What about a polygraph test, Mr. President? by Khemraj Ramjattan

The recent surge of demonstrations sponsored by the PNC, especially coming so soon after being paid $100 million, did not surprise me. And surely it did not surprise the President and the PPP.Being once an insider in Jagdeo’s PPP, and being discerning enough to comprehend the sometimes muddled machinations from its calculating cabal, has taught me that the PPP’s giving is always an investment, and its tears are very often crocodile.So the President will behave as if he is surprised that the PNC has taken to the streets so irresponsibly after his big handout to that party. And he will shed some crocodile tears pretending that he means what he says when he says: “It would have been better had we supported the AFC in getting a proportion of the scrutineers’ monies.”When His Excellency was putting his best face forward on these matters at his press conference, I was shouting loudly: “How about a polygraph test Mr. President; to test whether you really mean what you’re publicly pronouncing?” You may have noticed that I deleted the expletives.I am aware of a couple of instances where this President would have failed a polygraph test. One such was the occasion when he said in front of my face at a PPP Central Committee meeting that I was a carrier of information to the American Embassy and the Press; and, later denied ever saying so. He even got 29 signatures to toe his line. Thank God there was a Moses who heard him distinctly saying so. Moses Nagamootoo has since been paying the penalty for hearing, and not being the 30th signatory.I hope this brings an end to the debate on polygraph tests ever being used to qualify persons for public office.The top brass of the PPP knows very well that this Government is taking a licking from even its own members. There is a massive vexation about the high food prices, the unbearable criminality in every category – against the person, against property and even against the State, the rapid impoverishment of large sections of our communities, and the arrogance and ignorance exhibited by Senior Government Officials in coming to grips with all this.A diversion is needed to take the PPP’s members and supporters’ minds off these hardships. The wranglings and rumblings within its own rank and file were occurring recently at Port Mourant, Rose Hall, Canje, Bath Settlement, Lusignan and New Amsterdam, as is well known. Persons protesting a multitude of grievances in PPP strongholds were being fired on with shots and teargas. Unbelievable you would think. Moreover, some were being violently arrested and locked up and charged.What does the PPP do? Create a diversion. What better diversion could there be to neutralize such internal crises, and such disunity within the PPP’s ranks and strongholds, than to see the PNC marchers breaking police barriers, causing a shut down at Parliament, and burning effigies in front of Parliament.How could this be done? Pay the PNC leaders some monies - a lil $100M. And as a leading insider would say: “Comrade you gon see how this payout gon payoff.”And it did. $100M of taxpayers’ monies was invested through the so called benevolence of the Jagdeo Government, intended for scrutineers, but cleverly to procure PNC antics in Georgetown’s main streets. Once the monies were paid out, the PPP well knew that this was going to happen, like night follows day. The PPP told its NCN camera-men to be prepared for it. These cameras from NCN were in full force taping and recording every detail. And later NCN was thereafter in full blast, broadcasting right up to 2 am especially in Berbice and Essequibo how PNC attacked Parliament. Yes - it twisted the story a little for the rural people. This happened for most of the prime time for the next three nights in Berbice and Essequibo particularly, and even in Demerara.And as was predicted, the priorities of the Babulalls and Beharrys got tangential if not wholly askew. The PPP is brilliant in doing what they do – spend the State’s money and get political mileage even though such a spending is obscene as this. The PNC cannot be restrained from doing what they do – march straight into the PPP’s trap and get burnt. Then the cussdown starts - Luncheon versus Aubrey Norton, Jagdeo versus Corbin. This will go on for another month. In the meantime, the Babulalls and Beharrys abandon any further deliberation on how rotten the PPP Government is as fear drives them back into camp, having seen the PNC’s outbursts live in the safety of their homes. This will go on until both the members and supporters of the PPP and PNC realize that there is every need for a politics of change. Liberation in Guyana will now mean a breaking of the shackles from the PNC and PPP. A blind fanaticism driven largely by fear must yield to reason. Only when reason prevails will there be a genuine democracy. Such a democracy includes not only free and fair elections, but also good governance and the rule of law.This kind of PPP politics which is played out in Guyana today has deleterious effects on senior officials who are to referee the system. They too get taken in by these obscenities, these deformities.This happened to the officials at GECOM. Remember how GECOM, through Mr. Boodhoo, said GECOM is not involved in the distribution of monies for scrutineers, much less to apportion it proportionately. “We have no mandate to deal with these money issues” was what Mr. Boodhoo was telling us in the AFC, even in the face of a court order. Ask Patterson and Franklin. Today from all the reports and statements from President Jagdeo and Roger Luncheon and even Robert Corbin it was GECOM which approved the payment of $100M each to the PPP and PNC Chief Scrutineers.It does appear that GECOM officials too may not be able to pass a polygraph test.GECOM miscounted, in the last general elections, the votes of the AFC in Region 10 to deny us our sixth seat in Parliament. It now has misconstrued its legal authority causing the AFC to be denied approximately $21M. It would not be out of place to mount a campaign to demand locally, regionally and internationally the resignation of these jagabats in GECOM. They, it seems at least to the AFC, are neither numerate nor literate.