Dear Editor,
Self-anointed crusader of morality, Freddie Kissoon, continues with his obsessive rantings against the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). In his latest diatribe, published on August 7th 2017, he queries the PPP acquisition of a plot of land at Bath Settlement in Region 5.
Is it not strange that Freddie Kissoon never queried how the People’s National Congress (PNC) expropriated 25 acres of land from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for its headquarters at Sophia, for which it obtained transport just before the 1992 General and Regional Elections?
Is it not strange how Freddie Kissoon never questioned how, during its 28 years of dictatorship, the PNC acquired several prime properties in Georgetown, including in Bel Air Park; on Camp Street; on Robb Street; on South Road; on Durban Street, and at several locations throughout the country?
Is it not strange that Freddie Kissoon never questioned how Forbes Burnham acquired hundreds of acres of land at Belfield, on the East Coast of Demerara?
Is it not strange how Freddie Kissoon has never queried the compulsory but unconstitutional acquisition of hundreds of private properties that the PNC Government seized from citizens, paying them a 1939 valuation that amounted to a mere fraction of the market value of those properties? These properties included Tacuba Lodge, Echilibar Villas, Sijan Plaza, Hope Estate, a huge block of land at Turkyen, and hundreds more.
Is it not strange how Freddie Kissoon never queried how Desmond Hoyte sold prime commercial properties and huge blocks of land owned by the State for a fraction of their market value, without any competitive bidding process, to a group of businessmen who formed themselves into an organization called Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP) – an organisation established to get Hoyte re-elected at the 1992 Elections? The PPP Government was forced to purchase one of these properties, located on Water Street, from one of these businessmen to house the pavement vendors at a cost of 350 million dollars.
Is it not strange how Freddie Kissoon never questioned the PPP Administration for gifting, by Transport, 5 acres of prime real estate at the back of the Botanical Gardens to the Burnham family?
Is it not strange that Freddie Kissoon never questioned how one particular businessman was acknowledged as responsible for the AFC acquiring a plot of land on the Railway Embankment at Kitty? And at the opening of a party office at those premises, the businessman was hailed as making a “political investment”, for which he is now being rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars in pharmaceutical contracts and duty free concessions to establish a “Wind Farm”?
In the same way that Freddie Kissoon demands an explanation from the PPP, the PPP is demanding an explanation from him on his silence on the matters raised above. We know he will not respond; but, then again, no one will be surprised. After all, Freddie Kissoon has no credibility in the estimation of sensible Guyanese.
Needless to say, the PPP can, and will, defend everything it has done in office. It is proud of its track record of transforming this nation. Freddie Kissoon himself, whether he wants to admit it or not, is part of this transformation. When the PPP took office in 1992, Freddie Kissoon was living in his mother-in-law’s house in Hadfield Street, Wortmanville. When the PPP demitted office, Freddie Kissoon was, and still is, living in a mansion located in a highly residential compound in the city of Georgetown.
When the PPP assumed office, Freddie Kissoon commuted by minibus. When the PPP demitted office, Freddie Kissoon was driving an SUV.
At a heavily subsidised price, the PPP/C Administration distributed by sale more than 100,000 house lots to citizens of all walks of life and from every ethnic group, right across the length and breadth of this country.
The PPP distributed by sale, at a heavily subsidised price, plots of land for commercial use to companies of every type at industrial estates at Eccles, Ruimveldt, Lethem, Coldingen, and at hundreds of other locations across the length and breadth of this country.
In the same vein, the PPP distributed by sale, at a heavily subsidised price, hundreds, if not thousands, of plots of land to religious organisations, non-governmental organisations, non-profit organisations and sporting organisations.
All these lands were sold based upon applications made to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA).
Like any one of these persons/ companies/organisations, the PPP applied for, and was offered, a plot of land to purchase in Bath, which it did. Therefore, Mr Kissoon, there was nothing illegal or improper about this transaction. The PPP does not consider being in Government as debarring the party from benefiting from facilities offered by the Government to the rest of the country.
Sincerely,
People’s Progressive
Party
