Businessman Brian Tiwarie today said that he penned a support letter to the PPP a month before 2015 general elections as he feared the aviation company he owned would be evicted from Ogle.
As a high-voltage row with former President Donald Ramotar shows no sign of abating, Tiwarie today sent another letter to the media explaining why he pledged his support to the PPP event though in an earlier missive to the press he had said he had decided to switch support a year before the May 2015 elections.
Tiwarie’s letter today will fuel more discussion about how prominent businessmen try to play both ends of the political spectrum particularly at elections time.
A copy of the letter follows:
Dear Editor,
Former President Donald Ramotar.
I must state categorically, that Mr. Ramotar has so far failed to address pertinent issues raised by me regarding the acquisition of state property by his relative at grossly under-valued costs. There are two salient issues at hand. Two issues Mr. Ramotar MUST answer:
1. Where is the $800M in steel referred to by the former President; and
2. As President of the Cooperatively Republic of Guyana, what did Mr. Ramotar do to prevent his brother from acquiring state property in the form of Land, Tugs and Barges at ridiculously low prices?
What Mr. Ramotar chose to do instead, was to initiate a low-blow by creating a smoke screen, by publishing a private correspondence to him. That correspondence was in fact authored in an effort to prevent further victimization of the BK International Group of Companies, more specifically, the eviction of Jags Aviation, a subsidiary of the BK Group from the GUYSUCO Hangar at the now Eugene Correiea International Airport. If one were to follow the events leading up to my forceful penning of the said letter provided to the media by the former President, it would show clearly it was a case of responding to a threat and demands for an apology. In fact it was on the recommendation of a former Senior Minister that I should go beyond a formal apology and restate my allegiance to the party, which would have quelled the anger of the former President.
His anger in this instance was as a result of a flight provided by the aviation department of the BK Group – Jags Aviation, for the Mr. Ramotar to conduct election campaign activities in the Essequibo Region. Our aviation consultant at the time, Mr. Bobby Vieira had called and informed me that the company had provided a flight to the same area a day before comprising a team of APNU/AFC campaign officials headed by Mr. Raphael Trotman. Mr. Trotman’s team was due to return to Georgetown the same morning that Mr. Ramotar and his team went in.
As suggested by Mr. Vieira, it would have been much more economical for the aircraft taking in the then President (as this was a one-way charter) to ferry Mr. Trotman and his team back to Georgetown. Since this operation apparently annoyed the former President which he displayed on several occasions later, we were advised to write and offer an apology for any discomfort we may have caused him. This was immediately done by Mr. Vieira and sent to the President.
However, this did not quell the anger of Mr. Ramotar. His rant continued with threats to evict my airline operations from the GUYSUCO hangar where we were conducting our operations. It was as a result of the continued abuse and significant claims of my contributions to the APNU in the millions of dollars, that a former Senior Minister suggested that I pen the letter, part of which he made some suggestions so as to quell the issue. Clearly, I simply wanted to alleviate the situation at that time. Jags Aviation further went the distance to waive the fee for the former President’s one-way charter. The said letter released by Mr. Ramotar, bringing further into question his integrity as a person moreso someone entrusted to lead this beloved country of ours.
My consultant was on several occasions subjected to Mr. Ramotar’s rants and claims of us backing the APNU and the AFC. We run an operation involving aircraft with significant costs. We never discriminated against anyone or political party which requested our services. Maybe the Ex-President felt this should have been standard procedure.
Editor, many persons were born with political affiliations. However, it is one’s democratic right to choose his/her political direction. My support for change was as wanting as any or most Guyanese, thus my choice to whom I choose and would support. My point is we should put Guyana first.
By this time, Hubu Backdam road and Haags Bosch dump site contracts were already taken away from BK Construction.
The Barge referred to in my initial missive was purchased by Jules Kranenburg at a cost of over US$1M and resold to Former President Donald Ramotar’s relative for a paltry G$3M. Let us deal with the issues at hand. I challenge Mr. Ramotar to refute this. I further challenge the former President to refute the denial of BK International of the Aremu Interior Road project which was in turn “gifted” to the Vulture Construction Company even though BK International was awarded the contract. Strangely, Mr. Ramotar personally and genuinely advised me to sue his government over this injustice.
Sincerely,
Brian Tiwarie AA
Managing Director
BK Group of Companies
