Dear Editor,
I read Freddie Kissoon’s column of August 11 with great interest. In it, Freddie refers to Cheddi Jagan’s “depraved attack… on Unamco…” Sorry Freddie, I’m afraid that this was just not so. President Cheddi Jagan always tried to be helpful to Unamco whereas President Bharrat Jagdeo did not.
There is a history to the Unamco Case Timbers fiasco which, to date, has not been mentioned in newsprint. It is the genesis of Unamco’s problem and I shall mention it now. Soon after the PPP won the 1992 elections, a small team of PPP people accompanied President Jagan on a visit to Malaysia. At that time Dr Mahathir was Malaysia’s Head of State. The Guyanese delegation was introduced to Dr Mahathir and he in turn introduced them to Tan Sri Vincent Tan, his close friend and private sector mentor, as a leading billionaire business tycoon with worldwide investments. Tan Sri was later to become the leading investor in Case Timbers Ltd and Unamco. At some stage while the Guyanese delegation was in Malaysia, Dr Jagan invited Tan Sri to invest in Guyana, specifically mentioning our forestry sector. Tan Sri agreed and the Malaysian investors offered a US$1 million ‘freck’ to facilitate the intended investment. Dr Jagan refused the offer both for himself and subsequently for his political party. Roughly 11 months later I met Tan Sri in London and we became partners in Case Timbers Ltd. Subsequently we bought Unamco and operated the twin companies as one.
After Dr Jagan’s demise, there was an attempt to revive the Malaysian offer that was unceremoniously rebuffed. War was then declared on the CTL/Unamco investment and the rest is history.
The statement that “Jagan kept delaying the necessary documents for the firm’s forestry concessions…” is also inaccurate. At the level of the GFC, under Navin Chandarpal’s control at the time, every effort was made to slow down Unamco’s progress. On at least 3 occasions we met with President Jagan asking him to intervene and pave the way for CTL/Unamco to enjoy a better working relationship with the GFC. At these meetings the President would have several high-ranking government persons present including Dr Luncheon (who, uncharacteristically, never said a single word), Navin Chandarpal, Sam Hinds and Kellowan Lall. I am convinced that President Cheddi Jagan did his best to tame GFC’s hostility towards Unamco and set the investment on a safe trajectory. Indeed he gave instructions to this effect on several occasions but they were never carried out.
In my humble opinion, Cheddi Jagan as Guyana Inc’s CEO, was too trusting of his subordinates and assumed that once he gave instructions they would be carried out to the letter. He did not have the marvellously retentive memory of a Burnham or the hands-on approach required to properly manage the human resource. Dr Jagan also lacked Burnham’s cuss-down capacity when dealing with renegade behaviour and deep-seated incompetence. It is my view that his subordinates recognized these weaknesses and took full advantage of them. To a man they were anchored in a communist ideology, but there were other reasons why they wanted Unamco to fail. Their efforts though half-baked and ineffectual managed to put patient Unamco on life support until Bharrat Jagdeo got Robert Persaud to pull the plug.
Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case
