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DEALS, DENIALS, DISINFORMATION AND USEFULNESS




As The Mice in Council say, who is going to bell the cat? Recently, some startling allegations of bribery and corruption were leveled against current Vice President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo.


Has Jagdeo finally outlived his usefulness in the eyes of the ABC countries? The plot thickens.


Isobel Yeung, an award winning reporter, with the United States based Vice TV had a one on one interview with Jagdeo earlier this month. The reporter asked what no local media operative to date has been able to address. That is, to enquire outright about the rumours circulating for many years. Notorious for being a country where the giving and taking of bribes to get the simplest of businesses transactions done, Guyana's rank on the corruption index hovers somewhere between 83-85.


Yeung questioned Jagdeo about allegedly accepting kickbacks from Chinese businessmen in order to facilitate them doing business in Guyana.


Jagdeo went into a state of conniption. Clearly, in an attempt to get ahead of the likely ensuing fallout, Jagdeo employed the public relations 101 strategy; that is to manage and control the narrative. Hence, Jagdeo utilised the fastest method of dissemination - his social media. He posted a part of the interview on his Face Book page. Interestingly, it should be noted that Vice News has not yet aired its interview.


In the excerpt Jagdeo posted, he admitted to helping people out but claimed that such help did not mean it was for consideration. A Mr. Su, who appears to be the Vice reporter's source, is known to Jagdeo. In fact, the vice president divulged that Su is a friend and client.


Apparently not satisfied with just the Face Book post, Jagdeo held a press conference that could be viewed as engaging in further damage control. The state-owned Guyana Chronicle newspaper's entire front page was devoted to the press conference and Jagdeo's denial. Jagdeo allegedly contacted Su, who subsequently issued a denial of the corruption allegations attributed to him. The Chinese Embassy too followed suit with a denial. It claimed that it was an attack on Guyana-China cooperation and Chinese companies.


Meanwhile, the usual suspects began a red herring letter writing storm in the local press, obviously aimed at throwing in all sorts of distractions, whether relevant or not. Hilariously they ranged from accusations of photoshopping smiles on the faces of dead victims, to reports of the media group being in a downward spiral in recent years. One also claimed, that in order to survive, Vice is allegedly inventing exposes on corruption in developing countries, ostensibly to feed the colonial narratives in North American markets.


Be that as it may, a salient point is being ignored in the ensuing hoopla. Somehow, it is highly unlikely that an award winning journalist with years of experience would put not only her career, but her financial stability on the line to accuse a sitting vice president of a country of corruption just for the fun of it without having hard evidence to support such a serious allegation. That makes no sense, more so as that reporter does not have a pony in the show.


Following the spate of denials, Yeung's return salvo stated "we seem to have hit a nerve with Guyana's Vice President Jagdeo. Our report hasn't even come out yet."


What the government deniers and apologists fail to appreciate is that Jagdeo agreed to the interview and once you do that, the PR 101 strategy that he failed to employ advises one to determine before hand from the journalist, especially a foreign one, what are the areas of focus. If the journalist refuses, then one can in turn refuse to be interviewed. That apart, casting aspersions on the messenger rather than evaluating the message is clearly an attempt by the PPP et al to pre-empt the message, perhaps fearing its contents.


Allow me to digress and cast your minds back to February 2021. It was then that Guyanese Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd announced that the country and Taiwan were strengthening ties and as such, Taiwan was opening a representative office there. Mere hours following the announcement, China urged Guyana to "correct their mistake." After which, the Guyanese Government, hastily withdrew the agreement, stating that it would adhere to the one China policy. Arguably, the blow back from the Taiwan debacle may be more far-reaching that one first thought; it seems that China was in that instance 'ruling the roost.'


The irony of that Taiwan fiasco is that

Foreign Minister Hugh Todd is by no stretch of the imagination a PPP insider. Ergo, the decision to recognise Taiwan was unlikely to have been his alone. Yet, he allowed himself to be the pawn thrown under the bus by none other than Jagdeo who in media reports categorically stated that cabinet did not approve the Taiwan office in Guyana (Demerara Waves February 9 2021). To date Todd has made zero attempt to stand up for himself.


Hence, the foregoing Taiwan debacle is an example of the US - China rivalry. It is seemingly a part of the basis of PPP administration claims that Vice has an agenda as the US takes a dim view of what it sees as China's hegemonic ambitions in the Caribbean and Latin America.


Noteworthy is a few days after Jagdeo's denial and press conference, the British envoy, High Commissioner Miller, felt compelled to issue a rather conveniently timed statement on transparency when she called for greater transparency in the local tendering process for contracts and noted that the High Commission would be monitoring same.


Unfortunately, in all the machinations, the Guyanese people remain pawns. When the local leaders fall out of favour with the ABC countries, then any alleged corrupt practices in which they may have been involved are suddenly and most conveniently brought to light. Simply because it no longer suits the ABC masters. There truly is nothing new under the sun. This practice has been employed time and again throughout South America and Latin America. Former Panamanian President Manual Noriega being one such leader in recent history. Noriega was a protected ally of the US, irrespective of any atrocities he committed in Panama, until he outlived his usefulness. After which, Noriega was taken and imprisoned in the US. Likewise in the case of Guyana, egregious actions affecting locals are of no moment save and except when they become inconvenient to the super powers.


So, who bells the cat, and has Jagdeo outlived his usefulness to the ABC countries? Well, serendipitously -or not- the USAID in 2021, authored a "Democracy, Human Rights and Government Assessment" report that is now being made available in which, among other issues, it cites trust by the citizenry of government is abysmally low given that government's transparency and accountability are susceptible to political pressure. Could it be that, as too sadly has been the case here, the foreigners - read the ABC, will do the belling.

1 Comment


Raymond Changlee
Raymond Changlee
Feb 15, 2022

Ole People Seh Dat "When yuh shy brick innah hog pen, de waan wuh holler is de waan wuh get knack." Pim Pim! Mr. Su Su-Su.

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