Dear Editor,
As a born-and-bred Lindener, I register my heartfelt condolences to fellow Lindeners who mourn the ‘July 18 Linden Martyrs,’ and express my profound outrage at the corrupt PPP government and the equally corrupt Guyana Police Force – two peas in a pod. Imagine, neither the government nor the police have done anything to address pervasive corruption, but when an economically depressed community cries out for economic justice – even as they look and see other communities with government-subsidized jobs and bonuses – the government and police respond with brute force and ignorance.
To all the PPP apologists, but especially Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who keep defending government’s decision to end subsidizing electricity consumption in Linden and who keep saying that Lindeners should pay the same electricity rate as the rest of the country, the issue is not one of unwillingness, but one of inability in a community with a reportedly 70% unemployment rate. There’s a stark difference. Nevertheless, the electricity rate increase issue just so happens to be the final straw.
Before this, Lindeners saw their bauxite company, which spawned the town since 1925, sold and re-sold after the government said it was not financially feasible to sustain. The same company is being operated by the Chinese with a staff of about 600, while the community is host to anywhere between 40,000 and 50,000 people. Ever since the company was last sold, there have been talks about making Linden an economic hub, but after 20 years in office, the government has not produced a viable economic alternative to bauxite for the residents.
In the run-up to the November 28 elections, PPP presidential candidate, Donald Ramotar and PM Hinds campaigned in Linden on Monday, October 17, 2011, and not once did they mention anything about government ending the electricity subsidy after elections. Then Candidate Ramotar told a Wismar gathering, which the Chronicle pegged at 10,000, that he will press Bosai (Linden) and Rusal (Berbice) to expand their production and to develop new products that will see greater value added and create at least 1000 new jobs in the industry.
“The time is not very far off,” he reportedly continued, “when we will not be exporting merely bauxite from Guyana. The possibility is coming for us to export alumina and aluminium from this country. Imagine how your life will change when all of these things begin to come on stream. You will have the opportunity of earning much more by providing more and more services to the people of our country,”
He also saw Linden and Region Ten as pivotal to the development of Guyana when he spoke about connecting the road from Linden to Lethem as a main corridor for our international trade, when that becomes linked to a deep water harbour. Candidate Ramotar also spoke of the new fibre optic cable being landed from Brazil that will pass through Linden, and which he believes will bring greater economic opportunities for the mining town. He said that with the Amaila Hydro project coming to fruition, the already subsidized cost of electricity to Lindeners could be further reduced, while creating more opportunities for industries.
But after the elections results came back showing Linden voted overwhelmingly for APNU, government pulled the plug on the electricity subsidy and announced the laying off of 77 employees who worked with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority in Linden. Before this shocking decision, some Lindeners were among folks who were forced by the police at gunpoint to leave the so-called ‘Bone Yard’ or mined out area left by Omai, the Canadian gold mining company. Adrian Timothy, a miner, ominously told Demerarawaves (January 2, 2012), “The government’s position is about guns and ammunition and we the miners cannot stand up against that.”
Timothy also recalled predicting accurately that government would have evicted the miners shortly after the November 28 general elections rather than before because crucial votes had been at stake, and concluded in despair, “It is really appalling that Guyanese were being pushed out of a job. It’s really sad! I woke up with a heavy heart to see what has become of Omai Bone Yard.”
Notice the similarity between Omai Bone Yard and Linden where decisions were taken after elections, and this is why Guyanese everywhere must be outraged that the PPP could be so calculatingly callous, careless and crass, and then try to appear concerned and caring with crocodile tears-style speeches when people react in understandable anger and frustration. What good will investigations into the shootings or the removal of the commander and his trigger-happy squad do for do for the overall economic situation in Linden?
Editor, there is something that needs to be said about the PPP based on its history: it is as stubborn as a mule and incapable of learning from its past mistakes. It is so pre-occupied with the belief it has some sort of God-given right to rule Guyana, and whether it succeeds or screws up in the process, it will consider it par for the course in its self-serving pursuit.
I close by reminding President Ramotar of his words to Lindeners last October, that the PPP/C governments over the past 19 years have made tremendous developmental changes to Guyana not only in terms of infrastructure, but being able to change the social fabric in the country as people are now living in freedom and harmony. Well, seven months into his presidency and already the blood of innocent Guyanese has been shed as freedom and harmony are seriously threatened.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
