Dear Editor,
Before the election on May 11, 2015, a lot of people who are now in the new government used to inbox me on Facebook that they wanted to meet with me at the Damon Park rally. These were people whom I did not know nor even saw in my lifetime. I came to the conclusion that they were upbeat about my letters in Stabroek News and my outright support for the APNU+AFC coalition. I was very critical about the way the PPP treated their supporters and stalwarts in the newspapers and the amount of corruption each day within the government. These letters also caught the eyes of the incoming President, Mr David Granger, Mr Gerhard Ramsaroop said, and he wanted to meet me on his next visit on the Essequibo Coast.
Mr Gerhard Ramsaroop arranged to have the meeting between me and the now President at my home; he was at a Charity meeting with people to support the coalition and passed my home. Gerhard then informed me that he would be late and asked if I could make myself available to meet him. I was out with my wife at the southern end of the road meeting with some people and my friends to support the new movement, and I told him that I would meet with Mr Granger at Supenaam; however, we unfortunately did not get to meet. I did attend the coalition rally at Damon Park. I went early and parked my car not too far from the stage. The crowd was huge and I continued to receive texts on my cell phone from people whom I did not know or see.
These were people whom I assumed were from Berbice, Linden and Georgetown; a few of them happened to meet me while I was taking pictures through directions as to where I could be found. Mr Imran Khan, the special assistant and information officer to the Prime Minister also wanted to meet me but never got the opportunity that night. I assumed that he too was busy filming the crowd and taking pictures. The only person who knew me personally before that rally was Mr Nigel Hughes and Mr Moses Nagamootoo, but I never get to meet them either, although I saw them on the stage. After the election was won, I eventually got to meet Ms Valerie Garrido-Lowe, Imran Khan and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo at the cabinet outreach and awards ceremony at the Anna Regina Multilateral School.
One thing I can say, and that is if I email the Prime Minister, he would promptly reply to me. The rest of the ministers within the government never acknowledge my emails, phone calls or other people’s emails. This is a grave mistake they are making; you can complain about how bad the PPP ministers were, but they replied to your emails, answered your phone calls and listened to your problems, even if they could not solve them. This to my mind was some kind of satisfaction, and you were pleased. Come 2020, they will need these same people whom they are ignoring, but it will be too late. If they have sense they can take a page out of the US election and learn something. The PPP treated their supporters the same way after 23 years in office and they lived to regret it.
This government is just 18 months old, and some of its ministers are behaving worse than the PPP. You can say that after 23 years some government officials became lazy, tired and corrupt, but some in the new government are just lazy, tired, inefficient and corrupt. The President should not only target white collar wrongdoers in the past administration; there are many within his own government who need to be weeded out. It has become a cancer and it has spilled over from the past administration especially, the public servants and the police force. No one can deny that it still exists.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
