For most of my early Guyana life, suckers were merely the plain, pointed side shoots that perennially popped up in a clump around the pseudostem of the banana and plantain trees which towered in many crowded backyards, providing cool green shade and sweet, filling provision. Botanically a berry, the herbaceous plant reproduces at least two types, the sword suckers, characterized by narrow leaves and a large rhizome, and water suckers which are the opposite with broad stalks and a small base having a weak link to the parent and therefore unlikely to thrive as strong specimens.
Later I would listen to my incredulous brother use the singular word in a rhetorical question, alluding to the slang term for a person who is easily deceived. Dating back to 1836 American English and perhaps even earlier to 1753, it is a colloquial reference to a breast feeding baby, and the fish called a sucker which was easy to catch in its annual migrations. Boxing great Jack Dempsey wrote “the right lead is called a sucker punch” describing the sudden, unexpected, often underhand blow that could be considered unfair or unethical in the most physical sport.
One expert notes, “Easily confused with a punch defined as a ‘bitch move’ a true sucker punch is quite a bit more complex than a simple unannounced attack. It primarily involves a closed fist contacting the soft underbelly of a person (beneath the rib cage) at a high velocity, causing the ensuing force to press upward on the victim’s diaphragm, leading to a sudden expulsion of air from the victim’s mouth and lungs. This opening blow leaves the victim open to various other attacks, often leading to what would be called ‘bitch moves’ because of the defenseless nature of the victim.”
Recently, like many others, I felt like I had been knocked in the stomach with a solid sucker punch and left gasping after several “bitch moves” reading an April 1 2017 story announcing that the former CL Financial Chairman, octogenarian Lawrence Duprey had met with Finance Minister Winston Jordan and suddenly wanted “to try to make amends” and “to renew his relationship with Guyana as well as publicly apologise to its people for the collapse of CLICO Guyana.”
One of my disbelieving Trini friends seriously queried whether it was all an April Fools’ Day joke, while I scoffed at “water suckers” and the need for putting some to the sword given the impeccable timing of the visit following the latest announcement of yet another major oil find. Besides having an idea of how the countless stunned victims across the Caribbean must have felt with the 2009 disintegration of the company and the loss of their precious savings, one can query whether there is a single surviving “suckerphant” who really believes and trusts that Duprey, and his disgraced, complicated conglomerate can or will ever “make amends” for the some US$40M debt owed mainly to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
The reactions and condemnations were swift to the Stabroek News (SN) article. “There’s a sucker born every minute” a regular commentator repeated, pointing to the phrase commonly but inaccurately attributed to showman P.T Barnum. In January 1882, an article titled “Keep Your Money: People Would Do Well to Look Carefully before They Leap” printed in a Chicago newspaper warned: “It was an expert confidence man who said that ‘there was a sucker born every minute’ and some have remained suckers all their lives.” Quoteinvestigator.com cites another in 1883 “Gamblers call all outside their fraternity suckers. They say -There is a sucker born every minute, and New York is the best place in the world to catch them.”
Well a century later, the original soundtrack for the musical “Barnum” would openly admit to “bona fide baloney” and “genuine malarkey.” Now as the big-time gamblers like Duprey eye Guyana as the new Big Apple, obviously believing in “never giving a sucker an even break,” it is high time for the coalition Government, the Cabinet and the poor taxpayers to ensure Georgetown will not be “suckered” into being the choice city for C.L Financial and its clique “to come back and try a thing.”
“They owe US$40M and nobody is sitting in jail. Next thing you know they pull a fancy deal and that money gets written off. Local businesses late with their GY$40K payments and GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority) or NIS officials at your front door hounding and threatening you until you pay up,” the SN contributor “The Shootist” argued.
Under the pseudonym “Rich Wong” another begged “Say NO! to this man. Thousands like myself lost our money,” while “Kaieteur, Canada” declared, “He’s only apologising because he smell big money and opportunity with the oil finds” and “Iggi” observed, “Once is enough. How come he never made any attempt to compensate the losers in his CLICO collapse? He should not be allowed to invest again. This is the summoning call of oil. The parasitic class of all strains will come crawling out of the wood work.” Reader, Arthur Young advised: “The US$40M debt MUST be repaid to Guyanese with eight years’ compound interest at the highest prevailing rate (about 20%) BEFORE any financial deals are allowed.”
