Dear Editor,
Listening to the news emanating from the Government’s side, I am now convinced that we may very well need the services of a number of psychiatrists to deal with what appears to be the twisted thinking of those in the captain’s deck of our ship of state.
In an earlier post I pleaded that we need to recognize the urgency of being faithful to our Constitution and therefore for the Head of State to ensure meaningful consultation on important national issues. The response has been one of disdain to the very idea of meaningful dialogue.
This attitude is having a dangerous and deleterious effect on our society. This attitude is prompted by a belief by the President and his Advisors that they are the font of all knowledge and the repository of all wisdom and that the rest of us are unworthy. That the rest of us are the scum and dregs to be either ignored or used as ponds.
Earlier this morning, while dictating this note there was a power outage, which lasted for almost three hours . I recalled President Ali’s explanation, where as usual he blamed the unhappy state-of-affairs on the previous Government (APNU/AFC).
After listening to the clarity of letters by former Minister David Patterson and Rawle Lucas, who was in charge of the sector, the government’s explanation, apart from being feeble, reeks with inaccuracy and an attempt to fool citizens who are victims of their ineptness and the PPP’s proclivity to remove all and sundry who are not the sycophants. The results, square pegs in round holes and in the case of GPL, a person who was not enjoying the best of health, that person has been replaced by the brother of a member of the Cabinet.
In a long verbal delivery, the General Secretary of the PPP and my friend Vice President Bharat Jagdeo, a few days ago, declared that solar energy and the use of wind were not the way for Guyana to go, obviously promoting another pet project, preposterous, in a world where people are making optimum use of sunlight and the wind to generate power and electricity. The only thing here that is consistent is their inconsistency.
What qualifies the institution for treatment is that on Thursday, a member of the Cabinet, Minister Colin Croal, with great pomp announced that the government had supplied three hundred solar panels to residents in Morawhanna, Hobodeia and other areas.
We have the announcement of an oil refinery as a done deal, but Parliament and the people are yet to be provided with the copy of a study, which identifies this location and a cost analysis to show the benefit to the people of Guyana. Similar situation of the gas-to-shore project where we are told that on completion consumers will pay half of what they are paying today. We are a great people of beautiful dreams.
As is the case of ongoing black-outs, will the PPP be cured of this malady of this mental difficulty that every single thing done and proposed by the 1964,1992 and 2015-2020 governments were bad and that all the persons put to manage the various sectors were no good. On electricity, the gut problem is the putting in place of square pegs in round holes to manage the Corporation including persons who ought to be in the health facility for curative treatment.
On a programme, “Advancing the Cause,” I made a simple reference in response to the boasting by some members of the cabinet to the effect that Guyanese are the best off in the region as part of the fastest growing economy. I looked at Trinidad and Tobago, the Guyana population is just over 800,000, the population of Trinidad & Tobago is 1.4 million.
Our oil reserves shows that we now harvest more than six times that of Trinidad & Tobago. In addition, we have massive gold, diamonds, manganese and marine resources, not available to Trinidad & Tobago. In addition to a more reliable health service, the Trinidad government pays all CXC fees, so parents are relieved of that burden unlike Guyana, with the fastest growing economy in the region.
Again, I ask our government to secure the views of all to make full use of our bountiful natural resources and perhaps the best climatic conditions in the world.
Yours truly,
Hamilton Green
Elder
