Dear Editor,
President Jagdeo and many others have unique gifts which mark them off from the common run of humans. Not all of these gifts are helpful to others. Reading reports in the press over many months, and picong and disputings over shootings and torture and pleas of guilty, I was struck by one of President Jagdeo’s gifts, in which he may be outstanding.
The reader who never believed that there was an armed political force in Buxton, but not of it, will not like this. Except for Brother Ogunseye who saw them as an African Resistance, most have fallen into the habit of calling them “criminals.” Many will pretend not to agree or understand. Frankly, I prefer them to be described as a resistance than as criminals. At least “resistance” points to their origin. The ruling party finds it very convenient to label the gunmen as mere “criminals” Far too many in non-governmental parties have followed them for their own convenience. Why would criminals arm to the teeth and entrench themselves in one little village with mainly poverty all around it?
As most of us know, between the post-2001 election period and about the shooting of Fineman, there were two armed forces actively operating. The government called its challengers “criminals.” The other side called the government’s “criminals” the “Phantom.” This is a very important difference.
The President has told the country more than once that he has known everything about the gunmen opposed to the government. He claims even to have videos which expose their handlers. He says that he cannot reveal the information, or exhibit the videos. This, he says, nobly, will endanger those who made them possible. The President used the same line in relation to retired army officer Mr Clarke, recently charged like Mr Roger Khan, by a US law enforcement agency.
The DPP, I beg your pardon; the President had all the evidence regarding the force opposed to his government.
Then there is the other force, the ‘Phantom.’ Although some of its functions were directed against the village-based gunmen, duly videoed, the Phantom must have been a pre-existing force, re-ordered for a new battlefield. Its pro-government com-mander could not be laying hands on them suddenly.
This other force was acting counter to the first and Mr Roger Khan was presumed to be its head and prime mover. He proclaimed in the press in his own name that he acted to save the government. And here we discover President Jagdeo’s singular quality.
Although President Jagdeo described the gunmen as criminals, he treated them as a foreign force. Did he ever order videos of the Phantom and its handlers? He has not yet let this cat out of his bag. Did the President who either ordered and received, or merely received the videos, this political Sherlock Holmes, pass the videos to the DPP? There is no reference to the constitutional officer legally in charge of breaches of the law. President Jagdeo swore to uphold the constitution, but no part of it seems binding, either on him or on some of the courts of the Republic. Neither the entrenchment of an article nor the written exclusion of political influence means anything to this democratically elected President .
If the President was bent on anything like solutions, or long-term peace or relaxation of tensions in the society, what could he not have done with this tell-tale video? He could have used it to address the gunmen and their principals, as had been suggested. He could have opened or attempted to open talks with the gunmen or at least openly propose talks and await a response. But that would require a certain view of governance, and a certain political intelligence.
Most alarming of all, this elected President is telling us over and over that he illegally usurped the powers of the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is he who claims to have evidence of crime. It is he who has decided to conceal the evidence from those outside his inner circle. It is he who stubbornly refused to appeal to the gunmen and make them options. He seized constitutional powers, but is not equal to the problems posed. He rejected public offers to negotiate and advice publicly given. Matters subject to massive legislation became the President’s bedroom affairs.
He knew everything about the force opposed to his government. He boasts of such knowledge. He knew who came and went. In a village where even residents could not come and go as they liked, photographers came and went unseen.
Yet he knew nothing, nothing at all about the force claiming to fight on his side. Most recently after the famous guilty plea, he claimed to know who had custody of the security computer. He said that he had read “all sorts of claims” by Roger Khan, but in relation to Khan himself, his response was ‘I know not the man.’
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
