Dear Editor,
Amidst its multiple competing priorities, I recommend that this personal wish list could become early, if not immediate, ‘To Do’ priorities for government people and agencies. Some are fairly easy to accomplish.
First, all secret surveillance groups inherited from the previous administration ought to be dismantled right now, except for those monitoring criminal pursuits. There is enough spying going on at the citizen level for government to be so involved. Also, let there be a moving away from that old Stalinist mindset, where it was believed that enemies abounded everywhere and the dissenting public was up to nothing good.
Second, the Minister of Public Security and Com-missioner of Police should set aside time from their packed schedules to meet weekly with citizens harbouring grievances about services, treatment, and problems encountered in their bailiwick. All it takes is 3-4 hours weekly, and as a bonus they could get some firsthand grassroots intelligence on the way things are. This is a page out of the servant-leader guidebook, and how a people oriented administration goes to great lengths to operate.
Third, the Traffic Chief should deploy his men at certain points to apprehend the obvious and numerous violators of the law in such areas as blocking turning lanes at stop lights, bypassing/overtaking waiting lines on single lane, two way streets, and creating dangerous situations for oncoming traffic. The chief does not need this intelligence, but the pickings would be easy at Lamaha and Camp Streets, Vlissengen Road and Woolford Avenue, and Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic. The public coffers get needed dollars, and road hogs some much needed discipline. Guyanese have made an art form of being chronically late, so what’s the hurry? It also slows things down; the constant accurate cry has been about too much speeding. So there!
Fourth, the investigations into the Alicia Foster killing and Lavoy Taljit disappearance should be retrieved and reenergised. Let there be some much needed justice for these families. Let there be some reassurance to our decent honourable public servants that there is a place for them, and that they count.
Fifth, social cohesion inclinations were superseded by the Venezuelan border development. Those driving this bus should be careful that it does not fizzle and fade. The Venezuelan escalation emphasised how much a one-head, one-mind, one-body nation is direly needed.
Fifth, the CEO (ag) of the Georgetown Hospital, with the concurrence of the Minister of Health, must move quickly to stop a present practice. Cuban medical personnel and local Cuban trained doctors should discontinue conversing in Spanish in the presence of bewildered and fearful patients, who assume the worst. Such behaviour is disrespectful and improper; it does not build patient confidence. If the Cubans lack the requisite English, they are encouraged to learn. I had to adapt to American English (if that’s what it is) over there. So why should the same not be the norm here. Please do not subject our suffering to more trauma; the imagined variety could be worse.
Sixth, the government must partner (more) with the newly arrived US Ambassador to clean the dens of iniquity, and send away some denizens. This is long overdue; the places and people and practices are known. Time to get moving and this does not mean Paramaribo or Port-of-Spain, but right here.
Most of these things are easily doable. There is no need for studies or conferences. Only interest and will are needed. I have dozens more of these wishes, but hold them in abeyance for now.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
