huge success in five Cabinet portfolios and in those times, other Ministers were failures and since August 2020 there have been no other coruscating accomplishments that could match the time Jeffrey served as minister.

So how does the opinion-maker approach Jeffrey’s declaration? Whatever interpretation you put on it, he has boxed himself into a corner. You cannot declare you were a positive and an achieving minister in a government and since you left, no other Cabinet minister has chalked up impressive accolades
So, let’s ask two pertinent questions- are there ministers that have done outstanding work in the present PPP government that have resulted in phenomenal benefits to the nation? Secondly – are these stellar performances in the same category that Jeffrey adumbrated when he was minister? We will never get a response from Jeffrey to these two enquiries because that is how they treat their constituencies. They never engage their critics as an obligation to their constituencies because they are afraid of exposures that will damage them for life.
Please see my column on Jeffrey of Saturday, October 14, 2023, titled, “Henry Jeffrey and the perception of PNC voters.” In that article I described the lay-out of Jeffrey in which he contended that every Region, except Region 8, had huge percentage of election fraud by the PPP in the March 2020 election. Jeffrey stated that the percentage in each of these regions ranged between 40 to 80 per cent.

It is not only an act of obligation to your readers but basic decency should compel you to explain how an opposition party could have achieved these miraculous, phenomenal feats. What strategies and stratagems they employed?
To say an opposition party took complete (yes, complete, because he said the tampering was between 40 to 80 per cent) control of the election machinery on voting day and gave themselves power, has to arouse tantalizing curiosity in each human that read that pronouncement as to how this saturation was done.
Jeffrey will go on to write his anti-government frenzy but will feel no sense of duty to readers and citizens to explain his outpouring. This non-recognition of obligation is characteristic of all of them like Jeffrey.

Look and listen to David Hinds who rant emotionally all the time about his birthplace – Buxton. But he never accounts to the people of Buxton why his government rescinded the amendment to the marijuana legislation. The last time I was in Buxton with my wife, I saw three young men bracing against a car openly smoking marijuana.
Take Clive Thomas. He threw away over 50 years of respect the people of the Caribbean region had for him. He took his party, the WPA, into a coalition with the PNC and AFC. They lost the 2020 poll, yet, since then in his weekly Stabroek News column and fortnight appearance on David Hinds’ platform, he avoids any mention of his time in government. Obviously, he feels no sense of obligation to the people who read and listen to him.
The positive outcome of all of this is that African Guyanese have left the people like Jeffrey, Hinds and Thomas and the entire opposition behind. Dee Hawkins Haigler needs to know this.