Dear Editor,
Where is Guyana’s progress headed if our destiny is pursued privately on the basis of race which then makes it the take it or leave it national agenda for everyone else? Agreement with PNC/APNU MP Mr Joseph Harmon’s budget presentation in which he urged greater adherence to the National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS) motivating his calls for “a national conversation on the transportation system, including roads, bridges, airstrips, airports and waterways” as reported in the SN of April 4 cannot be out of order.
The MP is on solid ground, and the PPP/C government should be accommodating if the Phagwah spirit is to be maintained and bears fruit.
Addressing the MP’s concerns is good for all Guyana as the problems posed by the aforesaid issues are not partisan. The PPP/C government to its credit has improved the infrastructure of Guyana. But engineering supervision from the Public Works Ministry is seriously lacking.
There seem to be no common engineering standards when other ministries are also involved in construction. Consequently roads wash away with the rains and multi-storey structures follow no codes. The PPP/C government should seriously consider implementing and grouping all infrastructure operations pertaining to building roads, bridges, waterways and airstrips, etc, under one ministry as proposed by Mr Harmon’s APNU.
Ever since the PNC scrapped the railway system, transportation has been a tormenting issue. After being in power for more than 20 years, the PPP/C needs to get this problem finally resolved. Prime Minister Sam Hinds has also not been able to resolve the problems of Guyana’s energy needs for one reason or another; this portfolio should be reassigned giving him more time to take care of other pressing state matters by which he is overburdened. Energy is a 24-hour responsibility which itself demands a younger, experienced technocrat who as a mover and shaker will get things accomplished. APNU cannot automatically be wrong because it is the opposition. The irony of Mr Harmon’s positive suggestion is a vivid contrast to killing the Amaila Falls project and reneging on an agreement to cut the massive electricity subsidy to Linden, ignoring the fact that Guyanese nationwide were paying higher prices.
It cannot make them pariahs forever considering this attractive suggestion. Subsequent support, though muted, of the multi-instigated Linden 2012 riots and their agitation for taxpayers’ money to be dished out to those who broke the law may have been politically necessary even as it was unprincipled.
The spirit of reconciliation which the PPP/C requires of the opposition would not hurt Guyanese if it is reciprocally accommodating so that all Guyana benefits. What is most damaging is the measly $650 increase to pensioners which is an abomination from a working class government known to be concerned with the poor. Whose interests are best served if a substantial increase is appropriated to them? The masses struggling to stay afloat couldn’t give a damn about that “big picture” and come election time they will prove they are not asses. Better late than never.
Yours faithfully,
Sultan Mohamed
