Dear Editor,
I passed the $600M government complex at the corner of Princes and High Streets. What I noticed and this is just driving by, is that the southwestern corner of the building appears to be cracking. Could this be a sign that the building’s foundation is not sound and the structure is beginning to sink? If that is the case this might be another waste of money.
We see poor infrastructure work taking place around the country, especially with the roads being built. Roads simply deteriorate within a few months. What is important to note is that the building remains incomplete after so many years when we see the private sector constructing much larger and higher buildings all over the country.
We have seen what the PNC did and now we have seen what the PPP did to this Republic. Neither the PNC nor the PPP has a transported title to Guyana. We have to show them this. If one looks at the current composition of the face of the PPP government, one clearly sees a large number of persons who were once PNC members. Some of these include members of the CREEP group who were once supporting the re-election of Desmond Hoyte. So what has happened is that the PNC has entered the government through the back door. Unfortunately those that went over to the PPP are not the best members of the PNC.
This may be a reason why the economy, security and other social sectors are going downhill. Our economy is basically a service sector economy with a collapsed productive sector due to mismanagement. The sole success in the productive sector is rice, and this is because it is in the hands of the rice farmers.
The AFC has the two best persons from the PPP (Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo) and the best person from the PNC (Raphael Trotman). There are also a large number of young intelligent persons with new ideas in the AFC. We have to grasp this opportunity and build on this as a nation, and not be blinded by race.
Voters should think for themselves – think why they or their children would want to leave this land for the US, Canada, the UK or even those little islands in the Caribbean. The reasons are the economy, security, standard of living and access to health care and education (not just new buildings). Most of all it’s jobs jobs, jobs and more jobs.
Under the PNC and now the PPP, the economy has been plodding along. We need new ideas. We have to build the road to Lethem to gain access to Brazil and capitalise on the flow of trade though our ports to northern Brazil. We can’t just talk about it. Suriname will beat us to it. We have to make a concerted effort to find oil. We can do this by drilling on the Berbice coast. We can accomplish this via a partnership between the government and private investors (local and foreign).
We cannot jump start this economy with laptops and solar panels. So as an exchange for us harvesting our forest in a sustainable way, we should have asked Norway to drill an oil well for us on the coast of Berbice. Let them find a suitable company and pay the company directly. If the oil is offshore, then the deposit may quite likely extend under the land mass as well. Besides there is technology now to drill vertically and then horizontally to reach the deposit. It doesn’t require an offshore oil rig only to access the deposit. Finding oil on the coast of Berbice will change the life of every single Berbician for the better. Whatever we do must be done differently. We have to break the mould. We have to find ways and means to create wealth and not go around the world begging for handouts.
Even those who love the PPP must realise they have to get them out of government for one term. That will ensure that the good people in the PPP who are now sidelined can take over the leadership of the PPP. Voters must do this if they truly believe in the old PPP. We must get rid of the opportunists who managed to infiltrate the government. By voting the PPP out of government in this election, we will be able to bring to the forefront those persons within the PPP who are interested in nation-building. There is nothing to lose but much to gain by voting AFC.
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Singh
