Dear Editor,
While some of us may have winced at his methods we were more than pleased to see the alacrity at which the Minister of Public Works dispatched the squatters at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (`Illegal structures at Timehri torn down’ SN 13th Sept, 2008).
Subsequent reports and the Minister’s interview on NCN confirmed that he appeared to be a man with a mission – willing to enforce the rule of law however unpopular it may make him.
Unfortunately, one resident was quick to point out; this was “pappy show” – the play of politics to the gallery. Not so long ago, he reminded us, November 2007, when on a Cabinet outreach to the Corentyne the Minister with another colleague from the President’s Office, gave the “go ahead” for the construction of an ice factory on lands which he knew was, at best, in dispute or, worse, private property.
He also knew that both the local NDC and the Environmental Engineer had given “cease and desist” orders to the ice factory owner, while other public agencies were forced to keep their distance after another Minister intervened to chip in his two cents worth – the popular Ministerial “go ahead”, due process and the rule of law be damned.
Worse still and the point of note the official “go head” had the intended consequence and encouraged a flood of other squatters to invade the area while the community and the responsible public agencies – Sea Defence Board, NDC, Central Housing and Planning Authority, Lands and Surveys – helplessly watch on.
Was this just a case of Ministers helping their friends? A simple matter of ethnic politics, given the ethnic background of the two communities? The routine practices of authoritarian rule – due process and the rule of law an inconvenience?
Yours faithfully,
B. Nanhu and 41 others
Residents of 67 and 68
Villages, Corentyne.
