Dear Editor,
Guyana is doubtless in an inexorable march towards an elected dictatorship or hegemony.
In my New Year message, I referred to the silence and ambivalence of many religious organizations in the face of immoral acts and wrongdoings by our national leadership, and hoped that they would break their silence before it’s too late. I refer to a series of incidents over the weekend.
First the letter by Mr Anthony Vieira (VCT 28) reveals a situation that we all suspected, but he has only now chosen to tell the truth about how government ‘persuaded’ the Lottery Company to shift its draw from the pioneer television station in Guyana, Channel 28, to the state-controlled television station. All hail democracy and freedom.
Mr Vieira drew attention to the banning of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) which helped make the station unviable, no doubt because over time the station and Mr Vieira exercised their right to be critical of the PPP administration.
We need to be reminded of this government’s attempt to suffocate and silence the Stabroek News by withdrawing state advertisements, and their hostility to the Kaieteur News and Freddie Kissoon, Hamilton Green, Lincoln Lewis, Mark Benschop and the TUC, among others.
We talk about a return to democracy, yet after eighteen years of PPP rule we only have one state controlled radio station. The government has succeeded in having at various levels control over all but two or three of the many television stations, so our people are at the mercy of the clever, well-funded PPP propaganda machine.
At the Sunday afternoon commissioning of the Kitty Pump Station, I was at pains to point out that if we had a system of good and shared governance, there ought not to be the need for Central Government to provide the pump since the Mayor and City Council ought to be able to purchase and install such equipment. Instead, we see evidence of an imperial heel on the shoulders of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council.
It is clear that the government tactic is to starve us of resources, then like a knight in shining armour save us, the poor minion, whose condition it helped create in the first place.
In his very well presented but flawed reply to my address, President Jagdeo did not respond to the government’s refusal to allow any of the several proposals we made over the years to widen our revenue base. He commented only on the government’s refusal to support a proposal to use the Le Repentir dumpsite to generate electricity. It is the first time that as Mayor, I was told of the purported reasons why our project was rejected, and we were simply ignored, but so much for common courtesy. The figures about likely cost to the consumers quoted by the President varied from those presented to us by the potential developer.
On Sunday I pleaded for the truth. The President noted that there were two types of truth – well said, but for me semantics are inappropriate at this time when there is so much going wrong.
For me I feel vindicated by the truth I know, as WC Bryant noted “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, the eternal years of God are hers; But error, wounded, writhes with pain, and dies among his worshippers.”
On the Kitty pump I publicly expressed gratitude to the government, but added my concerns – here is a truth. It has been traditional to mention or involve the contractor or supplier at functions such as the commissioning of the Kitty Pump Station on Sunday, but of interest, neither the Chairperson, Mr Elvis Jordon, nor the CEO, Mr Lionel Wordsworth in their overview of the project made reference to the supplier/contractor. Minister Robert Persaud and the President both uttered not one word of praise for the contractor/supplier of these new pumps. The public may wish to ask why this obvious avoidance? Is someone embarrassed by their awards? Come on gentlemen – let us have the truth, the only one I know, the whole truth about all these electrical pump awards.
May the powers that be read an interesting letter which appeared in Stabroek News of January 13, titled ‘A bizarre incident’ by Emile Mervin.
They say, ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth,’ so again many thanks to the President for these pumps and the statement that government will not help to pay the additional electricity bill to GPL.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green