Dear Editor,
I read Samuel Hinds’ response (SN 16th Jan 2021) to my letter (7th Jan 2021) and was greatly disappointed. The former Prime Minister and President is being reminded he was asked to provide his record of accomplishments for the African community as the person identified by Cheddi Jagan to be “the bridge” to this community.
Sam knows he will not succeed in blinding me by presenting a list of what he thinks are significant benefits African Guyanese received during the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime that he served under. He cannot hide behind what he claims are accomplishments when evidently such have not been his doing but factors such as trade union agitations and the benevolence of overseas loved ones. Successive World Bank Reports have acknowledged the significance of remittances and barrels from the diaspora to our Gross Domestic Product and improvement in the lives of Guyanese here.
Sam must place his record on the table. He must account for his performance, including sitting in a seat assigned by fraudulent means. Thus, he is being reminded of the following:
1. He was prime minister with responsibility for mines (bauxite and other minerals) and energy (electricity). It was during his stewardship that the calcine production level was cut from 480,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes and not because there wasn’t a market. Sam needs to come clean and explain to this nation why a deliberate policy was enacted to reduce production by half in 1993.
2. Thousands of bauxite workers employed in Linden, Kwakwani and Everton were fired starting from March 1993. Their socioeconomic wellbeing and the communities within which they reside were adversely impacted. Linden was subsequently classified a Depressed Community on Sam’s watch.
3. It was on his political watch the power generation in Linden, that at one time supplied the national grid, folded. After presiding over the destruction, he removed the steam turbine and sent it to West Demerara.
4. The bauxite workers’ pension plan, worth in excess of $2.5 billion, which was the largest single pool of money owned by African workers was dismantled whilst Sam retained responsibility for bauxite. Every suggestion put forward by bauxite workers and their unions to create an investment plan from this Fund, that would ensure its continuity and a pension to workers at retirement, was ignored.
5. In 1995 the PPP/C publicly committed to construct an industrial park at Dallawalla, Linden. Another commitment was made by said regime that Region 10 would be the industrial corridor of the country. Neither materialised even as Sam held the portfolio for bauxite and was the Member of Parliament for Region Ten.
6. Sam was Director, Research and Development (R&D) Division in GUYMINE during the People’s National Congress (PNC) government. He was given a blank cheque to develop alternative new products to ensure the industry sustainability. His division cashed that cheque every year but produced no new product. What Sam did was produce airfare and subsistence expenses for his travels with the industry’s
marketing team, around the world, in what he claimed was to arrive at a clear understanding as to what the market needs. True to form, nothing was found and nothing was done, not necessarily in the same order.
If according to him bauxite failed under the PNC, up on the totem pole he sat as the head for R&D during that administration, and he must therefore take equal responsibility. These issues are not smiling matters. They speak to Sam’s performance and he knows some are not blind to his record. The responsibilities Samuel Hinds were assigned had consequences for the well-being of the African community. His feet are being held to the fire to prove his performance was worthwhile, and answer whether he feels remorse benefitting from the fraudulent assignment of a Region Ten seat.
Accountability must start with those who claim to be interested in truths and reconciliation. I await Sam’s response to his extant record not the typical denial, merry-go-round, excuses and diversions.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis.
