A few days ago, Hamilton Green, an old rigger and dictator, urged David Granger, the Commander-in-Chief, to discard the Constitution and laws of Guyana and remain in power. It was a case of mouth open, story jumped out – APNU/AFC is seriously considering a coup. Recognising that thieving the elections with a GECOM-rigged fraudulent declaration is highly unlikely because Justice Claudette Singh is refusing to be one of the riggers and that the Judiciary is also not playing the rigging game, elements in APNU/AFC are not hiding the possibility of a coup d’état.
With all options to stay in power evaporating, Green decided to place the coup d’état option in the public sphere, intentionally testing the waters. Stunned by the public outrage that immediately erupted, Green now wants people to believe it was a “slip of the tongue”, lapsus linguae. But his unequivocal statement was no “slip of the tongue”. He clearly begged the Commander-in-Chief to rally his troops and discard the Constitution. Green, of course, has a history of constitutional infidelity. He was part of a brutal dictatorship that rigged elections and meddled with the Constitution as they pleased. They even imposed a new constitution through a rigged referendum. Thus, discarding the Constitution is Green’s comfort zone.
Using Latin formulations like “lapsus linguae” has become a familiar shield for Granger’s surrogates. Not so long ago, James Patterson, illegally appointed by Granger as GECOM Chair, in total breach of the Constitution, claimed he served as Chief Justice of Grenada in his resumé. When confronted with evidence he was never the Chief Justice of Grenada, Patterson’s excuse was a “lapsus calami” – slip of the pen.
Green was part of the first rigged election in 1968. He played important roles in rigging the 1978 referendum and the 1973, 1980 and 1985 rigged elections. He was a part of an administration during which opponents were murdered. While Josh Ramsammy survived a murder attempt, Father Drake, Walter Rodney, the Ballot Box Martyrs and many others were killed during those years when the PNC dictatorship was enabled by the most rigged elections anywhere in the world, using the military to thief elections and intimidate and harass citizens. Green’s faked lapsus linguae was just a reminder for Granger how the PNC stayed in power between 1964 and 1992.
Granger himself in a meeting in Atlanta with supporters a while back reminded them how the PNC gained power and how they stayed in power. He projected to them that just as the PNC used the UF in 1964 and then unceremoniously dumped them, so too in 2015, they used the AFC, the WPA, and others. Granger projected to these supporters also that just as the PNC stayed in power for 28 years through rigged elections, the PNC will stay in power for a long time again. But he and APNU/AFC have found out that the Guyanese people will not accept dictatorship and rigged elections anymore, that the PPP and other political parties will not permit them to thief the elections and that the international stakeholders who stood by and permitted them in the past to thief elections are no longer in the mood for electoral fraud.
Hamilton Green is today feasting on the Guyanese taxpayers. His pension of monthly $1.5 million, made possible by a special law passed by APNU/AFC adds to another pension from the Georgetown City Council, as the former mayor. He was a failed mayor having made Georgetown the dirtiest city in Caricom. But his pension is unconscionable because in the 28 years he was a senior member of the dictatorial government, his credentials were disgraceful. He must be reminded of his disgraceful record.
The following is just a tip of the iceberg, space does not permit a detailed list of his disgraceful tenure in the PNC dictatorship. Guyana became one of the poorest countries in the world, one of the most indebted countries, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of an unbelievable 953 per cent, among the top three most indebted countries in the world and in history.
When he was Prime Minister between 1985 and 1992, the Guyana dollar depreciated from G$4 to G$120 to US$1. Simultaneously, more than 10,000 public servants and more than 3000 bauxite workers lost their jobs. During that time, serving as Minister of Health, child and maternal mortalities were among the highest in the world. Between 1985 and 1992, more than 2200 babies under five years old died every single year.
The proposal for Granger to discard the Constitution and laws of Guyana is a brazen, intentional call for a coup d’état, no “lapsus linguae” – slip of the tongue. There was no confusion, cowardly blaming senility. Mouth open, story jumped out, this old dictator must be sanctioned; he should be charged with treason and the international community should include him as one of the riggers to be punished. Green, Granger and others are delusional, if they think a coup will happen. The Guyanese people and the international community are not in a mood for a dictatorship in Guyana.
