Dear Editor,
I have been differing with many of the views, opinions, interpretations and advocated world view and attitudes of Dr David Hinds. Each person has a right to his/her view but views should not fly in the face of facts. Allow me once more to state facts which should cause Dr Hinds and every Guyanese to think again about the paragraph from ‘Hinds’Sight’ in the Sunday Chronicle of October 2, which I quote:
“The continued subsidizing of the sugar industry in the form of massive bailouts has directly benefited the mainly Indian Guyanese community. The PPP never did the same for sectors heavily populated by African Guyanese. In fact it sought to remove the electricity subsidy from Linden”.
Quite to the contrary, in the particular case of our bauxite sector and communities, Linden and most of Region 10, heavily populated by African Guyanese, it can be argued that even if it were only because of circumstances at the time, that area received proportionately larger attention, subsidies and support. We, the PPP/C, were even handed in what we did, even if for no other reason than that we were being watched continuously from all sides, but I would proffer our commitment to all round development of all Guyanese and Guyana, with an equitable sharing of whatever our nation has, good and bad.
As I have noted before, we PPP/C in 1992 inherited an agreement entered into between the departed PNC administration and the multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) which funded and placed an international mining manager (IMM), Minproc, in Linmine. The IMM was to determine and demonstrate whether Linmine could be made profitable or not; if profitable it was to be privatized, if not it was to be closed. Government was to extend no further subsidy. When in 1994 Minproc declared that it could see no way to make the operations profitable, we PPP/C would have been expected to close the operations but we didn’t. Our oath of office required us to treat everyone without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. We knew the trauma which an abrupt closure, although not unanticipated, would have brought to our fellow citizens in Linden/Region10.
After the Minproc declaration, of no sight of profitability, we pursued a third MFI intervention – one to develop alternatives for Linden after the failure of the two earlier interventions to restore the bauxite operations to profitability. Early in our term, the young Bharrat Jagdeo himself had led a team to learn of the socioeconomic situation and future possibilities in Linden. This study provided the basis for this third approach (Sysmins) which eventually materialized in Leap including Leaf. The PPP/C had to argue strongly against concerns that the people of Linden were not yet ready to be converted from being employees in a 100% company town to entrepreneurs in an open town.
Whilst continuing to subsidize the company, improvements were pushed along and all non-core activities completely removed – health, education, electricity, water – and taken up by appropriate ministries and agencies of the government. We began the reconciling and clearing arrears of a number of accounts – the worker’s saving scheme, PAYE to GRA, GBPP (Guyana Bauxite Pension Plan), NIS, and setting aside termination payments at the eventual privatization, altogether about $2.5 billion. We advertised twice without success for credible interest in taking an equity position in the company. It may also be recalled that about ten years ago we redeemed the bonds issued to Alcan at the time of nationalization.
All the while we were additionally and separately subsidizing electricity at increasing amounts approaching $3 billion per year.
In 1992, we received the steam power station and other electricity facilities very run down, as there had been little if any money for maintenance during the preceding years. We advertised and sought a core investor to restore a good supply of electricity in Linden. As it happened the selected bidder brought little improvement; we terminated the agreement and regained some losses in an arbitration hearing.
After a number of successful contract arrangements we and Omai/Cambior entered into an agreement by which Omai/Cambior gained a 70% equity position in the core bauxite operations renamed OBMI. All went well until sales fell precipitously and OBMI announced a two month shut-down. We the PPP/C stepped in and provided basic pay to all workers requiring only that everyone from sweeper to manager spend some hours each week attending or providing an appropriate level course on the operations and use of computers. One of my political commentator friends was moved to lament in a letter (somewhat tongue in cheek I thought) that we PPP/C were pointing Afro-Guyanese to the IT future whilst working to keep Indo-Guyanese in the past, cutting cane – the hewers of wood and drawers of water.
When parent company Cambior, itself was in trouble, and was bought by another, the order was to sell off the bauxite operations or shut them down within about six months. We were again very concerned. We readily met the potential replacements brought by Cambior and provided our no-objection in good time to their choice of Bosai.
