Dear Editor,
It was highly amusing to see the re-appearance in our political landscape of Robert Persaud, Mr. “Wannabe” himself; since Persaud once worked for the Mirror newspaper directly under the leadership of my mother, I occasionally heard her describe Persaud as unable to properly perform his duties at Mirror and was readily prone to bad judgement and questionable actions, like when he wrangled a ticket to India to attend a conference which Mrs. Jagan had explicitly told him he could not go to. Fast forward to Robert Persaud’s stint as Agriculture Minister with his “grow more food” nonsense and his callous attitude to our sugar workers for whom he did nothing; as Minister of Natural Resources, his performance was dismal and in retrospect, the Guyanese people were denied opportunities in the sectors he controlled; he was put in charge of the PPP’s campaign in 2011 and 2015 and brought twin disasters, in his emphasis on huge meetings instead of more sustained and numerous smaller public meetings all over the country. And then, when victory was denied to the PPP in 2015, Persaud “abandoned ship”, running out of the country as quick as he could; now, he’s a “consultant” and waiting for a chance for the PPP’s return to power when nepotism will kick in and he’ll be back in government – an idle dream for a failed political operative.
Editor, there have been numerous comments on the demise of the AFC and how they can’t bring any votes to the coalition government and using the local elections as a death-knell of the AFC. These commentators fail to realize that the AFC has been alive and kicking for 10 years and that party has changed the very landscape of politics in Guyana – the APNU coalition’s success in the last polls was due to the AFC’s considerable impetus into the electoral processes and the organizational direction by its leaders was second to none. The new small parties can never “steal” votes from the AFC and even with the betrayal of Charrandass Persaud, that Party will still take votes from the PPP all over the country. Therefore, it is vitally important that President Granger cements stronger relationships, not only with the AFC but with all the other parties in the coalition by goodwill, firmness and tolerance to realize a good victory in the next elections – let the coalition remember that should the opposition win, our country will be faced with a government which will throw us all back to what is wrong for us- one party government dedicated to a world-view shared by dictators like Maduro, Putin and their “comrades” – with mismanagement of the economy as a certainty. We, the Guyanese people, will reject any communists from our government because we can see clearly what communists accomplish by just looking at the disaster in Venezuela; with oil money coming, the last thing we need are people who are committed to Marxism-Leninism, like the PPP leadership, who readily admit their failed ideology. The AFC has been a breath of fresh air to our politics and will bring many votes to the coalition and the leadership has real political talent in defining and cementing Mr. Granger’s coalition’s vision of a real partnership for national unity. Ms. V Lawrence and Mr. Gaskin will work out any problems in the coalition’s good interest, I am sure of that, and the spurious accusations and innuendo about Moses and Khemraj by certain political commentators will be muted in a short time.
Editor, lastly, in our society, certain political commentators and political wannabees (a lot of wannabees want to form third parties and run for President) are way off the mark and live in an apparent state of confusion as to the political reality in our Republic. There are only two choices in the next general election – voting for a third party is like throwing your vote away. On one hand, there are the PPP communists who view Moscow as their “Mecca” and whose best friends are the people who wrecked Venezuela and on the other hand, there is President Granger and the Coalition, with commitments to free trade, foreign investment and trade, good education and with oil money coming- the good life.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)
