The wrong people in the world, found in Guyana in 2020
Kaieteur News – Yesterday I looked at some egregious and extraordinary outputs from certain types of politicians (all of whom were power holders in APNU + AFC costume) in 2020. I started with Khemraj Ramjattan. No place allowed me to assess Ramjattan’s deportation in 2020. So today, I’m starting with it.
Ramjattan 1-Khemraj. I have an audio recording in front of me where Ramjattan as Minister of Public Safety addressed his senior staff during the election drama. I listened to it the night before I typed this piece. I heard it again just before I started this column. Mr Ramjattan’s words are bellucid, unambiguous and presented with simple style.
He told the staff he came to thank them for their service to him because there will be an election statement soon and it looks like the PPP has won. There is one part of that speech, which was clearly a sunny day, where you can see eternity. He expressed skepticism that he would be welcomed in that ministry again by the new government.
In expressing that fear, he paused and said he doubted that would happen because from the PPP leadership he emerged and many PPP leaders still consider him a big brother . Weeks after that meeting, Ramjattan told a Trinidadian interviewer that his address had only been a farewell since he moved to higher ground, which was the Prime Minister’s position.
There is no mention of how the 40-minute Prime Minister’s portfolio is delivered. Ramjattan reiterated that fiction in another interview with Naim Chan from Channel 6. Mr Chan felt deeply ashamed of Ramjattan while playing the tape to his viewers and listeners. It is amazing in the modern world that such a person could remain the head of his party. It prompts the question; what kind of humans live in Ramjattan’s party – the Alliance for Change.
2- Moses Nagamootoo. The former Prime Minister had the Chronicle all to himself in 2020. He renamed readers with a single seat majority for the APNU + AFC. In one article in the Chronicle, she actually quoted from APNU + AFC voting statements (SOPs) to prove she had won the 2020 election. But strangely, APNU + AFC has not released those SOPs for scrutiny and we they referred to the SOPs in his election petition.
After the long journey of election rigging went ashore and on August 2, Dr. Irfaan Ali in as President, no one has heard from Nagamootoo; no one has seen it. The man himself has not spoken out in print or television or on social media. The rumor is that he is very ill. I was told by a relative. Is he ill? Where is he? Is he in Guyana? Has he taken the loss of power badly and is not in positive thinking? One thing’s for sure – his political career has crashed ignorantly. Power does that to people.
3- Henry Jeffrey. Dr. Jeffrey is (still is) a columnist for the Stabroek News during the lengthy attempt to rig the March election. Jeffrey argued that the results would not be legal because once you go to an election with an inflated list; the voting process will be rigged. To challenge the 2020 general election, Jeffrey formed a political party with Mr. Ralph Ramkarran called, A New and United Guyana (ANUG).
It appears that the inflated list, if really inflated, did not detract from the eviction. In 2020, turnout was not significantly different in 2011 when APNU and AFC won a parliamentary majority and in 2015 when they jointly won a parliamentary majority. So where was the impact of the inflated list? Jeffrey did not have the courage after August 2020 to explain or apologize. In fact, the graphic nonsense in Jeffrey’s theory lies in the election results. Despite the lean, fat list, the PPP only won one seat and the smaller parties grabbed a seat among themselves.
4- Bonita Bone-Harris. Previously from the WPA leadership, I saw a letter from Ms Bone-Harris last year lamenting the use of violence in Guyana. Ms Bone-Harris was a common-law wife of Ronald Waddell. When he was murdered, he referred to her as a non-violent person. Ms Bone-Harris’s letter immediately disappointed me. Waddell was one of the most violent, anti-Indian actors Guyana produced. Mr Waddell’s involvement in the Buxton Troubles was sick and miserable. I would be quite happy to share with her the evidence I have of the violent activities of Waddell, which no doubt the former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, possesses.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)