Similar levels of attention and albeit less cash support were required in managing the bauxite operations with their non-core activities and responsibilities for their associated communities, along the Berbice River. Recall that Alcoa after it bought Reynolds announced that it had no need for the Aroaima operations, another occasion of a potential shutdown! We PPP/C took it over, merged the operations along the Berbice River and managed it until we attracted a core partner, Rusal, which gained a 90% equity position in the core operations. We owe a huge debt of thanks to Mr Morrie Stuart, the old miner man from Australia who managed the Demerara and Berbice operations in turn, in the difficult circumstances and restrictions of government ownership at that time.
We worked at encouraging the development of new economic activities in Linden offering non-core bauxite assets for new use, and seeking outside work as appropriate. I can mention that we arranged with the company which won the contract for the rehabilitation of the Demerara Harbour Bridge to sub-contract the Bauxite Plant Machine Shop to assemble (weld-up) the large unit pontoons; the extension of farming at West Watooka (from which pumpkins were exported to Barbados); the encouragement and facilitation of the small loggers of Linden, Ituni, Kwakwani (who have now found themselves increasingly in limbo over the last year); the convenient, successful small-man, private-sector, competitive river-crossing at Kwakwani (under threat recently) which replaced the steadily more uncertain, no-charge company service; our repeated persevering attempts to emplace IT/call centres in Linden (the last, longest surviving one an eventual casualty of the 2012 disturbances).
Despite the attention and subsidies occasioned by the state of the bauxite companies, our fellow citizens of Linden and Region 10 benefited no less in the provision of infrastructure and social services.
On the recommendation of a group of local engineers we gained approval for a more economic design for the first rehabilitation of the Soesdyke-Linden highway – the savings enabled the upgrade of the bridges and the rebuilding of the main roads in and through Linden, including Burnham Drive and Avenue of the Republic. Work on school buildings in Linden was not delayed. I recall accompanying then Minister of Education, Dr Dale Bisnauth on Valentine’s Day in 1997 on a tour of about a dozen school buildings which had major repairs or were being built anew, and Linden benefited equitably in subsequent education improvement programmes. It took some time but in time, we the PPP/C had the funding to build the new McKenzie Hospital and for the major reworking and expansion of the potable water supply in Linden. Our housing programme got going in Linden after we had made some headway to remedy the acute situation in Georgetown and its environs, yet we can all be proud of the Block 22 and the extensive development in Amelia’s Ward at mid-2015.
Concerning the attempt to initiate the reform of the electricity supply in Linden, highly subsidized electricity, leading to twice the average consumption on the coast, is the last remaining feature of the company town, from the time when nearly every household contained at least one company employee. Today, the situation is quite different with perhaps only one in ten households containing a company employee. Our PPP/C proposal which stood in the National Assembly for some hours without protest was intended to initiate the merger of Linden electricity into GPL in a number of stages over a number of years. The proposal entailed adopting and utilizing the (less) subsidized GPL pricing formula, but in the first stage consumers in Linden would only be charged half of what is calculated and the savings would have been utilized in helping consumers to transit.
The PPP/C is not the problem for African Guyanese; the propaganda and focus on Indian Guyanese as the nemesis of African Guyanese is the problem and it distracts many African Guyanese from really getting on with their lives. I have put a lot into presenting the facts in this letter well aware that those sentiments presented by Dr David Hinds are matters of perception and emotion shared by too many African Guyanese. And yet facts matter.
Nonetheless, we of the PPP/C ‒ every member, supporter, and friend – should hold ourselves challenged to overcome those perceptions and emotions which arise in the course of the hundreds of interactions, even just fleeting ones, which we have each day with fellow Guyanese who are African Guyanese. Being right, and doing right should be beyond question, but that is not all. There is much that we can add and learn by trial and error and little by little, once we hold in mind and act out our desire for good for every fellow citizen.
As all the sages have said, we should be ready to share the other’s burdens, walk any number of miles with him; there should be no problem, no hardship for us of the PPP/C for we Guyanese are all on the same journey. Our (PPP/C) smiles and attitudes of friendship will eventually undo the historical decades of propaganda against us of the PPP and PPP/C.
Yours faithfully,
Samuel A A Hinds
Former President & former Prime Minister
