Dear Editor,
At a time when the ruling party, the PPP/C, and the Government of Guyana are exposed for what they are, they have launched a vicious public relations campaign aimed at swaying public sentiment and distracting attention. This is a regular and calculated strategy by the PPP/C to change the subject in the national debate. They believe that ‘cussing out’ Mayor Hamilton Green and holding the entire city of Georgetown to ransom by refusing to bail it out of its economic situation is a good move to take in order to help their public image. According to the government, the city of Georgetown will not get any help from central government unless the main opposition party, the PNCR, pays off its debts to the city.
Now, this is the point I consistently make: the PPP/C and government run Guyana like a common rum shop. This approach of governance is based on a tit-for-tat mentality; clearly, the government has been cornered with major atrocities uncovered, and the credibility of senior government functionaries has been called into question. This is a time when there is public outrage against apparent state-sponsored torture, ignited by the burning of the genital area of a child; alleged government involvement in a cruel criminal enterprise, fuelled by the now convicted drug lord Roger Khan; the exposing of a letter supposedly written by Minister Leslie Ramsammy authorizing the purchase of the spy equipment found in Khan’s possession; the launching of a dossier by the joint opposition parties which exposes rampant state excesses; and the President’s chief liaison officer being allegedly implicated in a child molestation scenario.
The PPP/C’s spin doctors believe that it will be good political spin to attack Hammie Green, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council and the PNCR in order to change the current public debate, which is clearly not favourable to them. So desperate is the regime that it is prepared to sacrifice the livelihood of the entire city of Georgetown in order to strike a political posture, whatever is left.
The Ministry of Local Government’s statement that it will not bail out the Georgetown city council until the PNCR pays taxes due, is not only an arrogant position to take, but is a spiteful action against the council which is likely to gravely affect the livelihood of the residents of Georgetown.
I know the residents will remember this statement come local government elections. If the only reason given for not bailing the cash-strapped council out of its dilemma is because Hamilton Green is a PNCR executive and because the PNCR owes taxes to the city then the action by the government is very sad, resulting in residents becoming the victims in this situation. Why must the entire city suffer for this?
I imagine this is the ‘democracy’ we really enjoy. I guess President Barack Obama was gravely wrong when he took action to bail out the major players on Wall Street, and the major financial institutions. In the politics of the PPP/C maybe he should have looked for those institutions that had a leaning towards the Republicans and refused to help.
In fact it was the said Democratic President Obama who used federal funds to offer stimulus money to states controlled by a Republican and a Democratic government – remember California and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger?
I am happy that the residents of Georgetown and the entire Guyanese population are not naïve in relation to the plot of the government; unlike what the PPP/C thinks, we will not be caught up in their wicked scheme; we can elucidate their plan before they can even conceive it. It is a pity, though, that this government has the audacity to boldly employ such retarded tactics.
Let me close by congratulating the opposition parties on their impressive work on the dossier; it came within record time.
The torture report is still to be released for public scrutiny.
Yours faithfully,
Lurlene Nestor