The coalition has selected its Members of Parliament. Of the thirty-one, nine have come from the Alliance For Change. Generally, there are no surprises there. AFC old stagers like Raphael Trotman, Cathy Hughes, Khemraj Ramjattan and David Patterson would be returning to the National Assembly.
However, for the A Partnership for National Unity there have been some radical changes. These changes seem to rock the very foundation of the People’s National Congress. One member took the Leader of the Party to task over the quality of his leadership.
Brigadier David Granger has been seriously criticized over what some say was his action to throw his many followers under the bus. His supporters blame him for the suffering of some ordinary workers, many of whom have been sent packing in the face of the coronavirus.
Indeed, when the results of the March 2 elections were first announced, David Granger could have been sworn in. The PPP would have then had to move to the courts by way of elections petition to question the conduct of the elections.
But having portrayed himself as a man of God who would do nothing untoward, David Granger announced that he would agree to a recount. But even then the deck was stacked against him. The recount was intended to determine the credibility of the elections. It was supposed to be a four-stage process but David Granger got shafted.
The whole world was against him—the foreign diplomats, the Guyana Elections Commission, his son-in-law and even some of the Caricom leaders. They all conspired to make the process a one-stage affair. The elections commission decided that it would ignore the irregularities discovered.
Now Granger had to select people for the National Assembly. There were leaders—Volda Lawrence, his party Chairman; Basil Williams, his party executive, Amna Ally, his party General Secretary; Aubrey Norton, one of his most trusted field officers; and some others who were not selected. Even David Granger himself is absent.
Some may have indicated that they would prefer not to go to parliament and to let some younger people fashion the course of the parliament.
Up until recently, everyone believed that Granger would be the Opposition Leader. He had suggested as much when he told a reporter that he was going nowhere. But then again, he may have been talking about party work.
Later, in a television interview, he said that earlier on he had indicated to the party that he wanted his party members who had served three terms as Members of Parliament to step aside. He said that by introducing younger people he was thinking about the future of his party. And he has selected a lot of young people and women.
Those people were sworn in yesterday in a most unique Parliament. Some opted to attend electronically. They are supposed to be presiding over a country where the rule of law exists. They are the lawmakers.
Sadly, the law seems to have taken a back seat to political expediency. I have watched the shuffling of public officers. I have seen the reintroduction of people whose only qualification is their allegiance to the party.
How can one explain the fact that Guyana Water Inc has two Chief Executive Officers? Richard Van West Charles, the substantive officer, has been sent on leave. His contract ends next year. Yet the Irfaan Ali government has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer.
The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority has as its head, a man who was cited for corruption and sent packing. He has been reinstated because his government is back in power. In the Guyana Defence Force, an officer who resigned has been re-employed and promoted.
I look around and I see friends and cronies being given positions, some of which do not exist. Robert Persaud is Foreign Secretary, a position the Jagdeo soundly criticized when Carl Greenidge resigned from Parliament.
Gerry Gouveia, Kit Nascimento, Chris Ram, Ralph Ramkarran who walked away from the party because he did not win the nomination to be presidential candidate, Lennox Schuman—all these were people who joined with the PPP to line up against the coalition have been rewarded. If a cockroach had joined the lineup—I can’t say rat because I know some rats joined—it too would have been given a post.
One of the better brains in the country headed the Environmental Protection Agency until the PPP decided that it wanted its own in that position.
It is now trying to do the same with the police and again with the army.
