Let us be absolutely clear, truth be told, Moses Nagamootoo is one of the most shameless politicians in the history of this country. After spending most of his years berating Forbes Burnham in speeches around the country and in countless number of articles, after recounting the mountain of evidence that Burnham rigged elections in Guyana, after telling the many stories of Burnham and his goons beating up PPP activists and leaders, after telling a story of how he was once kidnapped and shepherded around jails, he shamelessly showed up after 2015 at the annual tribute ceremonies praising Burnham.
This is the man who after Cheddi Jagan died made it a habit to shout out for the world to hear, while holding out high a cup: “this one is for you pa”. Yet he would shamelessly show up in awe and reverence of his new hero, Forbes Burnham. He traded the cup for a broom. Was it an epiphany in which he discovered that he was wrong for decades, that he was telling people stories he made up?
For almost four years,Icompletely ignored Nagamootoo. But ignoring his recent shameless celebration of the PNC/APNU/AFC’s assumption of government on May 11, 2015 and the just more than five- years disaster in government would be an abrogation of our responsibility to the truth. The just over five years in Government, with Nagamootoo as the Prime Minister, was one of the most colossal of failures by any government in the history of CARICOM. During the period of 1,959 days, Nagamootoo was a rubber-stamp PM, and, President David Granger was mostly missing in action (MIA).The most remarkable things that happened during that disastrous period was the violation of Guyana’s constitution, an attempt to rebrand Guyana in the colors of the PNC and AFC, the stagnation of the economy, the loss of jobs for more than 50,000 Guyanese and the wicked attempt to thief Election 2020.
When Nagamootoo joined with Granger and ignored the names of eighteen highly-regarded Guyanese to be named as Chair of GECOM, but hand-picked James Patterson as GECOM Chair, the APNU/AFC government deliberately breached the constitution. Nagamootoo supported this travesty. The Caribbean Court of Justice had to intervene and declared that the action was a blatant disregard for the constitution. Granger violated the constitution in order to fill the position with his “Bollers”. Burnham had a chair of the election commission named Bollers who did Burnham’s election-rigging bidding. Patterson was going to do Granger’s bidding in a clumsily disguised start to election rigging process. Nagamootoo who had written and spoken voluminously on the PNC’s rigging of elections had to know the intent of the PNC at the time.
This is what he was celebrating, betraying the Guyanese people over and over again. He was celebrating the wickedness that set into train the rigging of elections that were coming up in 2020.
During the first week of January 2019, he and his PNC-led colleague MPs forced the Speaker to hold an illegal parliament with the intention to reverse the No-Confidence motion vote. They had replaced MP Charandass with a new MP. This was an unconstitutional holding of parliament. To the credit of Dr. Bartland Scotland, who was the speaker, he would have nothing to do with the trampling of the constitution. He refused to allow a vote to reverse the No-Confidence motion. For him, the No-Confidence motion ended the parliament. Still, Nagamootoo and his colleague MPs passed budgetary allocations illegally and unconstitutionally during that bogus, illegal sitting.
On December 21st 2018, soon after a good thrashing at the LGE 2018, when the PPP won almost two-thirds of all available local government seats, the PPP won a No-Confidence motion in Parliament. The parliament reflected the LGE 2018 results and the general feeling of hopelessness in the country. As the parliament ended with the passing of the No-Confidence Motion, and the PNC was stunned that its supporters did not come to their rescue with any kind of meaningful protest, Nagamootoo led a press conference admitting that the No-Confidence Motion was passed in accordance with the constitution and in accordance with the standing orders of the parliament. He conceded that elections must be held by March 21st 2019, that is within 90 days of the passage of the No-Confidence motion. Yet, less than 24 hours later, they were pressuring the Speaker to reconvene parliament because 33 could not be greater than 32, with Nagamootoo using some kind of voodoo measurement scheme comparing half-bottle and quarter-bottle rum to prove that 33 is not greater than 32.
The constitutional requirement of 90-days for holding elections was totally dismantled. Instead, just as they stupidly tried convincing the Guyanese people who laughed at them that 33 could not be greater than 32, they stretched 90-days into almost a year. Nagamootoo was one of the cheerleaders for this reckless disregard and blatant violation of the constitution and the intelligence of the Guyanese people.
This is what he was celebrating on May 11 2024. It is one thing to betray the people, but one would think that he would be contrite enough and remain quiet. Yet his belligerence would not allow him to apologizeto the people, rather he celebrated the torching of the constitution.
