Dear Editor,
Please permit me to comment on Asquith Rose and Sase Singh’s letter in SN of June 23. In that letter they wrote: “So, we concur with the wise saying, ‘Never make a promise unless you can fulfil it.’ Not only will the government lose credibility, but it will lose the trust and confidence of the vast majority of people. The people are confident that the government will do the right thing and honour their promises.”
I want to believe that the supporters of the coalition will be more tolerant of broken promises than they estimate. The simple reason is that the people of Guyana know full well that without a broken promise the PPP would still be in power. That promise made by the AFC which is part of the coalition, was that they would never, never coalesce with the APNU.
It was a fool’s promise which the AFC made in the circumstances of its growth and which it recognised as a fool’s promise into which it was probably manoeuvred by the crafty PPP, because they knew what could be the eventual outcome. Or perhaps it was a promise strategically made with every intention to break it. However they came by it, thank heavens they broke that promise.
Circa 1984 Forbes Burnham asked his crowd, “Comrades, yuh wan 5% or you wan hydro [power]?” I think the choice before the coalition given the circumstances in which they find the finances of the country could very well be ‘10% and hydro(cele).’
Yours faithfully,
Frederick W A Collins
