…scapegoats
Back in biblical times, the Jewish Chief Priest would select a goat and ritually conferred all the “sins” of the tribe – as defined by him the Chief Priest – and then cast the goat into the wilderness! The “scapegoat” was presumed to take all the sins of the people with it – and the latter could then carry on sinning some more!! It would appear the ritual practice has just been resuscitated in Guyana by the PNC-led Government.
There it was – splashed as a banner headline across the front page of the Chronic – the word “CHARGED”!! It referred to some specious charges SOCU had just evidently laid against former PPP Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and head of NICIL Winston Brassington – who are clearly the scapegoats. After all, if, in fact the claimed actions of the two men were criminal in nature, why hasn’t SOCU gone after individuals appointed by this Government who’ve done exactly the same during their tenure – and then some?!!?
Take for instance NICIL in 2015 – the first year of the new PNC Government. The Auditor General showed that $2 billion was transferred to the entity from Guyoil as dividends – yet only $1 billion was transferred to the Consolidated Fund!! Now if Brassington violated Article 216 of the Constitution for allegedly holding back monies in NICIL between 2002 and 2014…why hasn’t SOCU charged Maurice Odle, the Chairman of NICIL Government appointed in 2015??
As for Finance Minister Jordan, in 2016 didn’t he authorise over $900 billion from the Contingency Fund in violation of Section 220 (2) of the Constitution?? Especially when $60 million was used (an illegality in itself!!) as an advance payment for a non-existent warehouse on Sussex Street – owned by a PNC financier! In addition to then Health Minister, Dr Norton just apologising, shouldn’t Jordan be charged along with him by SOCU?
Then there’s the 24 per cent of the Lotto Funds placed in a special account accessible to the Office of the President. How come in 2015 they kept more than HALF-A-BILLION and spent $305 million, among things, funding the D’Urban Wood Ants Stadium, Independence Jump up and Emancipation – according to the AG? Shouldn’t someone in OP be charged by SOCU??
Didn’t Attorney General Basil Williams spend $19.7 million for a new SUV without approval and told the Parliament that …oops!!… it was “inadvertent”? We could go on and on …but you get the point, don’t you, dear reader?
The clinching factor that some serious scapegoating is being foisted on ex-PPP officials by High Priest Granger to exculpate the sins of his corrupt Government is the story that broke in the Chronic – before charges were laid!!
But Granger, what the Bible says about the sins of the father!!
… Amerindians on land titling
The powers that be will never get over the fact that Amerindians received their land claims based on Annex C – appended to the Articles by which Guyana received its independence from Britain. Once they can show they’re living on lands “from time immemorial” – which is a term of art and isn’t as onerous as it sounds! – then the lands have to be demarcated for them. And Burnham did say there are many ways to kill a cat!!
The Government then tried to place the Amerindian land rights on their CoI on “Ancestral Lands” as a backdoor to undermining the former – but had to back off after Amerindian protests. But they’re in the throes of unleashing a new attack – via extending Lethem and introducing mega agriculture farms on lands Amerindians have claimed but are untitled.
And because the Toshaos refused to go along, the Quislings running the Indigenous Affairs Ministry have come down on them like a ton of bricks.
Amerindians just have to wait for 2020. Revenge is best served cold!!
…a local law school
Why is Basil Williams so hell bent on that law school with two fly-by-night outfits from Jamaica, he’d take on the Council on Legal Education?
Just think why the Exxon bonus was so low!!
