Dear Editor,
I have always believed that as citizens of this great country we are duty bound to voice our opinions whenever we believe that the fundamental freedoms and rights that we enjoy are being jeopardized by those who occupy the corridors of power for their own self-interest and aggrandizement.
I also firmly hold the view as articulated by the first female British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that, “It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think that they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.”
It is against this backdrop that I wish to offer a response to the infamous ‘piece of art’ penned by someone operating under the name Dillion Goring who attempted to shamefully respond to the solid arguments first put forward in my original missive dated September 24, 2019 as published by your newspaper and other media entities locally and abroad.
I must admit that Goring’s letter was quite colourful, full of flair and windless rhetoric. Like those he purports to defend, he spends most of his time attacking the messenger and ascribing all manner of motives and personal innuendos to the messenger as opposed to clearly and academically responding to the message. A pen is a dangerous thing when placed in the wrong hands. I will not make the same mistake.
Goring states in his missive that under the APNU/AFC coalition Government Guyana is moving forward, there is robust growth and business is booming. He doesn’t stop there he asserts that “all senior sector officers continuing to support a government that allows them to function in a professional manner, which means non-interference in their daily administration, unlike the PPP/C micro managing system”.
He does stop there, in his unscholarly and desperate attempt to paint the coalition as the architects of good governance in Guyana. He alleges that youths are flocking David Granger and his ‘Ministers’ because they have gotten a new lease on life which has led to a rise in the self-esteem and level of hopefulness about the future.
If that wasn’t interesting enough, attempts and fails again, to challenge my position that dark days are upon again by arguing that some “sun” was shining brighter than ever on Guyana. He tries to fashion Mr Granger as the best President in Guyana’s history and by somehow by the extend the world who upholds the law and practices non-interference in the work of Constitutional bodies.
Throughout Goring’s letter I was at times bemused, outraged and shocked. At other points, I found myself fighting off a mild-cardiac arrest. That anyone could present that amount of politically-biased diarrhoea to the public is beyond me. I am led to believe now more than ever, the popular statement in American literature where the character of Prometheus speaks the phrase: Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad in the poem “The Masque of Pandora” (1875), by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Goring and the David Granger APNU/AFC Coalition Government will have to do better at piloting realistic and intellectual arguments if they want to convince Guyanese that they have somehow delivered then “good life” as promised back in 2015.
The truth is, the country and President that Goring describes does not exist. If they do, it would be in the land of Narnia or in post-galactic universe. Or maybe, it does for those in the hierarchy of the coalition because they have all some way or the other benefited from having their hands in the cookie jar. In just 16-months into office there were more than 26 scandals involving officials with the APNU/AFC coalition that related to mismanagement and siphoning off of billions of dollars of taxpayers funds. The total stands now to over 50 scandals. Will he deny the Drug Bond Scandal, the Durban Park Fiasco, the US$18M signing bonus saga, and the infamous ministerial salary increases fiasco even though every single credible news agency here and abroad have reported on it? These Ministers have all lied, misled and deliberately been evasive despite their promises. They have no creditability to talk about PPP/C corruption over a 23-year period when in less than five years, they were living like the Kardashians.
While Granger’s administration enjoyed the largess of the state, thousands of young professionals were unfairly dismissed from their jobs because of the political and alleged racial cleansing that took place. That aside, over 7, 000 more sugar workers lost their jobs as estates closed and haplessness spread through all regions of this country. Businesses slowed and investments both foreign and domestic were on the decline as the Finance Minister tried to understand basic economic and budgetary principles. Unemployment, crime and violence as well as underemployment soared. Just let, Carvil Duncan, Linclon Lewis and others tell about how workers have been suffering at the hands of many local and foreign companies since 2015 with little or no meaningful assistance from the Government. I challenge him to say what “hope” and “sun” was given to these people by this uncaring Granger Government.
At every level, the politics of David Granger has been deceptive, dangerous and divisive. Attempts under his watch were made to interfere with the functionality of the police, public and judicial service Commission’s execution of their duties. He illegally and unilaterally appointed a GECOM Chair and has still to date failed 10 months-after to give effect to will of Parliament which passed the No-Confidence motion. His Government is illegitimate because of his dilly-dally and politics of power. He has no integrity to speak about upholding the Constitution. He is at variance with it at every turn.
Goring needs to disabuse his mind of the notion that anyone idealizes or worships, David Granger. His track-record has become his legacy. He must now stand on it. No amount of lyrical twists, public relations and image handling campaign can help him now.
That is precisely the reason why he nor the APNU/AFC coalition can afford to go the polls. They know that they have committed the biggest political heist in the history of this country. Granger and Goring know that the ballot is stronger than both the powerful and the pen. He knows that the pre-elections sweets, jump-up concerts and political witch-hunts have not worked to his benefits and will not work. Invoking race will not work.
Goring should ask himself why would any Government that has delivered the good life to its populace be afraid of elections? Why run? Why not stand on your record and the integrity of those within your circle?
Granger, and the coalition’s fate was sealed on November 12, 2018 when the PPP white-washed them at the LGE polls. That was the referendum on his political usefulness and the end of third-party politics altogether.
We, the youths, might be young but we ain’t stupid. This is my last response to Goring.
Regards,
Michael Younge
