We Guyanese love a session–Why not? After all, COVID-19 has beaten the hell out of us. The PPP has beaten the rest out of us. So, Mr. Su came at the right time—in the middle of our latest Budget Blues. As I hinted, this past week introduced to a new addition to the national political dictionary—Mr. Su. The subject was official corruption. The object was President Jagdeo. The initiator was a foreign journalist. The Honorable President admitted that he helps out foreign investors but asks for nothing in return. He insists that the lady-journalist brings evidence. Enters Mr. Su. Mr. Su? Oh, I know him– he is my tenant. Over to Vice.
But for now, let’s try to put Mr. Su in context. Look, I have argued, perhaps too often, that elections have consequences, but the manner in which a government comes to power have greater consequences. Whatever the eventual outcome of the last election turns out to be, one thing is certain—it was the most manipulated general election in Guyana’s post-colonial history. Both the process and the preliminary result were heavily manipulated. There is evidence from the Recount—the Police have confirmed some of it. The Intervention in the form of sanctions by at least one foreign government was the culmination of Regime Change. In mu book, the 2020 election was not democratic—not the process and not the declared outcome. The court is still to pronounce on it, so at the very minimum, it was an inconclusive election.
Some Guyanese who were not quite familiar with how elections in Guyana have historically been rigged prematurely pronounced on the result based on the complaints of one actor—they didn’t realize that in Guyana electoral rigging is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. So, when Mingo-Gate was followed by Recount-Gate, they had to pretend that the latter did not exist. So did GECOM Chair and the courts. The kicked the ball further down the road to a Petition. And now we have Mr. Su-Gate many are trying to disconnect Mr. Su from the declared outcome of the 2020 election.
One cannot fully blame the Pre-matureists for getting sucked in. After all, they did not take the time to think about the big picture—the convergence of geopolitics, ethnicity and party politics. They heard shouts of fire and they instinctively ran for their buckets. Those buckets were used as props to justify the installation of a government that turned out to be the culmination of Regime Change. We now know that governments which are outcome of Regime Change invariably turn out to be authoritarian governments. We don’t have to look far to far for justification of my thesis—Regime Change in Guyana in 1964 was inevitably followed by authoritarianism.
So, what does Mr. Su have to do with Regime Change? Well Mr. Su is just a new name for a pattern of obscenities that has characterized the inevitable authoritarian governance that has visited Guyana since the PPP was installed in August 2020. From the use of the police to persecute opponents to the racist distribution of government resources to the extrajudicial murders of Orrin Boston and others to the illegal seizure of the keys to the Natural Resource Fund, Mr. Su has been a fixture in our country these past eighteen months. Mr. Su was always going to happen.
So, just in case you miss my point, let me be clearer. Mr. Su is not just about alleged corruption; he is the metaphor for the authoritarianism that is reflective of the PPP government. For those who ran for their buckets at the first cry of fire from the PPP in March 2020, you also helped to create Mr. Su. That’s why Freddy Kissoon could not believe that Ms. DeCaries was part of the bucket brigade. How could you be a part of the bucket brigade in 2020 and by January 2022 you are attributing dictatorial tendencies to the government your bucket helped to birth, Kissoon asks. .Jump high, jump low, Mr. Su is the direct and indirect consequence of Regime Change.
