When you tell a lie long enough, it becomes politics

Dear Editor,
As the future of our country is entangled in a political tug-of-war between the two major political parties, I, the undersigned, wish to reiterate that I have no political priority, regardless of what some people may think. I have made this pellucid before and I will say it a million times more. I know that at this time, these two major political parties would love for me to be biased for them, and if I cannot be biased for them; fingers will be poked in my eyes, my ears would be pulled and my nose punched by either one. I also know that many in the smaller parties, particularly my friend, Mr Lenox Shuman would have wished for me to be a part of his Liberty and Justice Party (LJP). But even though I like the guy, being a politician is certainly not my cup of tea.
With that being said, I wish to state a reality. I think that the few friends I have in the APNU/AFC might be upset with me for saying what I am about to say. However, this is a democracy and I have a right to speak my heart, especially against blatant and deliberate injustice and oppression. Although pained, I will speak my heart with words of energy, elegance, decency, and respect – something my Afro-Guyanese educational masters have taught me from kindergarten to adulthood. It is because of this upbringing that I still refer to the President – even though he is in caretaker mode – as his Excellency, the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and his Ministers, because that is what they are, according to the laws of this country – albeit their governance has ended.
My issue is that the APNU/AFC have got to stop thinking and spreading the false impression that they were cheated on. It is quite obvious from all the goings-on, the conspiracies, the deceitful manipulations, and erratic shenanigans that they are aware from the second day after the vote that they have lost the elections. Look at what you, APNU (PNC) – and I am sad to say, a party that I have had some excellent friendship with – are doing to the psyche of the Guyanese nation. Guyanese people are suffering! Our economy is in the doldrums! Mr President, Guyana is broken! It is beaten and it is in the limping stage of a wimp due to poor administration and hungry political power-persons. Many of whom seem to think that the regions and assets of Guyana are their personal property. Something that can be given at their whim and fancy to family and friends or groups where the kickbacks will flow and they can enrich themselves by gifting themselves large tracks of virgin jungles and forests, mineral mining lands, our seabed and so much more for the sake of aggrandising wealth to enjoy to the maximum the assets and the wealth of the people. But Mr President, they are forgetting one thing, they are forgetting that in the end, we all have to die and turn into mud. All that we have accomplished in deceitful, internecine, and insidious ways will come to nought because death is inevitable, and sooner than later, we have to leave it all behind. In the dignity and honour of wisdom, our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught us: “Go for the good things in this world as if you would live forever, but go for the hereafter as if you would die tomorrow.” Mr President, the military officials of the Office of the Presidency and others, please remember that for the sins you commit two by two, you will have to pay for them one by one.
Mr President, Guyanese aren’t masochists (persons who enjoy feeling pain). Why am I saying this? Well, Mr President, people have suffered in this country, since 2015. This was evident from the Local Government Elections where the Government and particularly the AFC took a whipping that was unheard of. After that, some token developments were being done in particular communities where ethnic preference seemed to have been the criteria for growth and development. Bear in mind that a political entity cannot just look out for one people and additionally, cannot terminate one’s contract before one’s start and give it to those who are unworthy or undeserved or did not fight the war in the form of the tender scheme because of ethnic priorities or hate of a personality.
Now Mr President, how would you expect votes in the sugar belt? Even in those areas where the sugar industry was not closed down. How would you expect votes? When at the whim and fancy of the Cabinet in Georgetown, in secret, you eked out a plan that appeared to be a plan of hatred and vengeance against the sugar block because they did not give most of their votes to the APNU and the AFC. The AFC managed to get a little bit to shift themselves in Government, albeit without much power, most in ceremonial. Imagine the parliamentarian responsible for Berbice Sir, he never even knew! I was taken by surprise when he said this in the newspapers. That is full of insult and to my opinion, completely disgraceful to the individual and to the shock of the stakeholders, particularly the workers and the towns that were accustomed to the spin-off industries that were created as a result of sugar. Out of which, tens of thousands more survived beyond the sugar workers themselves.
I reiterate to you Sir, Guyanese are not masochists – you cannot expect people to vote for you and you cannot try to create scenarios whereby the dead are alleged to have awoken and walked to vote and then walked back into the graves. You cannot expect people to vote for you when you cannot give an account of D’Urban Park complex, as to the expenditure of funds to date (5 years). When over sixty per cent of the mining industry, small and medium-scale miners have abandoned their claims. The revenue of the Government and the way of life of the miners have been seriously affected. Over nine hundred employees of the bauxite industry are out of work to date. And, nothing was done in the housing sector by the coalition except for the few core homes. The East Coast Highway was really a project of the previous Administration as is the Sheriff Street project. These were all set by the previous Administration. But there is very little in reality that has been done to support business and industry in the country and, therefore, the coalition cannot expect people to just vote for them. This includes their own supporters, many of whom abandon them in the local elections and general elections. Precisely, because the people did not feel any kind of support or care from the Government of the day. In general, I would say that because of the behavioural pattern and attitudes of certain power brokers, they have caused friends and supporters to abandon the party and those who are financially supporting have seen a weakness in which they feel that the money they are spending will buy them a million times of their money. For them, it is not done out of love for the party but as an investment.
VAT on education was highlighted by me leading to a personal protest which many others joined, and other protests by others were also activated. They seem to have forgotten that in a year, people will be eighteen and ready to vote, and in another two, three, four, or five years, tens of thousands more would be ready to vote that have tremendous hate towards the Government that instituted this terror on education. For that, I was marked, blacklisted, and disaffected in my business. Persons were sent to survey me and my movements but Sir, I used the opportunity to remind the political power block that the people are the bosses and not the Government. The Government can be replaced anytime by the will of the people even before elections if they so desire, and the Government needs to wake up and smell the coffee. These were my exact words! For that, I was lashed out at with more targeting directed at me. Eventually, I heard one of the bigger boys, the Director General when he functioned as a Minister after he got into trouble saying the exact same thing that the people are the true bosses and I had a knee jerk and I smiled, but Mr President, the damage has already been done. In Region Four, many of them, and I will give you an idea – particularly those that are mixed grouping – voted PPP/C because the damage was deep and overbearing.
So, with this in mind Mr President, you have to realise along with your team that Guyanese are not masochists. We cannot take the pain and still love the pain givers. This also refers to Sophia, many of its residents have worked for me, and have told me that they voted against the coalition in the last Local Government Elections and that they voted against them again in this elections. That they will not vote perpetually because of an ethnic priority. Mr President and politicians, Guyanese are losing the ethnic style of voting. Beware!
Another round of advice, tell your people to stop advising the electorate or supporters of the APNU that they have won the elections, because as the propaganda Czar of Hitler, Goebbels said: “You tell a lie long enough, you yourself begin to believe it.” So, the persons who were saying these lies to the people and the people hearing these lies, they are all starting to believe it. The reality is that the PNC in association with its coalition partners have lost the election and your party needs to stop pushing this.
Mr President, I had predicted in the early days of 2015 to my management staff to watch my words come to pass, and I listed very keenly, as I usually do, my predictions. I said, the poor people will get nothing from this Government and as I said above, it was evident from the Local Government Elections that the people were forgotten. What I mentioned to them next was that if you look very carefully and coming up to the next election, the APNU/AFC will build about two hundred houses and give it to some people in order to pull the wool over the eyes of their supporters. And, they will get excited saying that two hundred people will be getting houses but of course, the houses we saw are for those that were done for the people in Charlestown.
Mr President, my word came to pass.

Sincerely,
Hajji Dr Roshan Khan
Sr