The mantra of A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) elections campaign leading up to the March 2, 2020 polls was ‘honesty and decency’. What has happened since then is by any stretch of the imagination far from honest and decent.
The blatant display of dishonesty and indecency are given in large doses to the Guyanese public daily by APNU/AFC officials. The most recent of such repugnant behaviour was by the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Khemraj Ramjattan, who met with the staff at the Public Security Ministry on the eve of what was supposed to be the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM’s) final declaration and conceded that his party had been defeated.
In bidding the staff farewell, he said, “The numbers were against us, I am prepared to accept and to move on…from all indications, the results of the recount and everything else, the PPP has beaten us by some 15,000 votes.” This audio recording went viral on social media, and was picked up by numerous local and regional media houses. So much so that Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) CCN TV6 host Fazeer Mohammed invited Ramjattan as guest on his morning talk show.
But the utterances of Ramjattan on the T&T talk show were far from honest and decent. With the lie of the century, Ramjattan, when asked about his statements of defeat, said: “I indicated because being Prime Ministerial Candidate, you would have to move out from the Public Security Ministry and I was aware that there was going to be an announcement…so I just went to thank my officers, all the heads of the unit of my security ministry, and that is exactly what I did. I indicated to them and thanked them for what they did, the results, one way or the other, are going to be declared soon, and we will respect that and we will move on. I will move on if we win the elections, certainly to the Office of Prime Minister”.
Ramjattan’s lie has insulted the intelligence of Guyanese, whom the APNU/AFC seems to believe are not educated enough to see right through their chronic lying since March 2. The habit of compulsively lying seems to be a trait that has frequently encompassed the coalition’s leaders.
Guyanese know that, in several instances, many of our politicians tell a white lie to wiggle out of uncomfortable situations. However, what has been happening in Guyana since the General and Region Elections is a birth of pathological liars. As if Ramjattan’s dishonestly was not enough, caretaker President David Granger told the local media on Wednesday that he has never claimed victory at the March 2 polls.
As this newspaper reported on Thursday, Granger’s utterance that he never claimed victory is completely opposite to what has played out since March, when the Coalition began claiming victory – something which the 33-day National Recount has proven otherwise. According to the National Elections Recount, which was certified and supervised by GECOM staff and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) high-level team, Granger and his party lost the elections with PPP/C winning by 15,416 votes more than the APNU/AFC coalition.
As we have said before, Granger and his administration should stop the unprecedented level of gamesmanship, concede defeat, and respect the will of the Guyanese people. It is clear that the will of the Guyanese people was clearly to eject APNU/AFC from the helm of Government. It is time Granger express his gratitude to the Guyanese people for his opportunity of being president, and with whatever grace and dignity he has left, concede. There is certainly nothing decent and honest about compulsively lying.
