Dear Editor,
Alliance for Change Chairman Mr Khemraj Ramjattan believes that the government had a hidden agenda with regard to the ousting of the Mormon missionaries here recently. On a live programme last Saturday in Berbice, he said that government is sending away the missionaries to prevent neutralization within the Amerindian communities. His second theory involves the President’s upcoming trip to Iran. He said that Mr Jagdeo “goes around begging all the countries for help” and when he arrives in Iran – a state which abhors Americans and their policies – he will tell Ahmadinejad that he kicked out some Americans, and so the aid to Guyana will flow. His final theory as to the ousting of the American missionaries deals with the belief that soon, senior government officials will be indicted in the US, and so the excuse for the indictments by the government here would be the revenge on Guyana by the US because their missionaries were kicked out of the country.
Sheila Holder, who also was on the show, stated that the police in Guyana are like vultures and predators. The joint panel agreed that the police are holding up drivers at police stations for eight and nine hours, sometimes overnight, for petty and silly offences and matters. This they said reflected a deliberate attempt to get bribes by traffic cops. They said that the senior officers must set traps, as was done in the past, for the junior officers. Ramjattan said that the police force must find a way to police itself as well.
Supporter of the AFC Dr Ramayya stated that the traffic police are hiding in bus sheds and behind trees and other objects near the road only to jump out on the road to point radar guns and stop drivers. This he said should not be, since it causes drivers to be in surprise and a state of shock whilst driving. The panellists said that there are no speed limit signs on the roads in Berbice and so drivers are put at a disadvantage. The police, they agreed, can then capitalize on this and charge drivers for breaking the speed limits of which they have no idea. During the past year, numerous speed limit signs and direction arrows were strewn right across New Amsterdam to the Corentyne by the contracting firm from Trinidad. After a few weeks, the signs were knocked down one by one on the roads. I had written a letter on that situation. Today, there are hardly any speed limit signs on the road. Schoolchildren and people were seen hanging on the signs and shaking them. Many of the signs have fallen down and have been removed from the roads.
Ms Holder stated that upon touring Region Six today (Saturday), she heard the cries of the farmers of Manchester, who claimed that their canals had not been dug for the last 30 years. A visibly upset Holder chided the Regional Chairman for his treatment of the people of Manchester and Liverpool (predominantly African populated villages). She uttered a call to end discrimination by the RDC of the people of the two aforementioned villages.
Ramjattan, spoke on the recent elections in Orealla. He spoke at length of the interference by certain regional officials whereby they protested the running of one John King on the election ticket. The matter, he said was still engaging the court. Ramjattan said, “The PPP is doing badly on the ground.”
He mentioned that the government was retaliating against the Kaieteur News for their exposé journalism. “The PPP… want to delay elections [local government] to hold one big election in 2011. They don’t want the electorate to see the support waning.” He went on to say they did not provide the funds for De la Rue to print the ID cards.
He furthered that the AFC had written the Norwegian government about the Low Carbon Development Strategy and had received a response. He disagreed that the funds gained by Guyana from the strategy should be put to use by the Office of the President, which he says is not accountable just as in the case of the Lotto Funds.
Ms Holder said that a group of people from Orealla had boycotted the Heritage Day celebrations recently due to their dissatisfaction with certain issues there. She held up a copy of the Stabroek News (September 9) to display a photograph on the front page showing that, except for one of the Amerindian dancers, the rest had been brought in by the government from Suriname to take in the celebrations due to the boycott by villagers of that community. She also said that the government bussed an entire entourage from Mara (a village on the East Bank of the Berbice River) to fill the chairs at the event.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Suseran
