Category: Letters to the editor

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Dear Land of Guyana by Moses V. Nagamootoo – Part 4

A book review by Christopher Ram – May 12, 2024

Introduction

Chapter 17 is titled Campaign and Elections and reports on the immediate action required to hold the elections following the ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice that the no confidence motion (NCM) in December 2018 was properly passed, the Government had fallen, and elections had to be held. The book does not detail the delay tactics by the APNU + AFC Government to stay in office in a clear violation of the constitutional requirement for elections within 90 days of the NCM, or the validity of legislation purportedly passed by the Government thereafter, matters which as a lawyer could not be alien to Mr. Nagamootoo. Yet, he writes about the triumph of Parliamentary democracy.

The tone of the chapter suggests that things were not too right for him. From his own accounting, while he was sidelined, other Ministers became emboldened following the vote. He tells the story that while acting as president, he was summoned to a meeting in the office of Cathy Hughes Vice Chair of the AFC where the Jamaican advisor and architect of the Cummingsburg Accord – with whom he never seemed to have had a cordial relationship – that the Coalition needed “a brand-new slate”.

Popularity and betrayal

Unabashedly, Nagamootoo writes that given his popularity both on the coast and in the hinterland communities, going into the elections without him as the symbolic head of the AFC was a “huge mistake.” He lamented that except for a 20-minute speech at Anna Regina, he was assigned no role in the elections campaign or manifesto preparation, and criticises the Coalition for its failure to reach out sufficiently to Indo-Guyanese communities and for being carried away by a “misplaced display of overconfidence and triumphalism”.

Writing about the betrayal by an AFC MP that led to the fall of the Coalition Government, Nagamootoo expresses surprise at the lack of outrage at the betrayal by an AFC member of Parliament that caused the collapse of the government, even as he claims that he instructed Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, the AFC leader and Minister of Public Security to put arrangements in place for the security of Persaud as he (Persaud) was leaving the country. Nagamootoo writes in praise of the absence of violence following the confidence vote, drawing a parallel with the violence that erupted following the “installation” of Janet Jagan after the 1997 elections.

He writes of his confidence of a Coalition victory against the PPP which was going into the elections with its presidential candidate Irfaan Ali  who was facing several allegations of sleaze  while he held office as a minister and claims about the genuineness of his academic qualifications. According to Nagamootoo, Ali had barely survived a bruising internal party campaign against his popular contenders, among whom were Dr. Frank Anthony, Anil Nandlall and Dr. Vindya Persaud. The book notes however, the emphasis of the PPP/C on the number 50,000 – in new jobs, new house lots, new homes, new scholarships, stipend for trainee teachers, and for cash grants for every school child.

Foreign interference and the order to vacate office

He writes too that expert foreign hands experts were directing the PPP campaign – naming Mercury and Cambridge Analytica – and engaging in PR stunts like the preparation of props and footage for propaganda spins. He accused the PPP/C, with more than a hint of irony , or prescience, of spreading the news that the Coalition would rig the elections.

About the elections themselves, he writes about the rigging to facilitate the PPP‘s return to office as being well planned and executed. He mentions specifically the “interference by Mercury, and by high-ranking US officials,” the bloated electors list, and the nasty threats of sanctions from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – a “fatal form of American bullying and interference.” He does, however, acknowledge that while it was a Guyana tragedy for democracy, part of the blame for failure had to be placed at the feet of the Coalition, including some levels of distrust among key partners.

That theme continues in chapter 18 with Nagamootoo claiming that Pompeo “ordered us to vacate office, and threatened consequences”. That is the clearest account yet of the purpose of Pompeo’s role and visit to Guyana around the 2020 elections. The book suggests that Pompeo totally ignored the Recount processes and legal challenges before the courts.

Continuing, Nagamootoo writes that the process was railroaded and that it did not take long for the carpetbaggers to cash in on their promissory notes, including the AFC defector Charrandass Persaud being rewarded with a diplomatic posting and his “godfather” Peter Ramsaroop being named Director of Go-Invest. The chapter also addresses a bombshell announcement the Taiwan had opened a trade office in Guyana “a pre-planned move” that was applauded by U.S. ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch. The decision was reversed following a call by President Xi of China to the Guyana President and a statement that the announcement was a “result of a miscommunication of the agreement signed,” and that the agreement had since been terminated.

