Dear Editor,
I was raised in an environment where we took statements and promises from our Head of State, Commander in Chief etc. seriously and perforce relied on what was said, and what was promised.
Last year as we were saturated with the wonderful future, we as citizens of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana faced with blackouts were promised an end to this unhappy and stressful episode. Our President, Dr. Irfaan Ali assured us that a substantial sum was allocated to bring in equipment with the generating capacity to end these stressful blackouts.
I have done a survey but can only speak of my experience and the folks who live in this area of Lodge Housing Scheme. For this past week, I’ve had to purchase diesel for my generator. Thanks to the consistency of outages, as recent as Friday, March 8, 2024, as I dictate this letter.
To elicit a plausible explanation from GPL Top Brass is an exercise in futility. One can only conclude therefore that this fastest growing economy is encumbered by either incompetence or a cavalier waste of public funds, corruption and an administration that cares little for ordinary people.
Editor, the frightening situation may very well be a combination of all of the above factors. On my way to buy some dhal puri, I drove through Cemetery Road connecting Princes Street to Sussex Street and experienced a roadway we were assured would have been completed in time for the Christmas season 2023. Is this a case of incompetence, a cavalier waste of public funds, corruption and an administration that cares little for ordinary people or a combination of all?
If this be the case, those characteristics represent a merry merciless march to dictatorship. How else can we explain just a few instances?
Ignoring the Georgetown Municipality, ignoring the agreed recommendations contained in the Greater Georgetown Development Plan, ignoring the ex-GNS members who contributed labour and money and were given that land by Executive fiat based on a covenant.
Beyond legal and other niceties we have a Government that earlier subscribed to the philosophical underpinnings of the Greater Georgetown Development Plan which required the sanctity and preservation of open spaces, a philosophy supported by no less a person than the then President ordained as Champion of the Earth. The only thing consistent about this hotel deal is the Government’s inconsistency.
We have ignored the value and need for public open spaces in the Capital City. We ignore the wisdom of the Engineers who had Kelly Dam constructed as a secondary defence for the Atlantic Ocean. Kelly Dam is now known as Carifesta Avenue.
I suppose if the plans for this new venture, the Qatari Hotel are for good reasons, not approved by the Georgetown Munici-pality we can expect the behaviour of big bad bullies to be manifest. Hallmarks of a dictatorship. In a similar vein, we have received word that the MacKenzie Sports Club is to be rebuilt with neither consultation nor approval of the Linden Community. Hallmarks of a big bad bully.
This pattern of governance exists everywhere for all to see and as history has shown that these bully dictators gather around them sharing a cadre of sycophants, so you have certain members of our Chambers of Commerce without a credible feasibility study writing to the International Agencies urging support for the gas to shore project.
We have seen the big bad bullying behaviour in the handling of the justified strike by the Guyana Teachers’ Union. The old folks say ‘Nah tek fiyah stick ah night for wha you can see in the day’. They say and I subscribe to the notion that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword.’
In spite of events here and elsewhere, you must anchor our faith in the future that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword,’ and by peaceful means, by persuasion and even prayers, we can ensure that the big bad bullies in our midst can be beaten and so I again call upon our young people, members of the Trade Union Movement, Religious and Civil Organisations to keep on writing, and agitating and to those who keep quiet, be not guilty of the sin of silence.
Encourage print media, broadcast media, internet media and over the fence gaff to not surrender because by peaceful and legitimate means, the big bad bully can be beaten.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Elder
