With controversy swirling around him following VICE News’ broadcast on Sunday on activities of Chinese businessman Su Zhirong, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that the programme ‘Guyana for Sale’ affirms that he is not corrupt.
“I feel vindicated in my most unguarded moment,” the Vice President told a press conference at the Office of the President where he addressed the issue in the wake of calls from the main opposition, APNU for him to resign and messages of support from others.
“This was a secret recording and it was not all contiguous… in all it was about 15 to 20 minutes,” he added. He called on VICE News to release the video of the entire undercover meeting at his home which was recorded by a hidden camera,
In the programme aired on Sunday on Showtime, Su, who lived next door to Jagdeo in Pradoville 2 in a house rented from him, took the VICE News undercover `businessman’ who went by the name of Mr. Chan to meet the Vice President.
Jagdeo said that his tenant and neighbour, who alleged to VICE News that he collects bribes, abused the friendship and access he had for his own gain, and if VICE News was discerning, then they would have realised that they were “being duped”.
“If they wanted to really catch me, the guy [the operative] knew English. All he had to say, not to whisper in Mandarin to Su, was to say to me, ‘we have some money for you’ and they had the camera there. Had I taken it, then that would have been the ‘catch you’ moment. Why would you have to tell Su this and then Su saying, ‘Oh don’t worry I am going to collect it’?” Jagdeo questioned.
“They have done this around the world with leaders they got taking bribes… they are never going to find anything of that nature with me,” he asserted.
The Vice President said that from media reports, including yesterday’s Stabroek News Editorial on the VICE News broadcast, he wanted to address issues raised and questions asked.
According to Jagdeo, the meeting with Su only occurred because Su had been badgering him over several days to meet with his [Su’s] potential hotel and casino investor. “He said to me there is someone here that is investing in his project, not a government project.”
Relating that the undercover operation occurred one afternoon after he had returned home from work, Jagdeo said that Su came to his gate asking if he would meet with Mr. Chan because the investor was leaving the next day.
He said that he entertained them and from the outset the man began talking about the hotel and casino project. “Su did not get anything special here and it was not a government project, it was his investor he wanted me to meet,” he posited.
The entire conversation, according to Jagdeo was not done in English as Su and his investor periodically switched to Mandarin Chinese.
Jagdeo said that he did not interject when the men were speaking, saying that at the time he was tired.
Explaining the excerpt of him telling Chan “No, no, no. I am not getting involved in business. You will get the support. Su is my friend, he gets all the support. He deals with all the agreements. I don’t. I don’t,” he said that he was merely emphasising that he was in no way connected to the agreement that the man had with Su. “They were repeatedly trying to get me to say whether I would be part of the hotel and casino deal and I kept saying, no. Throughout it all they could not get me to say I want to be part of this arrangement. Now I know that he was saying that he wanted to offer me a bribe and Su said no he will not…,” he said.
Perceptions
And as for perceptions that only his friends get his support for projects, Jagdeo said that it is the modus operandi of the PPP/C government to be pro-investment and as such support all persons wanting to invest here.
The open policy to the public, he said, did not stop at investments as daily he meets with people who have various concerns, even as he pointed out that he is contacted by many persons on the mobile number he has held for over two decades.
He said that Su abused that privilege and seemed to have boasted to persons of his friendship with the Vice President so that he could benefit from it.
“If we shut down that access, we become aloof”, he told reporters.
Asked if Su had sought meetings before with business persons at his home, Jagdeo said Su had arranged meetings with investors but at his office.
As for Su, Jagdeo holds to his position that he will sue Su for defamation and that he was still looking for the man he once called a friend to “throw him out” of the Pradoville 2 rental.
On Sunday, after viewing the VICE News programme, Jagdeo said that he will sue him for claims that he made alleging that he (Jagdeo) took bribes to facilitate deals by Chinese investors.
He also said that Su will have to immediately vacate the premises that he currently rents. After Jagdeo had published a portion of an interview on February 7th 2022 that he had done with VICE News on February 1st and in which it was stated that Su had made such allegations, Su denied that he had accused Jagdeo of corruption. However, in the programme broadcast on Sunday, Su is heard alleging that monies are paid to Jagdeo.
“He had said that VICE News lied on him and had issued a statement [to this effect]. Now that they have him on record as though he was doing this, that he claimed he was not doing, that means he has abused the access and friendship he had with me to rip people off. So I am going to take legal action against him because he is damaging my reputation in doing (so) and also he will no longer, as I had said in the past when you had asked me about it, he will no longer be a tenant,” Jagdeo told this newspaper.
VICE News’ Isobel Yeung took to Twitter yesterday while sharing the Stabroek News article which reported Jagdeo’s threat to take legal action against Su.
“When we asked the Vice President of Guyana if he took large-scale bribes, he suggested we were lying. Now it’s clear his close friend Su told us the same, he accuses him of lying. SOMEONE is certainly lying,” she tweeted.
To VICE News, Jagdeo said that they produced the progamme for their ratings to be boosted as the topic of corruption is always in demand. He said that he does not blame VICE News but that they should also make public the entire recording at his home.
In addition, he held to his former stance that the progamme is used to give the United States geopolitical mileage, as it alleges that corrupt Chinese investors are undermining the works of the US across the globe. Jagdeo referred to the extended interview he made public between himself and VICE News journalist Yeung.
“I made it clear that we are not going to participate in an anti-China hysteria and that we will look out for our country and what is best for our people. We have extremely good relations with the US at the bilateral level. The US is our largest investor, nevertheless we will work with others including China. The reporter sought to get me embroiled in geopolitical issues but I made it clear we did not want to,” he said.