Back to the beginning

Chapter 19 is titled Back to the Beginning, in which Moses writes about drawing inspiration from Christian idealism of serving the poor and joining the PPP and its youth movement in October 1964. He reports that he became a voracious reader of Marxist texts and anti-communist literature from Christian movements and engaged in endless discussion on ideology. He writes of a love-hate relationship with Janet Jagan, a founder member of the PPP and the editor of the Mirror newspaper, accusing her of the “hidden hand that manipulated [his] life” and using one of her “hatchet-men” Clement Rohee, against him.

As he claims, on two occasions, Cheddi Jagan tried to dissuade him from pursuing further studies, succeeding on the first occasion (UG) but not the second (Law School). Referring to some of the rightwing/ left wing contradictions within the PPP, he recalls Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye as consoling the right wing Balramsingh Rai by observing that “the party works in devious ways, comrade.”

Writing about the 1998 Party elections in which he came second to Janet Jagan, he describes how ballots were managed and how his request to observe the count was quickly rejected. His narration of his experiences in the post-1964 PPP – including medical examinations at a Black Sea sanitorium in the USSR – makes fascinating reading, 

To be continued

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Dear Land of Guyana by Moses V. Nagamootoo – Part 3

A book review by Christopher Ram – May 5, 2024

Introduction

This third part of Dear Land of Guyana, anautobiographical account by Moses V. Nagamootoo,  Prime Minister of Guyana from 2015-2020, covers chapters 7 to 16. Chapter 7 begins with the tabling of a motion of a no confidence motion against the minority PPP government, moved by the AFC which had seven seats in the National Assembly. Nagamootoo does not claim a joint action, but only that the AFC counted on the support of the APNU’s 26 seats. According to him, the action was taken when corruption became pervasive in Guyana. Instead of facing the charges in the National Assembly, President Ramotar’s response was the prorogation of parliament, after his approach to opposition leader David Granger to back off from the no confidence motion was rebuffed.

Chapter 8 relates the country’s history of searching for a Pro-democracy Alliance beginning in the mid-1970s and developing steam when the opposition parties came together in the preparation for the 1992 elections. The writer also gives a background to engagements between the PPP and the WPA which had earlier entered the anti-dictatorship struggle. According to the book, a sticking point in that effort was the WPA’s refusal to back an Indian candidate, especially Cheddi Jagan. The search for a consensus candidate continued with other names like Dr. Roger Luncheon, Ashton Chase and Bishop Randolph George.

The Cummingsburg Accord

An account is given of the events leading up to the PPP adding a civic component to its name, even while private talks with the PNC continued. The author claims that even after the assassination of WPA leader Walter Rodney in 1980, he favored continuing those talks while Dr. Jagan was opposed. The rest of the chapter addresses the debates and discussions within the AFC on an alliance with the APNU and overcoming the fears that such an alliance would render the AFC “dead meat.”  Nagamootoo placed himself among the AFC fighters countering the PPP’s “propaganda” that any pro-democratic alliance would be bad for Guyana. After protracted inter-party talks not only on a national programme, but mundane matters like which party would secure the position of presidential candidate, and equal sharing of cabinet positions, the AFC and the APNU on a4 February 2015 signed the Cummingsburg Accord, an exercise spearheaded by a Jamaican consultant.

The broad plans for the Coalition included constitutional reforms that could accommodate the broadest possible unity of competing and otherwise antagonistic political entities, zero tolerance for corruption, transparency, accountability, and probity at all levels. The response by the PPP/C was “nasty and brutal” propaganda: the AFC was selling out to the Africans; finding derogatory names for perceived sympathisers like Yesu Persaud, Robert Badal, Anand Goolsarran and Christopher Ram.

