Dear Editor,
There is something that emerges every Thursday that convinces people that Guyana is not a real place. The role play that follows should leave you in no doubt that the man who holds a press conference every Thursday thinks that Guyanese are fools.
I am the boss of an enterprise called Guyana. I determine the policy. I select the people to carry out the policy. Then, I decided that the priority will be infrastructure. I see and know that people are messing up. After one year, I say nothing. The policy continues and the mess up continues, and I say nothing. Complaints continue to come in and I intensify implementation of the policy in year 2. Complaints continue to come in and I insist on continuing the policy in year 3. Success or failure is irrelevant and so the policy continues. Those around me see that I am consumed by the policy and say nothing or whatever they say is rebuffed.
My policy drives me to expand the pool of contractors and include even more unqualified persons. After year 4, the complaints continue to increase and so does the embarrassment from flawed and substandard work. Yet, I continue to insist on the policy. Year 5 has arrived, and it is the year in which I am seeking to be re-employed as the head of the enterprise called Guyana. I now realize that the failures of my policy cannot be my fault. I now look around for people to blame. It is time to make family, friends, favourites and flatterers the problem because I cannot be blamed.
I blame the engineers for not having a protocol of how things should be done. I blame the contractors for not having the skills to do a good job. I blame the suppliers for supplying short materials or materials below quality. I blame the Ministers for not paying attention to what was going on and not doing something about it. I am not to blame for all the failures of the last five years because my policy is good and everybody implementing it is bad. So, notwithstanding that I have been ignoring the warnings and complaints for five years, I should be re-employed as the boss.
Guyanese, just think about the audacity of the failure who puts on a show every Thursday.
Yours truly,
Mervyn Williams,
Former Member of Parliament.
