Dear Editor,
Every patriot, irrespective of race, colour or political persuasion ought to be concerned with utterances over the past few days emanating from the top leaders, or should I say, the ruling cabal of this country. A worrisome condition that, if not halted, can suffocate and deny the aspirations and dreams of this and succeeding generations. With less than a million people, good climatic conditions and an abundance of natural resources we are, per capita, the richest human beings in the universe, and therefore, every citizen should benefit from this harmony of nature and mankind. The challenge, and our dilemma, is to have persons in charge with a sense of morality, sense of justice, decency and an appreciation of the separate roles of the Executive, the Parliament, the Judiciary and a free, informative and independent media.
This week we heard from the mountain top, an explanation for a stressful daily dose of blackouts. The main protagonist from the Government’s side was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). The statements from this fount of all knowledge spoke on oil and gas, United Nations Human Rights Commission and blackouts. Following the known script, our Vice President blamed the spate of blackouts on the Coalition Government. David Patterson has debunked this deception with clear lucid words. But we should take note that part of his excuse in defence of the present administration was reference to the glorious new development taking place under his Government’s watch, new hotels, businesses and houses, all requiring more electricity from the national grid. A profound analysis.
Therein lies the absolute folly of this high sounding boast of development. Any good government, any management of even a simple cake-shop ought to proceed on the basis of planning ahead, hence the old saying, ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. All these grand developments to which the Vice President referred to in his hour long monologue exposed the presence of either incompetence or zeal to proceed on a spending spree with all the potential evidence of corruption, poor performances extant in Guyana. Simply, if you are building facilities that require additional power, good sense suggests that you provide the basics to support these lofty developments. The basics are water, electricity, transportation and availability of health, recreational and educational facilities. So Mr. Vice President, you condemned your government for failing to provide the basics.
It is the same stupidity of building hospitals and schools before, and I repeat – before – spending your money to provide the human resources to man these buildings. Hospitals, schools are nothing but wood, stone and glass, unless you provide in advance, I repeat, in advance, the medical and teaching personnel. Only an idiot would build a house and no one to lives in it or build a church, mosque or temple and there is neither a Preacher, a Pandit, a Moulvi nor a Congregation to use the building. In another matter, he praises Gail Teixeira handling matters posed by the Human Rights Commission dealing with alleged corruption in Guyana.
You can fool some of the people, some of the time, but not all of the people, all of the time. I refer to Charles Dickens’ work, Tales of Two Cities, which dealt with the social and economic disparities in England and France which led to the French Revolution. As I listened painfully to our Vice President’s fulminations on every topic, except of course, our disappointment to learn about his tenant and erstwhile good friend, Mr. Su, speaks volumes, I could not help remembering again, Charles Dickens’ play, Oliver Twist and his character, Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger who English Literature described as a pickpocket and his nickname refers to his skill and cunning in that occupation.
Editor, as I approach four score years and ten, my allusion to Oliver Twist’s character has absolutely nothing to do with anyone alive today, but perhaps, the wandering and wonderment of an old soldier. On another matter, for the benefit of our young people, let me remind them that in the late 70s, the PPP and their acolytes were severe in their criticisms about the PNC promoting, in their words, party paramountcy. What we see here is a political boomerang when from the headquarters of the PPP, its General Secretary pronounces, prattles and pontificates on matters that are state issues, and we are witnessing the essence of party paramountcy. Let me now turn to a grievous, unbelievable state of affairs.
Thanks to a super-patriot, Glenn Lall, Kaieteur Radio among others, we learnt that the government, through the AG, has secretly joined with ExxonMobil in its appeal to the highest Court in our jurisdiction, the CCJ. The AG, in explaining why it was unnecessary to consult the People’s representative, and or inform the media before the demarche, let the proverbial cat out of the bag. He said that the 2016 Agreement which the PPP and the rest of us described as lopsided was bringing in billions into our coffers allowing us to build all these roads, bridges, houses, hospitals, schools, dig canals etc. He did not go on to say that his Party was severe on Granger’s Coalition on the 2016 Agreement and had promised when in office to have this Agreement renegotiated.
Instead, the AG now boasts of the great benefit we are getting from this 2016 contract. The AG’s party severely criticised this contract and promised when they got into office they would renegotiate. But instead we hear this nonsense about the sanctity of contract. So instead of burnishing our symbols of Independence and keeping the Golden Arrowhead aloft, we are metaphorically burning and tarnishing our Independence, obviously at the behest of those who are harvesting our natural resources, and when we should be getting millions, our present administrators are satisfied with the crumbs falling from the master’s table.
What made the Attorney General’s statement frightening is when he confuses the government and the state. An inexcusable, unforgivable mix up by our chief lawmaker. What we heard from him is the translation of this ‘One Guyana’ story, which really means that the ‘One’ meant the PPP top brass. An example of The Artful Dodger II. In all this, the man with the constitutional authority, that is, President Ali, to reign in this brigade is silent, and therefore complicit to all the wrong doings. Guyanese everywhere must, whether at family gatherings, community meetings, religious and cultural organisations, speak up to save our country from a notable descent into the dungeons and darkness.
Let me make it crystal clear, we welcome all those who come to harvest our precious non-renewable natural resources, but we should draw the line and stand up against what is now palpable, the rape of our resources and the inequity and unfairness in the distribution of those precious and priceless gifts of God. Human history is replete with examples, where the nation pays a high price in circumstances where repairs to damage done is too late. Let me remind those presiding over the debauchery of our oil, gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese, that these are not replaceable. Whatever are your beliefs, if we fail to get more benefits from our natural resources, these blessings could be a curse. People everywhere must demand of our leaders to first stand up like Men against the Mighty and not be afraid about this nonsense we hear from the VP, that he doesn’t want to discourage development.
Finally, our Government in this trillion dollar budget has not provided one cent to acquire metres to measure the oil being extracted every day, forcing us to rely on figures given to us by these conglomerates. Silly steps. To citizens everywhere, you should recognize the danger we face. I remind us all of the significance of these words below by Samuel Koranteng Pipim, Ghanaian Scholar, Author and Public Speaker, (1957) – “Those who read are those who lead. But those who write keep the leaders right. For silence is the crime by cowards of every time.”
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green
Elder