Nagamootoo himself does not hesitate to trade his own barbs, identifying Peter Ramsaroop, Kit Nascimento (former UF propaganda czar), Mansoor Nadir, Nanda Gopaul (Jagan’s effigy burner) and Dr. Leslie Ramsammy who had vowed to run “the communist Jagan” out. Also mentioned for their association with the PPP/C in quite unflattering terms were Khemraj Lall, Sonny Ramdeo, Fip Motilall and specialty hospital promoter Surendra.

Instant sell

Chapter 10 describes the reception leading up to the elections on 11 May 2015, the instant sell of the Granger/Nagamootoo combination and his first meeting with Granger when they were both in short pants. Describing Granger’s Speech at the launching of the Alliance as “nothing short of visionary,” Nagamootoo wrote that the reception at the Launch convinced him that the Coalition’s victory on May 11th “was assured”. In what was seen as an alignment of the stars, Dr. Joey Jagan and Ms. Ulele Burnham also appeared on the Coalition platform. The chapter also reproduced a letter from Joey Jagan on the day before the elections setting out his reasons for supporting the Coalition. The book also talks about incidents like the killing of Courtney Crum-Ewing and another Fazal Azeez, both in a narrative that suggested political involvement.

Three days after the vote on 11 May 2015, the Alliance was declared the winners with 50.30% of the votes and gaining a one seat majority while the PPP/C obtained thirty-two seats and challenged the results.

Chapter 12 recounted the events from the swearing in on 16 May 2015, for the first time at the Parliament Buildings. The Government was made up of sixteen Cabinet ministers and nine junior ministers, huge for a country with a population of less than three-quarter million. Those numbers of course were partly driven by the Cumminsburg Accord. Signaling his first discomfort with Granger, Nagamootoo described an early speech by Granger in which he referred to the murders in the sixties. According to him, Granger’s better self was telling him to let go, but “he didn’t, he couldn’t.” The writer also uses the chapter to explain the delegation to him of the chairmanship of Cabinet’s Business Session, the powerful Cabinet Business Sub-committee and of the Parliamentary Agenda Sub-committee.

Chapters 13 and 14 begin with the statement that the Coalition served a full five years in government during 2015 to 2020. That was only because of a spurious protracted challenge to the No Confidence Motion brought by the PPP/C and supported by an AFC MP. Nagamootoo deals with the huge increase which Cabinet voted itself on the one hand and the achievements it made on the other. They also described the activities and challenges of Government confronted by an opposition whose leader when in Government had raised concerns in a statement that “his regime was prepared inexplicably to cede a channel for Venezuela’s access to the Atlantic, and through the pathway of our enormous oil deposits.”

The book narrates the challenges of power supply and the crisis in the sugar industry, described at some length in chapter 15. The Government’s response was the closure of several sugar estates with the intention of privatising parts of the industry. This was hugely controversial, especially with sugar unions. Over 5,000 sugar workers were laid off without timely severance payments. The handling of the sugar industry matter probably accounted for the Coalition’s loss of power in less than a full term. This was a gift to the PPP/C, which had run the industry like an extension of the Party, but which gained immensely from the botched manner in which the Coalition tried to fix the problem.

In Chapter 16, Nagamootoo recounts the fall on the Coalition, which he saw as a “tit for tat response to his no confidence motion in 2015 and a bitter vendetta for his resignation from the PPP”. Readers will also recall that in Part 1 of this review, I had referred to a conspiracy theory that the plan may have been connected with a meeting in India!

In closing chapter 16, Nagamootoo states that despite mistakes on all sides, disagreements and quarrels, the Coalition made credible achievements that could ensure their return to the office for a second term. However, new factors contributed to their defeat and ouster at the elections, including campaign failures, which he claims were self-inflicted, and foreign intervention which was by invitation.

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My contention remains it is unjustifiable for the ordering of products by Banks DIH from the Netherlands to be routed through Florida

Dear Editor,

It is commendable that Banks DIH Limited has responded, in a full-page ad, to my recent commentaries on the company. Unfortunately, the membership, readership and the company’s reputation would have been better served by less obfuscation, diversion, distortion and ad hominem attacks. Let me state categorically that while it might be a fear, it is certainly not a fact that I have ever been an advisor to the Guyana Securities Council. The allegation was mischievous and false.

