Charles Dickens once wrote “It is a pleasant world we live in. There are bad people in it, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers”. The times are not so pleasant right now in Guyana, but there are many good lawyers. While the oil prospect seems dim right now, the prospects for good lawyers is sky-high because there are so many miscreants running wild in Guyana. While the struggle for a free and fair tabulation of the election results continue more than 50 days since elections, while David Granger and APNU/AFC continue to squat in Government, while the COVID-19 crisis worsens, while the economy continues to tank, crime is escalating. The ordinary criminals have found a conducive environment to terrorise citizens around the country, thinking no one is paying attention.
COVID-19 is a health crisis, threatening the lives of many, with at least seven people already dead. But, instead of confronting COVID-19 as a crisis, APNU/AFC continues to use the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to help them thief the elections and for corruption. Anyone with the information available cannot escape the conclusion that the Ocean View rehabilitation is a corrupt transaction. There was no announcement of the transaction, the Government only admitted after the media and political activists exposed the deal. The Government was forced to admit it contracted to rehabilitate the Ocean View Hotel, with the high risk of flooding and with an on-going sewer problem. It admitted that these are open-ended arrangements.
But if anyone passes by, this is becoming a major reconstruction of the Ocean View Hotel. At first, it claimed it would cost $150 million, then $200 million and now it concedes, at least, $1 billion. This does not include any retrofitting for a COVID-19 hospital. In addition, the Government will pay a rent of $22 million per month. It has not said who owns the building, with street words identifying two supporters and donors of APNU. There is no accountability, there is no transparency. This clearly is a scandal that is bigger than the D’Urban Park and the Sussex Street Drug Bond scandals. Behind the COVID-19 crisis, there are miscreants that good lawyers see as prospects for the future. Even as Guyanese have already died and even as the threat becomes greater, COVID-19 has become an opportunity for too many big miscreants.
COVID-19 is a cover for other sinister deeds. APNU/AFC is maximally exploiting the COVID-19 crisis as it continues its ominous conspiracy to thief the March 2 elections. It already succeeded in getting more than a year in government, after the December 21, 2018 No-Confidence Motion. Now it has squatted in Government for, at least, another two months since the Guyanese people fired them. A recount of the ballots of Region 4 was brokered between the Chief Justice and Justice Claudette Singh on March 14 when the GECOM Chair promised the CJ she will have the recount done. This was brokered so that the CJ would not have to find Mingo, Lowenfield and the GECOM Chair in contempt. On that same day, Prime Minister Mia Motley brokered another deal between David Granger, Bharrat Jagdeo and GECOM for a total recount. The GECOM Secretariat and APNU/AFC have twisted themselves more grotesquely than an American pretzel as they have done everything to stop the recount.
As part of the obfuscation, the delay and using sycophants to stop the recount, they are brazenly using COVID-19 to help them stop the inevitable. Moses Nagamootoo tried a thing, insisting COVID only comes out in the night and, therefore, APNU/AFC has a curfew. GECOM could not conduct a recount beyond 16:00h since everyone must be home by 18:00h. He also insisted observers will have to spend 14 days in a Government-run quarantine centre, with bread and butter for meals. Who believe that Nagamootoo was stipulating the conditions on his own? He was set up to test the waters. Then Granger stepped in as if he wants the recount – he says the recount could go on up to 6.00pm. Well, why limit to 18:00h, why not maximally use the hours to get this done as quickly as possible before COVID-19 gets worse?
For Granger and APNU/AFC, the COVID-19 crisis is not enough for them to get wider testing capacity in Guyana. PAHO/WHO is the only one trying to get testing. There are still health workers without protective gear and equipment. Many are calling the PPP’s National Stakeholders Forum for help. There is no mass distribution of necessary protective material for the people. Irfaan Ali and his team are doing that. The CDC started a meek hamper distribution programme, using Private Sector donations. But the Government suspended that after the CDC distributed just over 1500 hampers, telling people, it is a long-term plan that is needed. Winston Jordan tells people there will be Government financial support, but only when they are finished with the elections. Too many miscreants are in charge. Too many good lawyers see their prospects as good.
