APNU’s presidential candidate David Granger says that a government led by him will not be “afraid of investigating anything”— including allegations of rigged elections during the 28-year rule of the PNC.
“I do feel that, and I have committed myself to convening a Commission of Inquiry into any allegations of wrongdoing,” Granger said in a recent interview with this newspaper. “If there were allegations about the conduct of elections, I will inquire into all of the elections up to 2006; from 1968 to 2006, all of them. I’m not afraid of investigating anything,” he stressed. “I have nothing to fear. I have nothing to hide,” he added. Granger had been asked whether as the former PNCR presidential candidate he felt the PNC had anything to apologize for during its time in office.
Granger, 66, said he would investigate any wrongdoing or any allegation of wrongdoing on the part of any government of Guyana including the death of former leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Walter Rodney. He is also keen to have an investigation into the murders of all those who died during the crime spree between 2002 and 2008. “I know it is important because families want answers,” he said. “So it is a commitment, I don’t have to be prodded into doing that. We are going to do that because the country was badly divided and if we are to achieve a high level of national unity answers have to be provided to those events,” he told Stabroek News. As president, he said, he would not only investigate all these issues but promised that were persons found culpable of committing crimes they would face the courts.
“It has now been accepted in several countries, particularly those… traumatized by violence that some form of reconciliation [must] be made,” he said, when asked how important these inquiries are to the nation as a whole.
Meanwhile, questioned about the continued allegations he faces from the government about his involvement in the shooting to death of two PPP activists at Number 64 Village Polling Station during the elections of 1973, he said that at some stage he may resort to legal advice to see how to stop these allegations. The allegations were first made by President Bharrat Jagdeo earlier this year while addressing the memorial service for former presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan held at Babu John, Port Mourant. Granger has denied these allegations. However, since then, government officials have repeated the accusations.
“It is a scandal. It is a lie and a person of the level of the president would be expected to withdraw a statement which is a complete untruth. But he hasn’t done it,” Granger said.
Granger again pointed to the report coming out of the inquiry done by Justice Dhanessar Jhappan into the incident, saying that this proved his innocence. “I made it clear that I was not even on the scene. I was not the commander of that operation. I had nothing at all to do with it. And the Commission of Inquiry pointed out who did the shooting and who had, I would say, responsibility for the disorder and the blame was put firmly at the feet of Dr Cheddi Jagan who instigated the young people to behave in a lawless manner,” he said.
He told Stabroek News that there were clearly racial and political motives for the President mentioning his name with this matter. “The point about that event is that I certainly couldn’t have been the only officer in the army at the time. Why didn’t Jagdeo mention the name of other officers who were directly involved in the operation or who were serving in the army at the time?” he said.
Recently, Office of the President Press and Publicity Officer Kwame Mc Coy, in a letter to the editor, charged that Granger bears some responsibility for the death of the men in the incident since he was responsible for the political education of soldiers at the time.
Granger, when asked about this, said while he did have responsibility for political education of soldiers the purpose of this exercise was to train soldiers to operate in a post colonial setting.
According to him, there was a difference in the type of training that was done in the colonial era to the one required in the period following independence and as such the training was in a way ensuring that there was a smooth transition between the two eras. “I did have responsibility for political education at a time when several countries in the developing world had been threatened by military coup d’état,” he said. “This was a period of decolonization, particularly in the immediate post 1966 era… and the whole purpose of political education at that time was to ensure that there was better understanding of the policies of the government,” he added.
