President David Granger appointed a PRIME MINISTER whose main duty is to be bumptious and bloviate enough to distract people, making it easier for the leader of the People’s National Congress (PNC) to achieve his dream of continuing the work of his idol and hero, Forbes Burnham.
The goal is a new period of dictatorship, a new period of PARTY PARAMOUNTCY. Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo is surely earning his keep; we have never seen bloviating at this high level of expertise in our history. The puerile nonsense he most recently espouses not only insults Indo-Guyanese again, but it is questioning the intelligence of all Guyanese.
This week he pronounced that the reason for ethnic imbalance on State Boards is that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) appoints members based on competence, implying that there are not enough competent Indo-Guyanese or Indigenous Guyanese that can serve on State Boards.
I dare Nagamootoo and his President or anyone else in APNU/AFC to dispute that there are people of all ethnicities that are competent and qualified to sit on any State Board. In a population where, by far, the largest ethnic group are the Indo-Guyanese, Nagamootoo wants us to believe that there are just not enough competent Indo-Guyanese to be appointed on State Boards, hence the ethnic imbalance that exists.
This is not just arrogance and puerile nonsense; it is utter derision of the largest ethnic group in Guyana. There are enough competent and qualified persons of all ethnic groups in Guyana to serve on State Boards and for the State Boards to reflect the Guyanese population. As long as competence is the criterion, the Boards will reflect the nation.
But the blunt truth is that APNU/AFC’s only qualification for candidates to sit on State Boards is political affiliation. Nagamootoo opened his mouth and the story jumped out.
I dare him go to Whim, Bath Settlement, Albion, Essequibo and other places and tell them that the reason for ethnic imbalance in the State Boards or in the public service is because APNU/AFC chose people on the basis of competence. I dare him to stand in Parliament and pronounce that competence was the deciding factor that resulted in ethnic imbalance.
Nagamootoo has to every day prove to Granger that he is heart and soul a part of Granger’s PNC. Fidelity to principle will not stand in his way for self-advancement.
It is the reason Nagamootoo took Bharat Jagdeo to task when Jagdeo accused APNU/AFC of discriminating against Indo-Guyanese and the indigenous people. The fact is that of the hundreds of public servants who have lost their jobs since APNU/AFC took over government in May 2015, more than 99 percent are Indo-Guyanese.
The fact is also that almost 2,000 Amerindians were laid off from their jobs as Community Development Officers. Unable to dispute this fact, Nagamootoo resorted to calling Jagdeo the “Collie Bully”, insulting the Leader of the Opposition and insulting all Indo-Guyanese.
In order to prove to Granger and the PNC that he is one of them, Nagamootoo, in New York before the 2015 elections, denied he was an Indo-Guyanese. He insisted that he is a Guyanese, even as people like Granger and others at the same meeting refused to similarly deny their African origins and insist they too are simply Guyanese.
The truth is, then and now, they are saying that Guyana has no place for Indo-Guyanese. Their position is that Indo-Guyanese must reject their East Indian identification if they want to fit into the fabric of a Guyanese society.
African Guyanese do not have the same obligation, nor should they. Nagamootoo, as the designated bloviator for APNU/AFC, was and remains the chief proponent of this heinous proposition.
I firmly support the proposition that Guyanese can be Guyanese and equal citizens, without disavowing and while simultaneously celebrating their ethnicities and culture. Granger should be a proud Afro-Guyanese, just as Nagamootoo should be a proud Indo-Guyanese.
The sad reality is that we now live in a fiefdom and the new emperors lord over us as they please.
Recall during the 2016 budget debate, Raphael Trotman emphatically declared that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic needs to reconcile with the fact that the “kingdom” is now in the hands of APNU/AFC. This is how they see Government.
There is no place for anyone who will not prostrate themselves and be a loyal sycophant, rewriting history and denying citizens their equal space in our country. Dismissing ethnic imbalance on State Boards as a consequence of placing only qualified and competent people insults all the ethnic groups that are not represented or that are under-represented.
