FORMER Prime Minister and whom I would consider one of Guyana’s disgraced former politicians whom Guyanese have forgotten about because he erased his legacy, Moses Nagamootoo, made a poetic appearance in Guyana last month, after a long period of hibernation.
I always put in a description of Guyana being an amusing place when I pen these columns. After years of invisibility, Moses has resurfaced to make a political statement. But it is an amusing trajectory. It takes the form of a poem titled, “Don’t tell me.”
It was published by Village Voice, the Lincoln Lewis-run operation. Some of the lines go like this:
Don’t tell me. I told you so
Don’t tell me, you didn’t see
The growth of the oligarchy
Don’t tell me you didn’t see
The fast ride of the greedy
You wonder why this experienced politician would compose such a poem and give it such a name when in doing so he opens himself to a colossal amount of ridicule. Thousands of Guyanese can compose a similar poem and ridicule, insult, embarrass, humiliate and derogate Moses for his incredible betrayal of the Guyanese people, for which his name should be banished from this land permanently.
So here is an attempt to turn around “Don’t Tell Me” and use it against Moses. I wanted to do it in poetic style, but I would have had to take time to complete that format, so I settled for a column-style approach. Here goes: Moses don’t tell me you didn’t know that Guyanese welcomed you and voted for you, and the PPP government was changed in 2015, but you did absolutely nothing with the power you had.
Moses, don’t tell me you threw away all those years of experience in fighting for free and fair elections only to participate in efforts to deny Guyana their right to vote. Moses, don’t tell me you are not ashamed to write those asinine statements in your autobiography on page nine and page 10 that the March 2020 elections were not legitimate.
Moses don’t tell me that you don’t know that not one government in the entire world accepted that your formation named APNU+ AFC won the 2020 elections. Moses, don’t tell me you didn’t know the factual results of the March 2020 elections when in April 2020 you wrote in the Guyana Chronicle that your formation, APNU+AFC, had won the elections.
Moses, don’t tell me you did not know you had betrayed the sugar workers when they voted for you in 2011 and in 2015 and you turned around and impoverished them by closing the sugar estates. Moses, don’t tell me you don’t know that you cannot enter the terrain of Berbice because sugar workers will hound you down.
Moses, don’t me that you didn’t know you had become a little boy when as second in charge of the Government of Guyana, your portfolios were three but the minister of the presidency has 18 portfolios. Moses don’t tell me that you did not feel helpless when those portfolios were published in the gazette in July 2015.
Moses, don’t tell me you don’t know you are a former politician who does not command respect and admiration in this country because Guyanese believe your five-year tenure as Prime Minister was a complete capitulation to the PNC.
Moses, don’t tell me that you did not become a creature of historical betrayal when you ran around the corridors of Parliament in support of the Bill to make retroactive, the Hamilton Green Pension Bill which gives Green more than a million dollars a month in pension. Don’t tell me you didn’t know about the decades of violence that Green had perpetrated in this country and didn’t deserve a dollar a month in pension — much less a million.
Moses, don’t tell me you were not lying in the most degenerate ways when you wrote in your autobiography that you had threatened to resign if the sugar workers were not compensated when in fact, they had to file writs in the High Court to get their severance pay and you did not resign. Moses, don’t tell me that you didn’t know it was not proper in a coalition government for the prime minister to be in the same building with the president.
Moses, don’t tell me you cannot remember I brought up that strategic mistake to you and you accepted it was not the right thing to do, yet you stayed within the Office of the President for five years. Moses, don’t tell me that you cannot remember that all the things you criticise the PPP for, you ended up being more badly treated by the PNC and AFC. Moses, don’t tell me you don’t know that you are a forgotten footnote.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
