Dear Editor,
I was incredulous after listening to the Benschop interview of Mr. Granger on May 18, 2020 and reading the May 19th 2020 Guyana Chronicle report of the same interview headed up “ I am confident’ …President Granger not expecting a landslide victory but confident.”
Here was Granger, the former military officer, again at work. When all his minions were botching up their public relations narrative, here the man himself stepped forward to set things straight for his supporters.
I would not be wrong, nor anyone else in Guyana, in assuming that Mr. Granger, as head of the APNU+AFC Coalition, is fully aware of the results of the SoPs of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections in his party’s possession that showed that not only did it not win, even by a margin, but, that it was resoundingly defeated by approximately 17,000 votes! Yet he continues this masquerade to fool his supporters.
For him to say, 78 days after the elections, that he did not expect a landslide victory, but now advocates that “We have to aim at a form of government that is inclusionary…let’s not bother with landslide. …The parties are near equal. By formula — as has been laid out by my colleague Rupert Roopnaraine — people who win 51 per cent of the vote must not behave as if they won 100 per cent of the vote and people who only got 49 per cent of the vote must not be treated as if they got no per cent of the votes and, I live by that. ..I would like to see an inclusionary form of government…one where we can sit down in a mature environment and discuss the issues facing our country. That is the only way forward” is nothing but a bad joke or a farce.
Other than laughing uncontrollably at this farce being perpetuated on the Guyanese people, I am flabbergasted that Mr. Granger would expect the majority of Guyanese to conveniently forget what his administration stood for, and, still continues to stand for, since the May 11, 2015 elections.
His assumption of office was predicated on a less than 1% (4, 000 odd votes) victory at the said polls. With such a hair’s breadth difference, this “eureka moment” with regards to an inclusionary form of government clearly eluded him when he assumed office.
Who can forget the “ahwe first” and “we time now” policies of his administration? Just to name a few:-
• Terminated of 1, 872 Amerindian Community Service Officers;
• Terminated many public servants for their ethnic and/or political affiliation;
• Terminated 99% of Guyana’s representatives at our Foreign missions;
• Terminated Chief Executive Officers and high level managers in all state corporations;
• Terminated 99% of all Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers;
• Replaced and stacked state boards with APNU+AFC activists;
• Ensconced APNU+AFC activists as advisers in the Ministry of the Presidency and in every Ministry;
• Held up appointments of judges for almost a year in violation of the constitution;
• Revoked farmers’ land leases in contravention of court rulings;
• Closed 4 sugar estates leading to the “collateral damage” of 7000 sugar workers being put on the breadline;
• Neglect of communities that were aligned to the PPP/C;
• Neglect of Amerindian communities generally and especially those that are sympathetic to the PPP/C;
•Allocation of jobs and resources in the public sector based on affiliation to the APNU+AFC Coalition;
• Using SARA and SOCU as political tools to hound down PPP/C leaders;
• Aborted the Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Dr. Water Rodney;
• Ignored and or attacked any civil society individuals or bodies that were critical and didn’t fall into line;
• Turned the state media into the “rag sheet” of the APNU+AFC Coalition;
• Gave himself and his Ministers 50-100% increases in salaries, benefits and allowances;
• Introduced Anti- working people tax measures, thereby increasing levels of poverty;
• Introduced Anti- business tax measures;
• Appointed the Chairman of GECOM in violation of the constitutional provisions until forced to correct this by the CCJ ruling and orders;
•Excluded contractors and businessmen in the procurement process unless they were seen as “politically correct” a la APNU+AFC Coalition;
• Violated the constitution on repeated occasions, most recently article 106, following the defeat of his government with the No Confidence Vote;
• Established a partisan National Task Force on COVID-19 in a time of a national health crisis;
• Has done nothing to stem the astounding levels of corruption in his administration, which continue unabated to date.
In the National Assembly, a place in parliamentary democracies where there is some modicum of “give and take” based on longstanding norms and conventions, his administration hogged it all from June 2015:
• Defeated every motion brought by the parliamentary opposition, even those which were non-partisan eg suicide prevention, rice farmers, sugar industry, interior roads, crime;
• Defeated every amendment brought by the parliamentary opposition on any bill;
• Suspended the Standing Orders to rush through large and complex bills at first reading, such as the Cybercrime bill, amendments to the AML/CFT bills, and the Anti-Terrorism bill;
• Refused to send bills to Parliamentary Special Select Committees for scrutiny;
• Ignored the findings of the Auditor General reports and took no corrective action.
Even as I write Granger’s caretaker administration continues unrelentingly with the same policies of political and ethnic discrimination, exclusivity, highhandedness, and “party paramountcy” started in May 2015—the very same policies that led to his defeat at the March 2, 2020 polls.
Is it because defeat is now staring him in his face that he has chosen opportunistically to pander to “an inclusionary form of government”?
No Mr. Granger. In 2015, the two parties were 50.3% versus 49.7%; there was the golden opportunity to prove his commitment to an inclusionary government which he squandered. Why should anyone trust Granger now?
The Granger administration has taken this country down a treacherous path of political division, economic collapse, undermining the rule of law and the constitution as it merrily went along, confident that their time would last forever. Granger’s “eureka” moment has come five years too late. This will never be possible under Granger’s tutelage.
I have no doubt that there will be inclusionary governance, and, we shall as a people and a nation work together to develop an inclusionary form of government, not by divvying up the spoils as Granger and others’ advocate, but through a national inclusive consultative process.
Whenever the recount is finished and the new President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, is sworn in, then the work will begin to reconstruct our country, to repair the damage of APNU+AFC Coalition’s five years of incompetence and party paramountcy , and, to find a way forward and start the process that is truly inclusive.
Yours faithfully,
Gail Teixeira
