Dear Editor,
After reading your newspaper’s breaking news article on, Tuesday, March 19, on the Maurice Arjoon case, I couldn’t help shaking my head and exhaling loud enough to express great sympathy for a man who was punished and humiliated for almost 30 years, all because he would not bow or bend to satisfy another’s unbridled greed, which is fueled by deep-seated vindictiveness.
This could well go down as one of the longest Guyana court cases in which sheer vindictiveness was on full display from the get-go. Mr. Arjoon – a former Director/Secretary, Chief Executive Officer of the NBS where he was employed at the Management level, then Executive/Directorship level for nearly 30 years with an unblemished record until the events complained of – was minding his own business working with the privately-owned New Building Society. The mortgage company had absolutely nothing to do with any government.
While I can only hope Mr. Arjoon has already started his memoir on this politically tortuous journey that upended his professional and personal life, I want to encourage Guyanese to Google and download a report compiled by then Ombudsman, Justice Winston Moore, and submitted to Parliament: “Report Of The Ombudsman On A Complaint By Mr. Maurice Arjoon Arising Out Of Prosecution For A Fraud At The New Building Society Ltd.” (PDF format). On my computer, it is 77 pages long, but it is worth reading.
Local news media have done a fine job keeping Guyanese abreast of court developments regarding this Arjoon saga, but this man literally became a living political target and was arrested on fraud charges, which the Court subsequently dismissed. Even the Appeal Court upheld the dismissal, and the CCJ concurred.
But what will make you wax angrily about this spitefulness, typical of Jagdeoism, is this part of the Ombudsman report attributed to Mr. Arjoon: “In 2006, at an NBS Board meeting, three Directors voted for an investment of G$2B in the Berbice Bridge, while three voted zero investment. I recommended that the Directors be guided by the Financial Institutions Act in determining the quantum to invest in the Berbice Bridge, to which they all agreed without any objection thus $350M was invested (then). Less than 2 hours later, Nanda Gopaul – then Vice Chairman of NBS while doubling as Permanent Secretary in Office of the President Bharrat Jagdeo (my clarification) – telephoned me and said that as President Jagdeo did not get the $2B for the Berbice Bridge he – the President – will ‘deal with me!’”
Do Guyanese at home and abroad know who is now the single biggest private stakeholder in the Berbice Bridge? That’s right, Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, Executive Chairman, of the Queens Atlantic Investment Inc group of companies. The game was called and set from get-go. Mr. Arjoon continued: “On June 1, 2007 two Managers and I were deliberately and maliciously charged for an alleged fraud, which the Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as well as the Board of Directors of NBS knew we did not commit, and which was also confirmed by several investigations at the NBS. After 3 and one half years of blatant delays in the criminal court and without providing a shred of evidence of any wrongdoings, my case finally dismissed (and that of the Managers a year later), despite the fact that the DPP had stated in a letter to the Board that she had Strong and Compelling evidence against us. This totally untrue statement was subsequently repeated by DPP to the Chancellor (ag).”
I will cut off at this point, but that’s a glimpse into the early stage of what we are reading about in the CCJ’s ruling on Tuesday. One has to be a die-hard PPP supporter to not understand what we are dealing with in this Jagdeo-led PPP. I hope Mr. Arjoon is well compensated and proceeds to pen his memoir on the travesty and torture he endured. Fellow Guyanese, download the PDF and read it for yourselves, because it could well be in the memoir. I say it again, President David Granger, with the iron-clad presidential immunity he enjoyed in the Constitution, dropped the ball. Big time!
Sincerely,
Emile Mervin