The news that Duprey and his team are interested in several areas here, including providing solar energy and clay bricks, and affordable housing, is startling enough, and leads to the question of whether they are out to play the Finance Minister for being a sucker since a follow-up meeting is already agreed. But the real bruising eye-closer on the sucker-list for goodly Guyanese who cannot afford Duprey and any more of his grand plans any time and anymore, is the ironic introduction of “a financial model that will generate savings and lower poverty.”
That’s rich coming from a wealthy man who claimed to the Trinidad Guardian in November 2012, that he was flat broke. “I am no billionaire. That is a lie. I don’t have a damn cent,” affirmed Duprey during a telephone interview with reporter Shaliza Hassanali from one of his swanky Florida homes.
In the memorable exchange, he slammed Trinidad and Tobago (TT) for poor management, maybe forgetting the damning disclosures ranging from “reckless” business and investment decisions, to “unacceptable inter-company transactions,” over leverage, inflated acquisition costs, conflict of interest and grossly inadequate liquidity, which aired during that country’s costly Commission of Inquiry from 2011-2013. The Commission was appointed to analyse the failure of CL Financial Limited, CLICO (Trinidad) Limited, CLICO Investment Bank (CIB), British American Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited, Caribbean Money Market Brokers Limited and the Hindu Credit Union Cooperative Society Limited.
In September 2011, the Commission learnt that the long-time chief Duprey bagged a TT$60M (then about US$10M) basic annual salary, plus millions worth of bonuses, fees, commissions, personal loan write-offs and other perks, Trinidad Newsday reported, noting that for 2007 alone he received a total of TT$90M (US$15M).
TT”s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley updated Parliament, that as of May 2016, the overall cost to that country’s taxpayers just for the Commissioner, Sir Anthony Colman and a team of supporting attorneys was an estimated TT$80M. A week after the June 22 submission of the still sealed report which was later forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), he stated, “I can advise the population that it contains very serious allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of a handful of privileged individuals who were associated with the CLICO/ CLF group of companies.”
“The underlying causes of the collapse of all of the companies were the defective business model of the CLF Group and the failure of senior management to act to change it and the methods of corporate governance in accordance with the requirements of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT), and the recommendations of their external auditors,.” He added the insurance arms were “in essence” treated as the means of funding excessive investments made by or directed by CLF.
Back in 2009, as Duprey fled to Fort Lauderdale, the TT Government hurriedly injected a record bailout of the floundering business giant topping about TT$22B by mid-2016. Finance Minister Colm Imbert would apprise the Senate last July: “The Government is hopeful at this stage that it can recover a significant amount of this sum, but this will depend on the success of the disposal of the remaining assets of CLICO and CIB, among other things,” stressing “I wish to confirm that CLICO is still insolvent with an excess of liabilities over assets of the order of TT$1B, i.e. a deficit of TT$1B, and as a result the CBTT has indicated that it is not in a position to relinquish control of CLICO at this time.”
Meanwhile in Guyana, by September 2016, Minister Jordan was lamenting the $5.6B lost by the beleaguered NIS through its bad substantial investments with the now defunct CLICO (Guyana) and the fact that our taxpayers were stuck with the burdensome bill during the next 20 years. The first of the Government’s 20 non-negotiable debentures to be redeemed annually at a fixed interest rate of 1.5 percent, was due last January worth nearly $318M. CLICO’s Guyana meltdown came with the liquidation of CLICO Bahamas where the NIS monies were invested by the subsidiary in Florida real estate which went bust.
“Imagine what those monies could have done in other areas be they wages or infrastructure programmes?” Jordan had asked. Well with the gang of free “suckerphants” circling in the capital licking their lips and preparing to drain their potential victims and over-taxed taxpayers even drier following decades of indigenous “ol’higues” the Finance Minister can start by acknowledging the real and serious threat to Guyana’s health and future, even as TT awaits its appropriate pseudo apology.
ID believes in the tested practice of serious desuckering especially those that are diseased or a pest, especially after the latest glimpse of the rare native species, “Suckersaurus Guianensis” carrying huge warning signs “Do pray for us” or is it “Do prey on us”?
