Dear Editor,
I write about no small matter. Your headline, ‘No time-frame for 24-hour power supply to Mabaruma – Hinds’ (SN, November 11), has been read by everyone as a quote from me, which it is not; and I fear that it propagates an altogether different message from what I did actually write. And, indeed, I would even argue that it is inaccurate. And worse, Editor, I fear that, in your headline, the message that you represent wrongly as a quote from me is, ‘You all suppose to get 24-hour electricity, but Hinds say he got no plan to give you all 24-hour electricity.’
A truer headline would have been, ‘24-hour power supply to Mabaruma after discussions with residents – Hinds.’ I do have a time-frame in mind, and I have stated it, “after discussions with residents about sustainability.” We have been working towards increased and improved electricity supply long before the questions were asked: the supply in Mabaruma has been increased from 4 hours to 6 hours, each day; the supply is being extended as funding becomes available for increased generation, and for an upgraded and extended network. A 24×7 supply of electricity does not come – indeed, there is nothing that comes ‒ with the wave of a magic wand. It would be good if we could consistently send the message, and assure our fellow citizens, that we Guyanese would have in time all that we would want – but we have to work for it with our hands and heads and hearts, individually and all together.
There are no goods, no services, no rights, no entitlements, other than that which we work to produce and share with each other. Production comes first, and there is a lot to learn by everyone. We would learn a lot along the way as we do things. The pace of growth and development would be related to our rate of learning many things, in everything that matters.
In this regard, we are establishing, one after another, small mini-utilities in various hinterland population centres. We are looking to use poles provided by local people, using local woods. It has not been easy and it has not been done before, and we are encountering all the learning issues in doing new things. We are appointing the chairperson, and the majority of the board members, from amongst local persons, along with three more experienced persons, one each from the HEU, the GPL, and the parent company, NICIL.
Let us not exacerbate our development pains but, rather, help to make them easier!
Yours faithfully,
Samuel A A Hinds, MP
Prime Minister
Editor’s note
In a written response to the question asked in Parliament Prime Minister Hinds said: “I cannot say now how soon a 24 hr electricity supply will be available in Mabaruma, not until after we would have discussed with residents….” He has similarly not given a time-frame in his letter either. As such, SN does not feel that the headline (which was not in inverted commas indicating a direct quote) was inappropriate.
