Dear Editor,
Now the elections are over, it’s time to celebrate the victory, start rebuilding Guyana and moving the country forward. There is no time to relax, as Guyana is a country prone to flooding because of global warming and a wrecked infrastructure. My analysis of why the PPP lost two elections, would lead to the conclusion that some in the PPP were ignorant and power drunk. They neglected their supporters and support base and never tried to win back those people. The PPP felt that it would never come out of office because it had control of Indians, but they were dead wrong. Many comrades like me who worked for the restoration of democracy were thrown out from the party for being outspoken about corruption and many other things.
On September 28,1992, I was nominated by the late Dr Cheddi Jagan as the military polling agent at the Anna Regina Police Station. I was instructed to overlook the voting from the start to the end and be with the box until it was delivered to Mr Ralph Ramkarran, the PPP Elections Commissioner in the election building at Croal street, Georgetown, which I did with honour. From the opening of the poll to when it closed, I did not see anyone from PPP; I had to walk from my house to the place of poll at 5.30 in the morning.
After I delivered the box, Mr Feroze Mohamed sent a car to collect me and take me to Freedom House, where I gave a statement about what transpired during the day and night of my stay with the ballot box. I was given my passage to return home to the Essequibo Coast. There were some troubles in Georgetown, so I chose to overnight at my sister-in-law’s house in Duke street, Kingston, and early the next morning I left for home. It was only then that the party comrades realized that the box had been delivered in Georgetown. The day before the voting my father died and I couldn’t attend his wake or funeral because I was with the box at the presiding officer’s house throughout the night, and during the day at the polling place.
The day before the October5, 1992, general and regional elections, I was asked to explain to party polling agents at the party office at Reliance the new Carter formula and the procedures for voting and counting at the place of poll, which I did. On October 5, I was again the polling agent at Cotton Field Secondary School and on August 4, 1994, I was selected again for the local government election. After doing an excellent job for both elections, I had to overnight again and travel with this box to Kingston election buildings where it was delivered.
I know of many comrades who also did these jobs for the party and were thrown out or sidelined. My biggest grouse with the party was when I sent my party card to be renewed after 20 years of service in 2000, the organizer refused to renew it and threw it away on the Reliance public road, because I had exposed him in relation to a fundraising activity, where he couldn’t account for money. In addition, he had withheld the retroactive payments of two watchmen. The General Secretary of the party knew about all these things, but did nothing to correct them. I then left the party and joined the Alliance for Change in 2006.
Mr Isahak Basir, a stalwart former MP and a long-serving member of the PPP, and his wife Sabra Basir also met the same fate with the party. He was denied entrance to a congress which was held at Diamond on the East Bank Demerara; he was told by the party that he had been expelled and was not a member any more. Today the party has paid the ultimate price by losing two elections for treating its supporters and long-serving members as strangers. In a democracy, people who voted you into power can remove you if you fail to acknowledge their struggles and contributions. This can also happen to the coalition government of AFC+APNU after its 5 year term if it fails to perform or recognize the people who elected them to serve in office. I personally feel that an anti- corruption office should be set up here in this region and all the other regions, to stop corruption.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
