Hanoman to continue Civic role
FORMER Member of Parliament of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic), Dr Hughley Hanoman says he resigned in the interest of the governing alliance but will continue the Civic role. Hanoman was a member of the Civic group in the alliance that contested the historic October 5, 1992 general elections and was one of several Civic MPs appointed after the PPP/Civic won. The leading medical doctor resigned from Parliament last month amid controversy over a court case involving his Hanson Import and Export Company and Portman Hill of the United Kingdom. The Appeal Court in February allowed a joint appeal by Hanoman and Hanson Import/Export against a $27M judgement awarded to Portman Hill. But neither side got costs because Chancellor of the Judiciary, Mr Cecil Kennard and other Justices, Lennox Perry and Prem Persaud found that the contracts involved were illegal. In a statement Thursday, Hanoman said some media coverage on the issue was professional but claimed "much mischief and distortions have also been peddled." "Opposition political leaders and known lackeys in certain media houses have undertaken this mischievous enterprise in the main", he said. He charged that the "distortions are clearly aimed at using me as a political weapon against the PPP and the PPP/Civic administration." Hanoman said the transactions referred to in the court matter took place between 1984-1989, years before the PPP/Civic came to office. He said that during those "repressive" years when the current opposition People's National Congress (PNC) was in government, import licences were "very difficult to obtain." "And businessmen had to obtain such licences before they were permitted to import virtually anything", he said. He noted that a company applying for such a licence first had to demonstrate that it had earned from the export of goods from Guyana an amount in foreign exchange equivalent to the value of the import licence applied for. "This was the `ceiling' for import licences for the given company. As such businesses were forced to engage in what is called `counter-trade'. "For example, Hanson exported coffee beans and was entitled to import licences to import goods valued at an amount equivalent to the foreign currency earned from the coffee beans", he said. Hanoman said Hanson engaged in `counter-trade' with Portman Hill. "There was no other way for businesses to exist in those days of a shattered economy shackled by import and foreign currency exchange", he said. Hanoman said he was never a member of the PPP and "became actively involved in politics" when he accepted an invitation from the late PPP leader and President Cheddi Jagan to be in the Civic component of the PPP/Civic electoral platform for the 1992 general elections. "I found Dr Jagan's ideas on the `Civic' exciting and challenging. I thought it was what Guyana badly needed at that time," he said. "Dr Jagan aimed at creating a broad anti-dictatorial force which could unseat the PNC and lead Guyana in national healing and nation-building. He wanted to invite non-party individuals to join in the anti-dictatorial efforts of his mass-based PPP", he recalled. Hanoman said that in other countries `Civic' individuals are referred to as `independents'. "The idea of the Civic and the potential it had for moving Guyana forward was very attractive to me. I joined Dr Jagan in his efforts of putting together this group of 'independents', he said, adding that it is "now distressing to me to witness over the past few weeks the vulgar attacks against the PPP." "Those have been occasioned by the distorted media coverage of the court case involving Hanson Import and Export and Portman Hill", he said. "It has been particularly distressing to me that the PPP/Civic administration is being besmirched by distortions concerning an event which occurred way back in 1984. "These mischievous distortions have also caused serious distress to my family. "So it was in the interest of the PPP/Civic administration and my family's interest that I voluntarily tendered my resignation as a Member of the National Assembly." Hanoman said he will "continue to participate actively in the Civic." "I hold dear Dr Jagan's ideas on the role of the Civic and its potential for nation healing, national reconstruction and nation building", he said. "Although now not a Parliamentarian, I will dedicate much effort towards the expansion of the Civic with the aim of including more and more democratic, patriotic and progressive Guyanese in realising its potential as first adumbrated by the late Dr Cheddi Jagan", he pledged.
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