…by PNC nailed – again
The major issue the PNC-AFC combination exploited to ease the PPP out of office in 2015 was “corruption”. They threw so much mud at PPP officials about “siphoning off billions and billions” from the treasury that enough of it inevitably stuck after 23 years. It’s one of the hazards of extended incumbency. Ordinary folks forget about all the good that was done for them after the ravages of the previous regime, and start believing the grass will really be greener…
Once in office, the PNC-AFC Government launched at least 50 “forensic audits” into departments of the Government from where they insisted the loot had been “siphoned off”. And then passed on the findings to SOCU – the Special Organised Crime Unit – to go after PPP officials and officials they insisted were “PPP”. Never mind most of the findings were conjectures and wild assumptions on precious few facts. Their strategy was “give a dog a bad name and then hang him for it”!
Dozens of names were “called” and pretty soon charges laid— all of this in the very earliest days of the PNC administration. But a pattern started to emerge: the grounds for the charges were so specious that they couldn’t even fit in the standard criminal charges and new ones had to be invented!! Like the NINETEEN they slapped on the rising star in the PPP, Housing Minister Irfaan Ali, for merely signing off on a land transaction approved by Cabinet. A clear pattern emerged: the PNC knew they’d been slinging mud; knew there was nothing of substance that was criminal – but expected once again, some would stick!!
But they were dealing with the Judiciary; not ordinary folks, and their “cases” fell apart and were thrown out. The latest concerned 5 officials of the GRDB – including two PPP parliamentarians – failing to make a “proper entry” into the company’s register with the intent to defraud $362M from the entity’s bank account. And this was the second charge on identical grounds dismissed. In both cases, SOCU’s Prosecutor didn’t show up to produce evidence of fraud – because there was no evidence of fraud!!
But it’s up to the Guyanese people to see the vindictiveness and wickedness of the PNC with their “bad name” strategy: to destroy the reputation of individuals whose only “sin” was to be affiliated with the party of their choice. It’s nothing else but politics of the dirtiest and slimiest type. And with Irfaan Ali, they’d like to think they struck gold – since he subsequently was elected to be the Presidential Candidate of the PPP.
But their strategy will now backfire as their deviousness has been exposed! Vote them out!!
…and David Granger
As your Eyewitness has pointed out, David Granger’s schtick to become leader of the PNC was to convince their executive and membership that he would change their “thug” reputation earned by the exploits of fellas like Hamilton Green and Robert Corbin. That his “election” at the PNC Congress was characterised by charges of rigging (by Aubrey Norton, no less!), a walkout by Linden delegates, and shots fired by a gunman, who was caught on film, was not ironic, but inevitable. As he boasted later, he’d been PNC since the sixties.
And all of this has been confirmed by his actions since. Note that the rebels from Linden – Solomon Sharma and Vanessa Kissoon – have been banished from the PNC and their names erased as effectively as Trotsky’s from the Communist Party of Stalin!! He’s as vindictive and small-minded as Burnham. Recently, he ostentatiously struck a pose at the Pegasus protest that his followers have dubbed “unbothered”!!
Unbothered? And he sends 150 cops to crush a protest of his presence at a rural school?
…and economics
All right, your Eyewitness knows that we’re all West Indians and all that. But allowing Trini businesses to exclude Guyanese businesses from a forum IN GUYANA to exploit our oil needs? That’s taking it too far!
Guyana isn’t their ATM machine!!
