By Jeff Trotman
New Region Ten Chair-man, Renis Morian, has warned West Watooka residents that he will not sign for payment on work in the community if they continue to fight amongst themselves.
“I will not sign in any area that the people fighting. You all need to go to Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq – they want fighters there,” Morian sarcastically stated as he addressed almost one hundred residents at McNobb’s shop, West Watooka, on Wednesday 8 July. “We might want fighters for the border because I see Venezuela acting up but we hope there is peace.”
Morian said: “There seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction and internal fighting over Community Development Groups, which point to a national economic crisis. The policy makers at the top are doing everything in their power to bring relief.”
Stating that the meeting was called to point a way forward, in the short term, to bring relief to the people of West Watooka, Morian said the meeting was not intended “to find and prove who is right, or wrong but to set the ground work for the way forward. He explained that earlier that day he had received a telephone call to stop a Community Development Council (CDC) job in the area and he told the caller that the work must continue but when it is completed, the process of distributing CDC work will be revamped.
The former Member of Parliament for Region Ten said he was reluctant to accept the position of Regional Chairman, but changed his mind because the current President and Prime Minister told him, “we’re bringing you to Region Ten because we expect you to bring back the people of Region Ten as one”. He further said that his principals suggested that because he is a pastor, he could reach out to a wide cross-section of people and he told them, “I will not be the Chairman that will take basket to fetch water. If I have a job to do, I will do my job. So, nobody ain’t calling from town and calling any group. I wouldn’t sign for it.”
He said: “Imagine this small community got five and six groups – something wrong. People come like Nicodemus in the night and formed groups and gave out work. It was not legal. I will not break the law for nobody – no party, no side. We got to bring back order to Region Ten.” He added that he did not want to pre-empt the new CDC Director but the CDC map indicates that West Watooka has two groups – one farmers group and one CDC group.
Investors reluctant
He said investors are reluctant to set up shop in Linden because of the negative message that is sent from the Region. Pointing out that the people of West Watooka have resided in one community over time, Morian said the notion of divide and rule does not help them. “When you fight, you’re shortening the bread ….” He illustrated the point with an anecdote about two cats that found a pound of cheese and began arguing over the size each one should get. They called a monkey –the politician – to mediate; the monkey cut the cheese in two uneven portions, placed them on a scale and said they were not balancing evenly, bit a portion from the larger piece and ate it. The monkey did that for some time before the cats realized that the monkey had eaten three quarters of the cheese. Then they decided to find an amicable solution to their difference.
Mack City
Opining that many people in the audience were too young to remember the days of ‘Mack City’, a time in Linden when people worked together, irrespective of their political orientation, Morian said, “somewhere along the line , we have lost our way.”
He said when he became Regional Chairman, he approached people, who cursed him during the general and regional elections and whether he had done them wrong or not, he asked them if there was a war between he and them and he told them if he had done them wrong he was sorry. “The point is to bridge that divide. We got to recapture the Mack City spirit,” Morian said, adding that Linden is made up of immigrants from coastal areas of the country, who have worked together. He said a lot of men arrived in Linden without knowing anyone in the community “and they ended up in batchie not knowing anybody in the batchie. People come up here with their bag looking for work in the bauxite industry, not knowing where they are going and a man would say banna, you could stay by me.”
Good life
He said the government’s goal is a good life for all Guyanese and in keeping with that he is focusing on fostering a cohesive community. He said he is currently working on a proposal for an agriculture pilot project to release money to farmers and he asked three Agriculture Officers to name twenty bona fide West Watooka farmers, who can produce cabbage, pack choy and bora but they were unable to do.
Morian said, should $100M be released in Region Ten it would not take more than two months for $60M to leave the Region because the Region does not produce anything. He said politicians and economic planners expect that when money is released to the CDCs, the money would circulate within the Region: “the farmers gon get, the butcher gon get, the tailor gon get, the hairdresser gon get, the girl, who doing nails gon get …. The money gon circulate. But if you ain’t producing nothing and you only fighting, all the money gone back to (George)town…. Within a month, everybody gone back to square one”.
Handouts
He said the first thing is for West Watooka farmers to stop looking for handouts. Adding that he wears plenty caps, Morian said as he was speaking, one can go to his yard and pick ochro, boulanger and sweet pepper because he wants to be an example when he talks to farmers. Emphasizing that he does not eat beef, pork or chicken, Morian said he eats fish, consequently, he has twenty-seven fishing lines, three nets and five rods. He stressed that when he speaks about farming, people have to be serious.
In calling on his audience to air their views, Morian said he did not want any complaint since “all the complaints have been documented”. Rather, he desired them to suggest solutions to the problems. Reiterating that the focus and thrust of the coalition government is a good life for all Guyanese, the Regional Chairman said, “you got a very short time to break down some walls … because, read my lips, the first time you fight in here, I will not sign ….”
The long standing pastor of Fruits of Calvary Church, Burnham Drive, Linden, began the meeting with a prayer and called on all present to recite the national pledge. He ended the meeting in similar fashion. He was accompanied at the head table by recently appointed MP for Region Ten, Audwin Rutherford, whom he asked to introduce himself. Rutherford said he has particular responsibility for sub Region Two – Kwakwani and the Upper Berbice River – but President David Granger has told the members of parliament that they should operate in the interest of all Guyanese.
Asserting that he intends to serve all Guyanese, Rutherford said the policy makers are aware of the differences that exist within the constituencies and he wants Guyanese to understand that they must defuse their partisan political biases because “great nations develop when people understand to work together after elections”.
Stressing that it is time that Guyanese turn a page for cooperation, Ruther-ford said “Let us stop wasting time on those little conflicts” because “when you have wasted conflicts, you can’t develop. I am begging of us for us to come together as a people … So, West Watooka, I’m hoping that you come together as a people … and work for one purpose. We all will benefit once we come together.”
