The New York Post is a wicked newspaper! Deh paint Ed Ahmad like if de man is a clone of Allen Stanford. No! Leh we talk how Guyanese does talk. Deh mek de man look like a big time runnings man! As Luncheon would have put it: “they utilized the prerogative of their wholly contrived press freedom to besmirch and demonize a perfectly upstanding migrant entrepreneur whose contribution to his adopted country and to his native land (here he really means contribution to the PPP) surely qualifies him for sainthood.” That is what Luncheon would have said.
Poor, provoked, perplexed, put-upon Ed. One minute he is planning the grand opening of what was billed as the biggest ever Hardware Complex in Guyana, and before you could say “well done Mr. Ahmad” he is facing Federal charges in the US of A, all of which appear to have to do with shady business dealings. It’s not fair!
The man whom the Post says shares a “personal” friendship with our President faces Federal charges for alleged Mortgage fraud among other things. The way things look he will probably not be seeing his ‘friend’ the President for a while yet, at least not in this fair land of ours. Though he managed to come up with the thumping 2.5 million yankee dollars bond set by the US courts they still ruled that he can’t come to GT. Apparently they think he’ll just let them keep the 500 million Guyana dollars bond money and settle for life back in the Republic. After all, there’s more where that came from and a hardware store is not bad business in Guyana. Not wid de big, big housing drive dat goin on. Tongues are wagging about the relationship between the immigrant high roller and His Excellency, which, according to the Post, “appears to transcend friendship to involve business interests.” What business interests? Surely the Post got it wrong when they said that “in 2009 the Ahmad Group sent 29 tons of building supplies – including roof tiles and Kitchen sinks – to Jagdeo AT THE STATE HOUSE IN GEORGETOWN, GUYANA’S CAPITAL!” And they say that there are shipping bills to prove it! “Forgeries,” the good doctor would say. “Pure, unadulterated forgeries!” C.N. Sharma woulda say “DEH MEK KING LIAR LOOK LIKE A BABY.”
Now let’s be serious! TWENTY-NINE TONS OF BUILDING MATERIAL? AT STATE HOUSE? As far as we know the President is not moonlighting as a hardware store proprietor nor starting up a housing scheme; and while he has already made public his plans to build a home fit for an ex-President, twenty-nine tons of roof tiles and kitchen sinks is surely a tad excessive. And if the New York Post thinks that we Guyanese are gullible enough to believe that our President is thoughtless enough to have twenty-nine tons of anything mailed to him at State House they have another think coming. Surely that quantity of roof tiles and kitchen sinks would have had to be stored on the lawns of State House and they would even have had to cordon off sections of Main Street and take over the Parade Ground to pack it all in. And everything would have been there for all of us to see. Sorry New York Post; WE AINT BUYIN DAT TWENTY-NINE TONS OF ROOF TILES AND KITCHEN SINKS NONSENSE! Produce the shipping documents, genuine ones, that is, or we will have Dr. Luncheon demand a retraction! You guys are taking this media freedom thing too far. And if you refuse to extend a fulsome apology to the President we got options. We could publish a four-page cussin out letter in de Chronicle and if dat don’t wuk we could always talk to President Obama. Don’t forget, both men are Presidents of sovereign states. Remember?
Kitchen sinks or no kitchen sinks, though, Mr. Jagdeo deserves a good tellin off for not being more careful in his choice of friends. Ahmad may be a suave New York big shot businessman but from what we the ordinary Guyanese are now hearing and what His Excellency should have heard long ago, he is not good company for a President. Here’s the Post’s profile of your friend, Mr. President.
* Loaned forty thousand ‘big ones’ to a Congressman named Gregory Meeks presently under Federal probe for allegedly being involved in “hanky panky’ with a Charity that had to do with aid for Haiti.
* Allegedly used straw buyers to rip off a US bank
* Allegations of predatory money lending
* Allegations of forgery
* Allegations of falsified mortgage information
* Missing business records.
COME ON Mr. PRESIDENT! Your friend Ahmad has been on the Federal radar since 2006. Could you not have gotten Brentnol Evans in New York to check this man out? Or better still, you coulda use one uh dem lap top we get free from China and Google de man.
It is all well and good to say that you do not condone wrongdoings, Mr. President. But de twenty-nine tons of cargo which the Post says was consigned to you at State House gat we head spinnin. De ting look baaaad, Sir! It mek yuh look like a vendor, Mr. President. Not dem small time pavement vendor who does sell shoe polish and safety pin and children vest pon de pavement Georgetown. We talkin bout a serious vendor hey, a vendor dat would put dem two bit pavement people to shame. But however yuh slice it, Mr. President, a vendor is a vendor, sir! Yes Mr. President, de ting look really baaaad. Suh please try get Dr. Luncheon to issue a denial bout de roof tiles and de kitchen sinks and leh we move on. And yuh could put Prem Misir pon NCN TV to do a viewpoint on de matter.
Puttin all dat aside Mr. President, you have to admit dat yuh pick de wrong man to be friends with. Dese days, Mr. Jagdeo, yuh don’t know who is who. Tek Guyana, fuh example. We gat big respectable people who involve in all kind uh racket, Yuh got to have yuh head on, Mr. President. Yuh careless with pickin yuh friends. Bad company, Mr. Jagdeo. BAAAAD COMPANY, DE PARROT SAID!