Incidentally, as part of their total disregard for the constitution, they have always ignored the integrity commission. In government, starting with President Granger, most of the government officials who must submit integrity forms failed to do so during the whole period of 2015 to 2020. Such egregious flouting of the constitutional requirements were commonplace in the period 2015 to 2020. This is what Nagamootoo was celebrating on May 11, 2024.
The main reason he was celebrating on May 11 was the make-believe that many political parties came together in a show of unity. We must expose this fallacy. Except for the AFC, all the other parties were paper-parties. The WPA has been extinct for some time, with just a handful of persons pretending they have a following. By itself the WPA cannot even submit a list for any kind of elections in Guyana, be it the ones held before 2015, in 2015, in 2020 or any to come. The other parties are one-man, one-woman parties, with absolutely no following. It was a fraud to say they had seven political parties or whatever number they claimed come together in a coalition. This was a paper arrangement and he has the temerity to celebrate it on May 11, 2024. In fact, after May 11, 2015, there was only one political party – the PNC. He still believe he could fool the people, even almost a decade later, with the hoax that he helped foist on the Guyanese people. It is sheer shamelessness.
Nagamootoo completely ignored the total economic stagnation between 2015 and 2020. Sugar was on the pathway to total closure, with more than 10,000 directly losing their jobs and thousands of others suffering the economic backlash. In 2015, they resumed the plan the PNC had under Desmond Hoyte pre-1992 to close sugar. Had the people not dumped them in March 2020, SUGAR would be dead today.
But his celebration of May 11, 2015 and the APNU/AFC government 2015-2020 is a subtle celebration that he and the PNC nearly succeeded in finally accomplishing one of their dreams – the permanent closure of SUGAR in Guyana. The man who once deemed himself the “champion of sugar workers” now want us to join him in celebrating that he nearly succeeded in helping the PNC accomplished this rotten dream.
During that period,2015-2020, almost 50,000 people lost their jobs, in mining, agriculture, services. More than 2,000 Amerindians employed as CSOs were sent to the unemployment dump. Hundreds of public servants were forced to resign or were fired because they were perceived to be supporters of the PPP.
They promised a reduction of VAT and taxes overall. They claimed they kept the promise by reducing VAT from 16% to 14%.But they hoodwinked the unsuspecting population by adding VAT to hundreds of items, including water, electricity, education, vitamins, various food items. Internet, etc. In the end, the collection of VAT almost doubled, as billions of dollars moved from ordinary citizens to the coffers of government at a time when the economy had stagnated. At the same time, they raised more than 200 other taxes.
They closed the Housing Ministry, downgraded the scholarship program, took away the disciplined forces annual bonus, and the Because We Care cash grant to school children, the water and electricity subsidies for pensioners, subsidies for farmers, for miners, etc.. Citizens lost income, while the government took in, additionally, more than $100B annually. All of this came from the pockets of ALL the people, except the cabinet.
They promised workers dramatic raise in wages and salaries; instead, they raised their own salaries and benefits by between 50 and 100% while freezing wages for sugar workers and giving out minimal salary increases for public servants, telling them their turn will eventually come. They promised young people jobs and free university education, but they never got around to those promises, telling the youth to cook dog food, plantain chips, cook-up and sell by the roadside. When young people asked why there was no place for them, they told the young people they must await their turn. Instead of free university education, the fees were raised.
The 2015-2020 period was one of the most dismal periods of infrastructure development since 1992 and was a stark reminder of the dilapidation that is in the PNC’s DNA. Not one major infrastructure project was developed, except for a couple of arches. All the major infrastructure projects that took place between 2015 and 2020 were ones that started under the PPP. The Cheddi Jagan International Airport modernization and expansion, the East Bank and East Coast Demerara Highways, the West Demerara Highways were started under the PPP and more than five years later the PPP came back to complete them. More importantly, the projects that the PPP was supposed to start, such as the Amaila Hydro, the Demerara Bridge, Highway from Linden to Lethem, the Sheriff Street expansion, the new road from Ogle to Diamond, etc. were never started or were still in feasibility stages when the people dumped them in March 2020.
These are the things that Nagamootoo was celebrating with his more than a million-dollar per month pension when he shouted from the top of the mountain for the world to hear that he was celebrating May 11, 2015 because he and his colleagues had a chance to impose agony on the Guyanese people.
This is the legacy Nagamootoo wanted to celebrate. It is shameless.