The hydropower fiasco is indicative of the political chaos in Guyana

Dear Editor,

The fiasco swirling around the hydropower project is indicative of the political chaos inherent in Guyana and no end is in sight for our people and our country. The PPP congress, just concluded in Berbice, set the final stage for the fiasco we are now facing because without new sources of energy for our country, we will be left behind in our future development. The strident language by President Ramotar and the follow-up by his mentor and benefactor, Mr Jagdeo, at the congress and after that event, sealed the cancellation of hydropower and contributed to a further degeneration in our political processes to an end which only God would know and which leaves our citizens baffled and confused.

Editor, that we are baffled and confused is nothing new in the political sphere of our country, because for 47 years this is the crux of our advancement.

There is no end in sight to bring about a new dispensation of clarity and unity in our political landscape which could produce the ‘goods’ for our future development and the prognosis for a unified Guyanese nation.

No, Editor, the recent fiasco shows that we are still stuck in the past, with our politicians slinging mud at each other with our President, Mr Ramotar, taking the lead role by a margin which marks him as excessively uncompromising and glaringly aggressive in the face of a defeat at the last general election. The comments by Mr Jagdeo after the hydropower fiasco do not help the current situation at all, and as I told the only gathering of the PPP/Civic I was invited to after the last election, compromise and accommodation are the only political tools available to the PPP, and the political solutions for a minority government can only come from those two time-tested, wonderful and meaningful concepts.

But this government is not listening and adopting these hallowed concepts in any way, form or fashion, and thus we are headed for confrontation, which is time-tested as well, but as history shows, leads nowhere and will carry us back to the days we want to put behind us.

Editor, we, the citizens, see clearly the strident nature of the debates on the hydropower fiasco with Mr Hughes and the AFC caught in the middle with their pants down, while the PPP/C and APNU played their cards which are old, faded and clearly in need of replacement without the kings, queens or jacks ‒ just the four aces representing tranquility, accommodation, compromise and brotherhood. The other 36 cards represent the citizens who want an end to the political kings, queens and jacks era of high living, endemic corruption and gross ineptitude in the running of our country.

Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)