Ghost company, ghost donors in a ghost country

May 09, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

No one can understand what power does to rulers. We may try but in the end we never succeed. The big, bruk-up guy on the scene these days is Royston King who has replaced the towering presence of the diminutive figure of the PPP’s bad boy. I am not going to name the PPP’s bully because I can do without a libel suit and Mr. King likes his court papers. Remember he carried his predecessor, Carol Sooba to court. Sooba I heard is smiling telling people whenever she meets them, the following words, “Ya’ll get me out but look wuh King doing; good fuh ya’ll.”
Interesting that they both are not tall guys but accompanying their small frame is the willingness to put aggression in front of reason. King is the Real McKoy (as they same in common parlance in journalism and literature) of the APNU-AFC Government. Like the PPP, the APNU-AFC will go through political life not learning a damn thing about philosophy.  King, Chase-Green and Sherod Duncan remind the historian of the destructive poison of power. When he was trying to get his job from Sooba, King cut a pathetic figure of resignation. When I saw him, I felt sympathetic and that drove me to pen about six columns in which I mentioned the invalidity of Sooba’s tenure.
Little did I know the pugnacity that resided in the soul of Royston King. The ink wasn’t dried on King’s appointment letter when he turned into the Real McKoy and arrogated to himself the right to dictate the shape of Georgetown.  King, Chase-Green and Duncan of course like their seniors in their central party, APNU-AFC, are not willing to learn the lessons of life. Mr. Glenn Lall, the publisher of this newspaper had his face so enlarged with his laugher that it was funny to see.
Mr. Lall said he came off the plane, passed through the incoming lounge, and did not recognize this obscure figure who was once one of Guyana’s powerful Leviathans. Mr. Lall said he couldn’t believe how humble was the man when he passed by. So I suggested to Mr. Lall that he should ask this former king if he, the former king was allowed through the VIP lounge. Of course I was laughing my head off when I said that.
This former big-wig, like the rest of the PNC leadership from the eighties and like the rest of the PPP leadership from the beginning of the new millennium, learnt nothing about the Hegelian dialectics of life. The PNC thought they would have been in power forever. That delusion of grandeur exploded in 1992. The PPP embraced the same megalomaniacal fervor and saw its world crumbled in May 2015. Politicians are creatures of vapour. We come now to the repetition of history.
The APNU-AFC Coalition rode to power on the shouts of the masses for the end to secrets. It was a land of secrets under the presidency of Jagdeo and Ramotar. No one knew who bought government’s land. No one knew who bought government’s play toys. No one knew the investor who built a dog kennel and got billions of dollars in concessions for building the same dog kennel. The new administration after May 2015 invented a regime known as the forensic audit. The forensic audit became ubiquitous. This careful investigation was to make the secrets public. It would tell us where the dog kennel was built, who built it and for what sum.
At the time of writing, the forensic audit is tantalizing the Guyanese people. Which company in China is really behind the purchase of the Guyana Government’s 20 percent share in GTT? Where is the remaining $US5 million? In the middle of the forensic audit, the secrets of mystery and the mystery of secrets have landed in Guyana, piloted not by the fallen PPP regime but the new kid on the block – the APNU-AFC Coalition. A company has been formed to landscape and build the pivotal Golden Jubilee celebration site named the Durban Park project.
Old habits never die in the land of ghosts first known as British Guiana now Guyana. No one knows the name of this company. This entity’s main role is to receive money from business firms and rich individuals to build the Durban Park project but like the ghost company, the givers of money are also ghosts. No one knows who they are. Unless the Government names the company, it remains a secret. Unless the donors identity themselves, they remain ghosts.  With one exception – me. I donated $50 million to the company and the company’s name is the APNU-AFC Builders Incorporated.”