Let me state again and, hopefully for the last time, that Banks’ Chairman has personal knowledge of blandishments and carrots offered to me some years ago when I challenged the Company’s short notice for an annual general meeting. My response was that a notice is a personal matter, and it was outside the powers of an individual shareholder to waive a statutory right of any other shareholder.

I will now briefly respond to the substantive major points enumerated in the full-page ad.

1. Re-routing transactions through Florida. The ad appears to convey the impression that the court legitimised this extensive series of transactions. The court did no such thing. The sole issue before the court was whether the payment of commissions of $562,123,894 between 2009 and 2016 arose outside of Guyana and therefore not subject to withholding tax. My contention then and now is that it is unnecessary, wasteful and unjustifiable  for the ordering of products from the Netherlands to be routed through Florida. Nor is it credible that a supplier of decades standing “does not treat with [Banks DIH Ltd] in relation to financial matters,” as the company sworn in an affidavit. Banks DIH is not a pariah company nor is Guyana an AML-blacklisted country. My concern was evaded in a maze of obfuscation.

2. The new holding company. I questioned the decision to convert Banks DIH Limited into a private company. What the directors do not tell us is that the application for the “arrangement” was made to the Court ex parte, despite the fact that Banks has two regulators  directly, and four regulators as a group. Yet, the company did not, from the public records, notify any regulator. Evading responsibility for this simplistic adventure, the ad states that “the decision was made pursuant to advice from BDO, accountants.”

The company boasts that the decision for the conversion had 99.9% support. Yet, shareholders engaged me privately complaining that they do not understand the nature of the transaction. When I suggested questions that could be asked of the directors, the response was “you know this place.”

3. Payment of dividends. My concerns were about the company’s dividend payout ratio which is among the lowest of public companies in Guyana and the Region, and about the transaction cost of paying a dividend of less than a dollar on small shareholdings. Here is an example. Say that the company pays an interim dividend of $0.45 per share to a non-resident person who owns one thousand shares. That is $450 from which withholding tax of 20% has to be deducted, converted to foreign currency, and the net paid over. That leaves the shareholder with less than two US Dollars. Again, evasion and obfuscation.

4.  A share re-purchase agreement of December 2016. My question was the reason for paying more than the market price under a share repurchase agreement. That speaks for itself but like the company did then and again now, it evades the real issue and its only recourse is a personal attack and a veiled threat of reporting me to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana. What an undignified response.

In my Business and Economics Commentary column this coming Friday, I will be publishing an open letter to the Company’s Audit Committee Chairman of my concerns as the holder of 117,000 shares in the Company.

Christopher Ram     

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My overall finding is that the Gov’t can pay much more than the 6.5% it has offered teachers

Dear Editor,

Two events usually attract misinformation, once known as propaganda. These are wars and strikes. In a war, each side pushes information to show that it is doing better than the enemies – in fatalities, losses and territory. In a strike, the employer understates the support for the strike while the workers’ representatives overstate that support and the moral imperatives of their cause. In similar vein, I have seen numbers cited by some closer to the facts, such as the Chief Education Officer and the leadership of the Teachers’ Union.

In the case and context of the current strike I went to sources I consider most objective, if not always very clear – the 2024 Estimates. From these, I could make some reasonable assumptions and deductions on the affordability of any increase. What I also found is that some of the numbers cited by some non-associated persons like Dr. Tara Singh were off the mark by quite significant margins. My overall finding is that the Government can pay much, much more than the 6.5% it has offered teachers.

I say this even as I concede that the Estimates are not the easiest of documents to read and that the reader has to plow through dozens and dozens of pages and make rough assumptions arising therefrom, including how the averages pan out. Here are some of those numbers. The provision in the 2024 Estimates shows an increase in the allocation for Wages and Salaries for teachers, exclusive of related overhead costs, of 25% over 2023. Of course, the number of teachers is also expected to increase, even after natural attrition. The crude average annual increase in the number of teachers over the past three completed years was approximately 9%. The projection for 2024 is 14% of which we can assume that the significant increase will come at the beginning of the new academic year in September. From this, we can deduce an increase in the effective number of teachers for the school year to be about 5%.

