Granger’s refusal to accept President’s invitation is a clear sign of weakness

Dear Editor,
The recent decision by President Dr Irfaan Ali to invite former presidents to a meeting to discuss matters related to national development is something we experience only in a movie. President Ali has now shown every Guyanese his commitment to democracy, his commitment to the people of Guyana, and commitment to unity and inclusive governance. However former president David Granger’s refusal to accept the invitation is a clear sign of his weakness from the constant political pressure from his party’s visionless leaders. This might have been Mr Granger’s only chance to redeem himself and show the people of Guyana that he can be considered as a leader with a different political reputation and to stand for the country and the people of Guyana. This is evidence Mr Granger has lost his way by allowing dirty politics to blind his vision. It is clear now that Mr David Granger and APNU/AFC will absent themselves from contributing to Guyana’s development, which signals that he is really not ready to commit to any inclusive governance or unity.
President Ali, the visionary Leader he is, saw an opportunity to bring together our greatest minds in our former Presidents to work in the best interest of the Guyanese people and our country. It must be known that President Ali and his Administration will move our country along the right path to further development with or without David Granger and the APNU/AFC. David Granger has squandered the one opportunity to see for first time present and past Presidents coming together from both political establishments to harness development by putting our people and country above the fray of politics which divides our society.
Former presidents David Granger, Donald Ramotar, Bharrat Jagdeo and Samuel Hinds joining President Irfaan Ali, sitting to have an open flow meeting with the opportunity to share ideas, generate new ideas for development in Guyana, from different perspectives, working out a model and framework for the future that will marvel the world. However, we all now see Granger for who he really is – a former President who encourages the horrendous pilferage of the treasury and state funds by his former APNU/AFC Government.
A president, who promised “The good life” to electorate pre-2011 and pre-2015 elections did fructify – for their Cabinet members, family members, cronies, financiers, etc. A president and former APNU+AFC coalition government that obviously maladministered Guyana, with no defined economic plan or social development programme based on coherent studies of the dynamics that would eventuate into their promised “good life for al”.
What is emerging is that the Guyanese working-class people were thrown meagre crumbs from the coalition government’s buffet table, while the ‘fat cats’ gobbled up the bulk of the economic feast.
According to Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, speaking at one of his weekly press conferences, “…the (coalition) government has been sponging off the billions” left in the National Treasury by the former Administration, as well as the achievements of the PPP/C in almost every area of social and economic life.
Not forgetting the persistent corruption scandals which rocked the Granger Administration that resulted in growing disillusionment and dissatisfaction on the part of its own supporters, in particular, and the Guyanese people in general.
In contrast, the socio-economic model based on the programmes and policies of the PPP/C served to sustain persistent growth rates, resulting in consistent improvement in the lives of the Guyanese working people in general but, more particularly, for single parents, pensioners, young Amerindians and all Guyanese in general.
From the inception of Former President Granger Governance, the APNU+AFC government embarked on a nation-wide witch-hunt of those whom they perceived were PPP/C leaders and supporters, even technocrats who served under the PPP/C administration.
One of their first acts after assuming office was to fire 2000 young people from Amerindian communities, while simultaneously awarding to themselves hefty salary increases. Their racial and political discrimination, their blatant corrupt actions, their victimization and witch-hunting of former government officials and PPP/C supporters amounted to economic genocide and assumed proportions of a gargantuan persecution pogrom.
We saw the clear intention of Granger and his team trying to rig the elections, even as the nation was assailed by a deadly pandemic that left the Guyanese people from every community vulnerable to the point of starvation, created a vacuum in the existential dynamics of most working-class Guyanese that should have been filled by any caring government. Instead, they were appropriating hundreds of millions– actually billions of dollars of state funds.
The PPP/C historically a people-caring party, Dr Ali, stepped up to the plate.
His Excellency has already demonstrated that he will not merely promise, but he will deliver to all Guyanese “the good life,” where every man, woman and child will reap the harvest of Guyana’s bounties.

Sincerely,
David Adams