Dear Editor,
The events in Linden call for the authorities of our country to mend fences and protect the people of Guyana from violence and bloodshed. As a citizen and as a candidate of the PPP/Civic in the last elections, I hereby call on our President, Mr Ramotar, to ask for the resignation of Mr Samuel Hinds from the Cabinet and the government. Mr. Hinds has been Prime Minister for twenty years, and as the person in charge of electricity in Guyana and in particular, given the effects of his policies towards Linden, he should shoulder the blame for the catastrophic events there. Furthermore, as a former resident of that area, he has done basically nothing much for Lindeners over the last 20 years, leaving Linden a place of few resources and a dismal place to live with no real chance for betterment. In a recent letter I wrote to Mr Ramotar, to which I never received an answer, I made it quite clear that Mr Hinds is a liability to the PPP/Civic government and should be replaced, but little did I know that my words would be foreshadowing the disaster which is looming over all of us. It is high time that we in the PPP/Civic face the consequences of losing the last elections and adapt to the words of President Cheddi: “Winner does not take all,“ and move on to some sort of genuine shared governance. Mr Samuel Hinds was given a mandate by President Cheddi to expand the Civic component of the PPP/Civic, and the fact that the Civic is a toothless entity is a reflection of his failures – failures which are compounded by the present disaster.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)