Let us then assume that the Government is unwilling to make this up via savings from part of the total capital budget or by way of supplementary appropriation, the 2024 Budget appears to allow a 20% increase to the teachers for 2024. Except for some related costs that are ad valorem, the other charges are already provided for in the approved Estimates.

The Government can afford this and the teachers deserve nothing less.

Christopher Ram

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Govt’s case against teachers strike defenceless

The Teachers’ strike enters its second week beginning tomorrow. The planning and execution by the leadership of the Guyana Teachers Union and the passion and energy demonstrated by the striking teachers across the Regions suggest the preparation for a long struggle. The Government on the other hand appears to be all over the place – literally and figuratively – and suggests that it is playing a waiting and words game.  

President Irfaan Ali tells the teachers to be patient – he will look after them gradually and that things will be all right after 2027. Assuming of course that the price of oil will continue on its recent boom trajectory. The Vice President says he is not worried – the striking Region Six teachers will vote for the PPP/C in 2025, apparently claiming their indentureship to the Party. The AG recognises the teachers’ constitutional right to strike but leaving unaddressed the unconstitutionality of wage imposition, an ignominious practice this Administration shares with its predecessor. And Minster of Education and MP Datadin boast of this Administration’s generous salary increases since it came to power. It does not appear that they recognise that the increases have a crude average of less than 7% per annum over five years.

Notwithstanding its apparent collective resolve, the Government’s case is constitutionally, legally, morally and practically weak and defenseless. On the constitutional and legal question, the Constitution and the Trades Union Recognition Act are clear. The Government as an employer, must go through the recognised unions. That imperative arose following a court ruling during the labour struggles under Forbes Burnham. This Administration must not try to outdo Burnham in dictatorial instincts and practice.

The VP can show that he is not spiteful by using his residual powers as an immediate step, to restore the deduction of union dues, which the Government will have to do as part of any settlement anyway. He, more than anyone of the current government leaders, was involved in and is aware of the impact of the 1999 strike by public servants. He must know too that the current leadership of the GTU is even better than the GPSU leadership in the nineties, and that the argument in those days about the inflationary impact of a significant wage increase was completely misplaced.

The Ministry of Education has put out a table of increases in salaries to various levels of teachers over the past five years, presumably to show how well they are paid. (I thank the Ministry for saving me the research). Here is my brief interpretation and contextualisation of those numbers. The increases over the period of 2019 – 2024 average 33%, ranging from 23% for the Principals of the Technical Institutes in Georgetown (GTI) and Linder (LTI) and Cyril Potter College of Education, to 39% for a Graduate HM of a Grade D school.

Now, compare that with other numbers put out by the Government. Over the same period, GDP has grown by roughly 310%, capital expenditure by 905% and current expenditure by 198%. It is difficult to deduce from these numbers a recognition of the importance of teachers for our country and economy, or a basic understanding by the Government of their own numbers. The contrast with contractors, many of whom pay no taxes, and with speeding up poorly planned and executed construction work cannot be starker.

With ministerial salaries almost doubled by tax-free allowances, they are out of touch with the skyrocketing cost of living affecting everyone. The collective Cabinet seems unable to understand and appreciate that for one thousand dollars in increase to teachers, more than $300 comes back to the Government in the form of income tax and value-added tax. That means that every $3,000 salary adjustment will cost the Government and benefit the teachers only $2,000. And they do not seem to understand that to measure the impact of the strike in percentages of non-striking teachers is fallacious and misinformed. The absence of the striking teachers will exacerbate the existing shortages in almost every classroom and that even 20% of striking teachers will cause total disruption in the school.

This may not, however, affect many of the children of government ministers and officials who can afford to send their children to private schools, and even abroad. The statements by the President, the VP and their ministers show at best how little they understand and worse, that they do not care.

Christopher Ram