Noel Holder lied repeatedly to former President Granger

—-Says Colvin Heath-London—-

NOEL Holder was the ‘Father of Lies’ in the David Granger coalition government.
He was devious also wicked, unprofessional and desperate and coupled with President Granger’s
aversion to new, fresh and young creative minds assisted greatly in pushing the coalition A
Partnership for National Unity Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government into opposition
said former acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial Commercial and
Investments Limited (NICIL) Mr. Colvin Heath-London.
Health-London blamed Guyana’s perennially toxic political environment on its pervasive culture
of rabid individualism which he said helps protect narcissistic politicians and their bands.
Heath-London told www.aroundtheregions.com that from the onset of his appointment as Head
of Special Projects Unit (SPU), Holder was hell bent on destroying him and explored devious
ways of convincing Granger to get rid of him.
“I am young, vibrant and success-driven, and Holder just wanted me out because he was
enjoying destroying sugar and despite my many public and private comments that closing the
sugar industry was not the right decision, the President didn’t listen. AFC had an agenda, and
their agenda was to close the sugar industry even though they were advised against it,” Heath-
London explained.
Granger had characterised Heath-London as “an undisciplined upstart and hotheaded” to many of
his ministers and had constantly dubbed him “a PPP sympathiser”.
“I wasn’t interested in a persons’ political affiliation but rather their professional conduct,” he
reiterated justifying the selections he made as head of the SPU and NICIL.
“It is a fact that I was told to my face by President Granger that I was a PPP sympathiser, and he
had a problem with the many PPP persons who I was employing such as legal counsel Mr.
Devindra Kissoon to represent NICIL. If persons don’t believe then ask any opposition MP or
Minister who was in Government and they can relate the challenges that I had. It is no secret of

the many struggles that I faced from certain sections of the previous government. Holder was the
major culprit in all of this as he (Holder) had tremendous influence on him (Granger),” Heath-
London reminisced.
Heath-London admitted he didn’t heed the counsel of the late legendary trade unionist Mr.
Komal Chand who had warned that his genuine efforts for the government at the time would not
pay off as it was evident that Holder and others were deliberately seeking to tarnish his efforts.
“The late Komal Chand cautioned me on many occasions, just let it go, let it go in terms of the
pressures of GUYSUCO (Guyana Sugar Corporation) and certain fractions of the government.
He was saying that even though GAWU (Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union)
wanted to see the sugar industry survive it was not worth my career. He asked me many times
why am I fighting to maintain it (GUYSUCO) and spoiling my career and he was trying to
counsel me in a very good way and because of this he and I develop an excellent friendship,
which GUYSUCO didn’t like and I had tremendous respect for him,” Heath-London said.
He said the friendship with the late Chand motivated him to maintain the buildings under
GUYSUCO despite its closure, recognising that the country may be forced to utilise those
buildings for varying reasons. He said that this has resulted in the government being able to
reopen the sugar industry without spending much on infrastructure.
“As a result of that friendship, it is why the government today can open the sugar estates with not
much work having to be done. They virtually have the estates just as they had shut it down and
they can start it back, it's just that they have to do a lot of field work. However, we maintained
and even repaired the buildings, what they collected was a little much better off than what they
shut down. The government couldn’t even believe that they got the estates in that kind of
condition. Many times, I had to fight tooth and nail with the (previous) government and even my
subject Minister (of Finance Mr. Winston Jordan) and my premise was that they were doing all
that they were on bad analyses. I can boldly say that Minister Indar Deodat and others knows
this,” Heath-London recalled.

“I am on record in the newspapers and if a research and review was done you would see that my
comments were always against the closure of the sugar estates. I even have written memos to
that effect. It’s no secret that Holder and the AFC guys wanted it closed”.
He continued, “I challenge any one to do their research and they would find articles dealing with
it. There were numerous internal fights between Holder and Harmon because when it was closed
Cabinet didn’t even know that that they were closing the industry”.
Heath-London declared that had he not stood up to a certain fraction in the previous
administration they would not have been any assets that this government can access to reopen the
estate.
“There is a lot of talk, but the truth is that if I had not stood up on principle to certain factions in
the previous administration there would not have been any GUYSUCO that this government can
reopen because what some persons wanted to do in the previous administration it took guts and
determination from me to prevent it from happening,” he concluded.