Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News of October 25, reported President Bharrat Jagdeo as saying at the Lusignan rally that he threw me, Rajendra Bisessar, out of the party. It was further reported that the President said that I was a junior member of the party. KN further reported that the President said “he was advising me on collecting garbage in the flood time” and went on to say that “I didn’t even know when he was in my office,” and “I told Luncheon to fire this guy years ago.”
With regard to my being thrown out of the party, the General Secretary on NCN stated that I was expelled some years ago.
Both of these gentlemen are not being truthful. I was never expelled from the party. My last year of membership was in 2008 and I did not renew my card in 2009. Maybe the President can inform us which part of the PPP constitution gives him the powers to throw out any member. The PPP has a constitution that dictates the strict protocol to be utilized in the disciplining of members. I call upon Mr Jagdeo and the aspiring presidential candidate Donald Ramotar to produce the evidence, the minutes and other documents to back up their claims.
With regard to statement by Mr Jagdeo that I was a junior member of the PPP, he has to explain “junior” as opposed to “senior.” I occupied various positions in the past within the District and Regional Council of the PPP, and was a candidate member of the central committee (CC). At one time I was 37 in the elections at the congress for the CC, but when vacancies occurred I was bypassed. The General Secretary should explain why. Had Mr Jagdeo contested the CC before he became Minister he would have probably brought last place. In fact he never even contested.
I spoke at public meetings in various parts of the country. Mr Jagdeo was nowhere around. I was a candidate to be a central member of the PYO; let Mr Jagdeo tell us what positions he occupied in the PYO and the PPP prior to becoming a minister. Let him say how many letters he may have written in defence of the PPP and in criticism of the PNC; possibly none. Prior to Mr Jagdeo becoming a minister, he worked for the PNC government while I was victimized. As I said before, they transferred me from a secondary school to teach Prep A and so I resigned. President Jagdeo and the PPP government have done to me exactly what Burnham did to me, except that they did not beat me.
Speaking about seniority, I wonder how he compares himself to Nagamootoo. But Moses is quite capable of dealing with those usurpers and power drunken leaders.
As I said before I became fed up with the lack of internal democracy and wrote about it in the press. Not only do they manipulate by marginalizing members, but the actual election process lacks transparency.
With regard to my being employed by the Office of the President, Mr Jagdeo admits this, saying “He [Bisessar] was advising… on collecting garbage during the flood time.“ I did a good job and this was reported to Cabinet. I was efficient and economical and when the President insisted that the private sector come in, I objected. I will repeat what I said before, that the company I utilized spent $5.5 million to do the major clearing and cleaning, but the private sector brought in by Office of the President spent over $50 million just to remove the garbage that was brought out to the road.
The private sector came in and commenced to clear garbage with a compactor and men with pitchforks. That is laughable considering the garbage crisis that existed. The private sector commenced to clear one heap by the Better Hope Community Centre and I commenced the said morning with three backhoes and 35 trucks. I cleared the public road and the embankment road from Haslington all the way to Better Hope, and when I got there the private sector was still working on the one heap. Had I not done this and had depended on the private sector we all would have contracted some disease.
Now I am not there to advise him, look at the state of the solid waste disposal system. It is chaotic. Bottom line is Mr Jagdeo does not heed advice. He has the repertoire of all knowledge and if indeed he needs any, McCoy is there to provide it. According to the President he gave instructions to Luncheon to fire me. But he states, that he didn’t even know when I was in his office. Amazing is it not. This President employed me and cannot remember seeing me, and has forgotten that on so many occasions I travelled with him in his vehicle and in the same plane to meetings and took notes and he did not realize I was there.
Now everyone understands why his is a failed presidency.
But this same President nevertheless gave instructions to Dr Roger Luncheon that I be fired. I am sure If Mr Jagdeo considers this junior member so important that he has to discuss me at one of their biggest rallies according to the PPP, then I am sure the reporters can ask and Dr Luncheon can say something about the instructions given to him by the President to fire Rajendra Bisessar and what action he took.
I am sure also that Dr Luncheon being an “honourable man” – if I may quote from Mark Anthony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar – would tell us the grounds on which the firing of Bisessar was ordered. He will also inform us how his government invoked justice and whether in keeping with the right to natural justice he gave Bisessar a right to a hearing.
His answers will I am sure demonstrate to the workers of this country that they have no rights, for if they can treat a longstanding member of the PPP who was beaten, nearly killed and locked up and victimized by the PNC in this way, where is their claim to being a friend of the workers. Where is their claim to being a working class government?
I close by reminding readers that this government did the same to a freedom fighter of the PPP, Fazel Khan. They did the same thing to another, O‘Lall. They did the same to me, but unlike O’Lall, I will not die and let them off so easily. I am back in the trenches and in the same manner I fought against the corruption and lack of democracy of the PNC I will fight against the corruption and undemocratic practices of the PPP. I will fearlessly battle the inept, incompetent, visionless and corrupt cabal that now controls the PPP and the PPP/C government.
I have joined with the Alliance for Change and call on all the supporters of the PPP and the PNC to join with us as we move to put the PPP and the PNC disguised as APNU, out to pasture.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Bisessar
