Sorry, no President Irfaan for me
Could it be political immaturity, inspired by an ageing mind, which prevents me from ever accepting the PPP’s Mohamed Irfaan as President of our Guyana Republic?
Could be nuh? Cause I accepted the imposition by Comrade Janet, in 1998, of Comrade Bharrat. (But you see, then I sort of empathized with the PNC’s Lance Carberry. Comrade Lance was beside himself with quiet but seething anger over the Janet Jagan
Presidency. “No-no Allan, I just cannot accept that aged American as my country’s Head of State and Government.” (Did he add “White”?) . So Janet bequeathed Bharrat to us. I never knew what PNC Comrade Carberry made of that. But the rest, as they say is history.
I welcomed Bharrat and wrote pieces about him in these columns. Here we had the youngest leader in the Western hemisphere; healthy as an economist who was mentored by both PNC and PPP economic planners and Finance Ministers. So hopeful were thousands as the forest prevented us from seeing the trees! Now just as Cde Janet foisted Cde Bharrat upon the psyche of this unfortunate nation, so too a matured, more cunning Bharrat wants to foist a Comrade Doctor Mohammed Irfaan upon this still-blighted place.
Though I can have nothing personal against this PPP “young turk”, to me, Frankly Speaking, he is not “presidential material.” In my column of October 03, 2014 my lead was “Indefatigable, ubiquitous: Minister M.I. Ali.” In that five-years-ago piece I outlined the varied onerous Cabinet and other responsibilities doled out to young Irfaan. Examples: Minister of Water, Housing, Tourism, Industry, Commerce; overseeing GuyExpo
whilst being PPP Finance Secretary organizing campaign funding for the fateful elections of 2015 (May).
To me, Frankly Speaking, that is when Dr Bharrat started “positioning” his young surrogate Irfaan for ultimate leadership. Over his other young peer Robert Persaud!
Even though I feel that the allegations regarding Ali’s allocating land to his PPP comrades and others like the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Rear Admiral will go nowhere, I cannot accept a personality whose academic certificates attract doubt; whose tenure as Housing Minister was really a mixed bag and whose personal domestic acquisitions were somewhat “sudden”if not “suspect”.
As one who appreciates simple lucid articulation as well as fine oratory, Comrade Mr Doctor Ali can’t impress me. But okay, I am well aware that “a man of words” alone doesn’t mean a capable leader, but was M. Irfaan Ali the best the PPP had to offer?
To be a President with a potentially-capable Brigadier Prime Minister? I think not!
You-all see where all the above leaves poor me? I don’t accept Ali. And I must now certainly distance myself from the quiet autocrat - His Excellency DAG. Poor me?
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The COVID Colonel’s Force
Just a most brief brief to repeat my opinion of His Excellency’s National COVID Task Force. For deliberate reasons, His Excellency appointed his Green-House spokesman former Lt Col Harmon to head that pivotal body. I describe Harmon as our “COVID Colonel” but in fact Comrade Joe was never a full Colonel. But Lawrence “Pablo” Paul was. And he is on the “Force.” With Archer and Craig etc. His Excellency’s able “qualified” military men.
So we know the publicly stated responsibilities of “the force”, but consider the COVID Colonel’s other (possible) agendas. From approving aeroplane flights to granting permission for additional Elections Recount Stations to implementing archaic provisions of an oldtime public Health Ordinance to restricting rights, to deciding if and when “total lockdowns” must be imposed, you get the reality of His Excellency’s COVID Colonel’s Task Force. Who still thinks of any internal rift? Ho-ho.
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The fit-and-proper Lady’s long count
Just a relevant aside: I wonder what Cde Bharrat now thinks of his GECOM Chairman nominee? The female retired Judge once known as a local Judicial “Iron Lady”? Ho-ho-ho.
Deemed fit and proper to lead the Elections outfit by His Excellency, Bharrat’s choice now oversees a long recount superintended by her officer CEO Lowenfield.
I now repeat two of my own “beliefs” and introduce one slightly–complex question.
My pre-March 02 Mantra of PNC “winning by any means necessary” may still be quite valid. Check the mischief attending the long count then imagine His Excellency’s GECOM foursome deciding that we never had credible elections then challenges; endless litigation and slothful courts while His Excellency takes months and months for any new polls. Not possible? Sanctions? Ho-ho-ho!
My query is from a mind of a simple layman unschooled in constitutional law: Can the Judicial Iron Lady, her female legal adviser and His Excellency’s countless attorneys successfully defeat arguments from Ram and Ramkarran that the GECOM Chair has no other legal choice except to make a declaration based on the current recount? And that all other revelations and objections are the subject only of a post-swearing-in petition? Expect robust legal debates! (By the way, do you have absolute faith in the recount?) Even as magician Mingo defies the court?
Please ponder…
1) Minister-former Commissioner-Felix can access any certificate he craves. So there…
2) Any theft of votes by any political/electoral entity means your vote has no value in future.
2 b) Listening to His Excellency repeat his Decade of Development (2020-2029) Petroleum/Green Plan - he’ll be 84 in 2029 - it’s difficult to find fault with those economic development projections.
What a pity that “decade” might be “developed” by virtue of a stolen mandate.
3) I suggest denying certain academics the privilege of responses and debate. Don’t respond!
4) Is it not time for some inquiry into the operations of the Trinidad-owned Republic Bank here?
5) What an open information society the USA is! warship and aircraft carrier are affected by their members’ COVID. America tells the world, her enemies. Who else does that?
6) What? The small new parties together garnered more votes than the deadmeat opportunist party? Hoho-ho
’Til next week (allanafenty@yahoo.com)
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