Dear Editor,
In a swift media response to the US Department of the Treasury development involving three Guyanese, the PPP Government reassured of its “respect for the rule of law and order…” Amen, I say. I will know it when I see it. All Guyanese would recognize such respect by the PPP Government. I would laud profusely. Regrettably, such platitudes, hypocrisies, and outright misrepresentations amount to naught. Those are substitutes for white lies, real lies, total lies. In sum, it is lies and the lying liars who prosper from making their way of life one built on nothing but lies. I hold aloft a PPP Government that is, for the most part, one that oozes righteousness about rule of law, but which is a group built on farces and frauds, and friends and families inseparably associated. Try these circumstances.
Audit findings of US$214 million are mysteriously, outrageously reduced to US$3 million and only one man is involved, is responsible. A man operating in some undiscovered Amazonian habitat and in a vacuum, to boot? Or respect for the rule of law and order? It could not be reasonably claimed as error, or taking initiative, or with the supreme confidence that the auditors were mistaken. Was there no escalation, no consultation, or no instruction? Somebody attempted to cheat the Guyanese people of over GY$21 billion and that bum rap is put on a glorified clerk. Who was the real bum there? Procedural order, the order of the chain of command, and respect for order went down the toilet. Last, the wink and nod with the national comedy that was the penalty.
Then there was a Guyanese Permanent Secretary delayed by US authorities, and it is business as usual locally. The PS was part of Guyana’s national security (or, at least, its internal security) apparatus, and a transfer was all that came out of that interdiction. The mere appearance of the detention should have been enough to discern the shot across the bow, and the liability in hand, with all ties cut. Including those that led to Central Executive status. Since the PPP as party and government has become so adept at dropping its pants and mooning Guyanese when concerns about that the same respect for the rule of law and order, it tried that with the Americans. Now, like headless chickens, both party and government are dashing about in a blind panic. My message is this: the Americans have more than three Guyanese in mind. Guyanese will get to decide how much respect for the rule of law and order there was, if any.
Next, former President Ramotar came out to say “I didn’t know about any gold smuggling investigation. The US never raised it with me or said anything” (SN, June 17, 2024). At a personal level, Ramotar is an honest man. If he insists that he was never briefed, then he wasn’t. Now this stirs memories of what I introduced into government communications previously. I said that involvement with “Guyana’s gold business is like finding oneself in an occupied snake pit built on an ant’s nest surrounded by pimpla bush.” Subtitles: any unwanted presence, and the ant-tormented snakes bite and the inhospitable poisoned pimpla finish off. Reverse the sequence and it’s the same result. I mention that re Excellency Ramotar’s attestation and Raphael Trotman’s submission about a US gold smuggling investigation in Guyana pre-2015. Consider these scenarios.
First, somebody is wrong about the existence or timing of the investigation. Or the disclosure of it by the US. I will not attach falsehood to either political luminary. I, however, put these cards (questions) before Guyanese.
Did the US Government have such low confidence in the PPP Government that there was no information sharing on even something as monumental as a huge gold smuggling investigation? Not even with a sitting President Ramotar? Respectfully, I think that that was the situation, and here is why. He would have had to share. With senior political comrades, with the Guyana Police Force, and with other State agencies. Problems, problems, problems every time. There I stand. My assessment is that, given the near-zero credibility of the PPP Government, the US Government ruled out sharing information with it. An aside: I recall attending an official function for the first or second time, and at its conclusion, a US official buttonholed me and counseled the greatest caution with what is shared. Frequent reinforcements followed in arm’s length conversations with another American official. It is interesting that certain things were shared with me, but not with a president during his tenure. Note that I haven’t said anything about the content of those conversations.
Finally, the span between 2015 and when the reported Trotman/Ramjattan-US conversation happened is rather narrow. I think it was a feeling out period by the Americans about who the new chaps were, and how much they could be trusted. Perhaps, it also indicates how much their predecessors couldn’t be. In essence, this was what the US forces in Guyana concluded about the PPP Government’s respect for the rule of law and order. Speaking publicly with rhetorical power about law and order, and privately, there is chronic corruption, a political crime syndicate.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
