Dear Editor,
I have been wanting to write this letter a long while now, but decided to wait until the dust was settled in the PNCR Leadership race. Editor, students reading for Management, and I am certain other disciplines at the University of Guyana, would be exposed to the lessons of Decision Making. The most prominent event used is the Cuban Missile Crisis that unfolded between the USA and the then USSR. Here in Guyana, we have an event that would probably rival the Cuban Missile Crisis. I am referring here to the Elections fiasco of 2020. The PNCR and its Coalition Partners were insisting on only valid votes to be counted.
Tens of thousands of the Coalition supporters were led to believe that the declarations of the GECOM was never going to be accepted. Concomitantly, the external forces of the USA, CARICOM, EU, and others were calling on the Coalition to accept defeat. The Coalition refused and a long legal battle ensued, that went all the way up to the CCJ. Out of the blue, when most did not expect it, President Granger accepted that he had lost and paved the way for a new government to be sworn in. One year and months after that fateful decision, Mr. Granger has been tight-lipped on the issue. Hence my concerns. As a renowned historian, the lessons of August 2020 cannot be lost on Mr. Granger.
In my mind he owes it to several stakeholders to come clean as to the factors influencing his decision, which I am told was not even discussed with his Cabinet. He owes it to the thousands of supporters who were rallying behind him to maintain that only valid votes would be counted; he owes it to the nation was glued to their, televisions, radios and social media, anticipating that only valid votes would be counted; most importantly, he owes it to the students of History, Political Science and Management, so that these young minds can digest the lessons learnt for their academic advancement; for when the contemporary history of Guyana is written, it will be free from the conspiracy theories that abound in the absence of the facts. The theories are rife and taking root. It is in this regard that I write to urge President Granger to come clean with us and inform us of those factors that resulted in this turnaround from his stated position of only valid votes to be counted. History is watching him!
Sincerely,
Carl Parker
