Dear Editor,
I am compelled to respond to a letter published in the letter column of your newspaper by Mr Juan Edghill, Minister of Public Works, on June 17, 2022; captioned, “Let me remind that it was the caretaker APNU Government who suspended the T&HD Berbice operations”. I wish to let Mr Edghill know that he must first arm himself with credible facts to justify his response when in haste to respond.
Editor, you may recall that my letter to you, dated June 6, 2022, addressed the unjustifiable actions by the Ministry of Public Works explicitly and, by extension, the PPP regime for discontinuing the “water taxis” after taking office in August 2020. I will not belabour the irrelevant points advanced by Mr Edghill as it relates to the actions of the PPP/C regime pre-May 2015. But will remain focused on “what was” after the commissioning of the “water taxis” in August 2018 by the caring Coalition Government.
In the fourth paragraph of Mr Edghill’s letter, he referred to”… on April 6, 2020, that it was the caretaker APNU Government which restricted the movement of citizens from those regions when it callously instructed the T&HD operations be suspended….” Editor, I believe that Mr Edghill seems to live somewhere other than planet earth or suffer from temporary amnesia. Perhaps I shall remind him and your readers that the water taxis were operating. However, the operational procedures were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 after the discovery of the index case on March 11, 2020. However, it was the caring APNU+AFC Coalition Government that ensured all preventive measures were put in place to safeguard the lives and health of our citizens. The COVID-19 control measures, which saw vessels operating at reduced passenger capacity to 50%, initially affected air, water, and land, with further reduction after continuous reviews. However, at no time did the APNU+AFC Coalition Government instruct or restrict the movement of citizens since there were gazetted orders guiding how our citizens should operate and adhere.
Therefore, Editor, I will conclude my response to Mr Edghill’s prompt letter to mine that the recommissioning of the “water taxis” by him and the PPP/C regime was a failed attempt to erase the legacy and vision of the APNU+AFC Coalition Government. Therefore, I hold firmly to the contents of my letter to you, Editor, dated June 6, 2022, and published on June 12, 2022.
Yours in service,
Annette Ferguson, MP
Former Minister Within – Ministry of Public Infrastructure
