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Guyana has breathed a sigh of relief now that President Ali has shelved his obsession with auditioning for an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars”, and returned to matters of national import. In some quarters, he is being celebrated for his recent action in recalling his High Commissioner to India, Charrandass Persaud, an indecent man, marred by a range of ethical lapses who voted his “conscience” to ensure Ali’s elevation to high office despite his personal best of 19 fraud charges.
The High Commissioner was caught on video indulging in the most vile verbal abuse of an Indian woman, a senior citizen and reportedly an Associate Professor of English at Delhi University, an animal rights activist who was feeding dogs in the vicinity of the High Commissioner’s residence in compliance with the guidance of local animal welfare authorities.
Ali’s seemingly condign action to finally recall the High Commissioner even after his Foreign Minister and Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement asserting that the matter had been closed, must be viewed in a wider context. We can only surmise whether this action was one of political expediency or rather resulted from sheer diplomatic embarrassment as a result of the unexpected exposure of this matter in the local media which exposed the callousness of Mr. Charrandass, the High Commissioner to India given the fact that the matter occurred since August 2021.
That President Ali has now found it expedient to respond to the growing criticism of the citizens of Guyana by recalling this embarrassment of a man, certainly explains their collective sigh of relief. Some are chuffed that the President has finally found a voice! But we are painfully reminded that there was no decency in how the very same President handled the investigation of the heinous murder of the Henry boys and Haresh Singh, by refusing to authorise the investigation of the murders by an internationally renowned forensic expert.
Nor was there an iota of decency in the President’s inaction in response to the recent implication of an alleged close friend in the murder of a citizen in the vicinity of the official residence. His further refusal to act on the revelation of extensive allegations of corruption of his political benefactor, the Vice President, also highlights this singular surprising show of courage.
Ali’s clear equivocation in his released video announcing Charrandass’ recall is not only insulting to right thinking citizens but is also further evidence that we the citizens barely escaped another episode of “don’t believe your lying eyes” courtesy of the PPP.
What we have seen here is that our president, sadly, has a strange relationship with decency even as he shamelessly attempts to defend the indefensible when the country and its reputation are subject to international shame. It is an insult to the legacy of eminent Guyanese diplomats such as Sir Edward V. Luckhoo, Shridath Ramphal, Rashleigh Jackson, Rahaman Gajraj, Sir John Carter, Dr. Cedric Grant and Ambassador Ronald Austin that a decision reflecting a clear act of disapproval took more than a year.
It must be asked whether a report of this incident was made available to President Ali by his ministry when this matter occurred. We can recall the disrepute Clement Rohee brought to the very same Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his repeated display of a lack of ethics and intellect during his tenure there. Mr. Todd is dangerously close to a repeat of the Rohee tenure. Or, perhaps he was acting on the instruction of Robert Persaud, the Foreign Secretary.
The question remains whether the PPP government in the face of this debacle will find it convenient to shift Charrandass to another official role? This is an outcome that cannot be discounted given his role in the ascendancy of this current PPP regime. The PPP did the same with their former minister, Gajraj. We must assume that Charrandass’ principals will be eternally grateful to him, as they are to the CCJ, for ensuring the life of this government. Though we long to bid some of these notorious slackers farewell from national life, we must recognise that it is not in the DNA of the PPP nor its president to correct the obvious dysfunction in the governance of this emerging oil-rich state.
