Succumbing to his true nature

Dear Editor,
I was confused by Mr Granger’s early behaviour when he first came to office. How was this man, intelligent by all accounts, unable to understand, in those early days, his enormous good-fortune and see that his first duty as President of Guyana was to be magnanimous – to embrace all and unite the country? It was not until a year after that I was told by a gentleman who enjoyed strong ties to the PNC, knows Mr Granger personally, held advisory roles in the Administration and moreover, was a fierce PPP critic, that our President was blinded by race. By then, this gentleman was himself already disillusioned.

As the years rolled on, the real man behind the presidency emerged. His unilateral closure of four sugar estates and putting 7000 workers on the breadline, against the recommendations of his own CoI was one revelation. Just after the NCM, we saw our caretaker President express disdain for our Constitution and rule of law. He refused to acknowledge what was written in plain black and white and completely ignored established precedents related to the appointment of the GECOM Chairman. We saw him adopt nonsensical mathematics put forward by an opportunistic lawyer to stay in office, breaking democratic norms in the process. We also saw him making up his own rules as he went along.

In SN editorial yesterday, the writer marvelled at the President’s blissful unawareness in the reduction of his powers since the NCM. The Editor also mentioned that the President berated the GPA on fairness, of all things, when challenged for pulling SN ads. This is what we call wrong and strong. It appears he thinks that whatever he speaks is absolute gospel and that it is accepted as such by everyone. This is a narcissistic and dictatorial failing. I have observed a similar attitude being adopted by his Ministers when publicly challenged.

At this juncture, I wonder what the second tier leadership and the supporters of the AFC, if they exist, must be thinking in respect of the new and still secret Cummingsburg Accord. AFC top brass is not concerned because they are convinced that they are secure if there are spoils to go around but otherwise no one in their right mind would trust Granger. Doubters should consider that he has already circumvented the first Accord. This is, after all, a man who perceives whatever he conceives to be the reality and, therefore, cannot be reasoned with.

I am still at a loss to reconcile my early perception of the President and the man I see today but maybe there is nothing there and we have all been taken for a ride because in one of WikiLeaks releases from 2015, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974GEORGE01076_b.html, our caretaker President was labelled as a racist.

Sincerely,
Ravi Ram