OPINION: The UN lit a fire under Jagdeo and his people

Last Updated on Monday, 25 March 2024, 15:26 by Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

I thought that civil society should be fearful, since its outspoken members and entities are the ones under constant attacks from the PPP Government and Bharrat Jagdeo’s round table.  Instead, the attackers are the frikkened ones.  Something has rattled their cage, whipped them into a frenzy.  Word is that the recent UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) proceedings has shaken Jagdeo to his socks, so his people are in attack mode.  Word is that they are going beyond registering their disapproval with customary media contributions.  They are taking out paid advertisements.  One would hope that they’re putting their hands in their own pockets to spend their own cash, and not what comes from the Bharrat Jagdeo’s war chest.  Because what I discern is that Guyanese don’t have to look afar for mindless fanatics, those politically correctly identified as fundamentalists.  They are right here.

Clearly, the UNHRC’s foci, and fusillades, have created some hysteria in PPP dens.  Bad news.  Bad optics.  Bad hair day for a lady minister.  Bad vibes in the hearts of investors.  Bad conclusions about Jagdeo himself who now sees some jumbie in every corner.  This explains why the well-rewarded in the PPP camp (the VP’s segment) rush to do damage control: paid ads.  State media.  Defensive postures.  I call this defending the indefensible.  I put the following (again) in the public realm.

Sections of the media are vilified, with women targeted, none like Indian women.  Reverse racism or raw leadership obscenity?  The UNHRC wanted to know about that, leading to Gail getting struck by a gale.  One of her close colleagues generates renewed interest, and the PPP Government itself is under the microscope for human rights and civils rights abuses, so the guys in Jagdeo’s gutter come out firing blindly.  Somebody is feeling the heat, is in a panic.  Civil society targeted.  On a personal note, I am not a journalist, simply a humble media contributor, and look at how much ink, how much attention, how much resources (and how much love) have come my way.  Jagdeo can have my name on any day that he wants as to who did what where.  I believe that when the media is attacked, and dissenters are excoriated, he gives a secret high-five to those that would meet his description of lowlife.

Similarly, when Gail tries evading giving a straight response, through that tidbit about ‘private business’, a word comes to mind: Discombobulated.  Nobody is fooled -SN mentioned ‘disingenuous.’  Further, a man who could do wonders for Guyana with this oil wealth (Adams) appears to be lied about in a reckless, bald-faced fashion, and it is normal by government standards.  The UNHRC raised the issue of the Environmental Protection Agency, and a shovel was hurled at Vincent Adams.  Out of residual regard for Mr. Khemraj Parsram, I’ll leave things there.  But a dagger was dug into the back of an honorable Guyanese, and it looks like there will be hell to pay.  Paying, there will be.  For the record, stabbing locals determined to be offensive, and noncompliant with the government’s propaganda, in the back is the PPP standard embraced.  I can attest to that, too.

When the few civil society segments in Guyana-tiny but thoughtful, patriotic and not given to leadership pandering-are hunted as if they are domestic terrorists by PPP controllers, then it should not surprise anyone that the UNHRC would show a strong interest.  The PPP trots out that old, tired dog: it is the PNC that is behind the developments from the UNHRC.  As lame excuses go, that one from the PPP Government, leadership, and propagandists is the equivalent of the PNC shouting to the world that the elections were rigged against it.  In both instances, nobody but imbeciles and national idiots attach any credibility to such statements.  Hence, the boys are forced to try a different tack.  They take out ads.  I think that that only makes matters worse.  Any Guyanese with a quarter of their braincells still functioning has long recognized that clean and credible governance went to the hounds in August 2020.  They have also concluded that the leadership in the PPP Government, with the barest minimum exception, cannot be in the same sentence where truth and trust are present.

Unsurprisingly, civil society and specific individuals have earned the undying wrath of PPP top dogs and the other dogs in its pound.  If anyone pauses to ask for what, they would be surprised.  I don’t think that any in domestic civil society is any part of the political competition, harbor political ambitions.  Thus, the first threats don’t exist.  Still, they are identified as parasites who must be stamped out for deviating from the standing scripts of Jagdeo and his versions of honesty and prudent leadership.  Paid ads are like those Exxon billboards: they expose.  They diminish and, ultimately, lead to disrepute.  Of course, there is always the quiet recovery of cash spent, if any was in the first place.  This is what I find delightful about Guyana: it is always good for interesting times.  Somebody should remember the Chinese.