One dozen reasons why Linden will not vote for a racist PPPC

Dear Editor,

One dozen reasons why Linden will not vote for a racist PPPC

Abiding by VP Jagdeo’s maxim that Guyanese are “stupid”, the PPPC obviously takes Lindeners for fools, hoping we forget their unmerciful infliction of racism and neglect upon Linden under 28 of their reign in the last 33 years, especially the last five when awash with oil money freely spent on their people and not Linden. Added to their obstruction of critical projects and programs handed over by the APNU/AFC Coalition, the PPPC cannot point to a single transformational project they conceived or completed in Linden in their 28 years; yet, President Ali insults our intelligence promising Linden “Deliver Region 10 to PPPC and receive the priorities for your communities in the next 5 years.”

First, despite their 28 years of abandonment, the PPPC thinks we are so imbecilic to trust that they will do in 5 years what they rebuffed in 28; second, to hold the priorities hostage for “delivery of Region 10” is openly discriminatory, since such a condition is unheard of, in any PPPC community; third, these promised priorities are most basic human necessities and the core responsibility of the Government to do anyway, without any political condition to “deliver Region 10”; and fourth, Ali obviously believes in the adage that “to promise and give nothing is comfort to a fool”, for he fully well knows that his promise could never be kept because of the impossibility of the PPPC winning Region 10. 

To follow the advice of Ali and Jagdeo that votes must be casted based upon trust and the track record of parties, here are 12 reminders of the PPPC’s racist and spiteful track record against Linden. 

1. In this overwhelmingly Afro-Guyanese Linden, the PPPC appointed an all Indo-Guyanese Board of Guardian which heartlessly removed 800 of the very poor from the public assistance program, taking bread out of their children and families’ mouths including the disabled. This is undeniable racism!
2. Despite Guyana’s damning nurses shortage, the PPPC shut down the Linden Nursing School, but kept the other schools in the country open, discriminatingly denying our nurses opportunities for professional development and good health care for Linden. Consequently, 200 nurses were forced to leave for foreign lands, along with 30 Doctors who resigned or were relocated, sabotaging the Region’s constitutional right to good health care; and to add insult to injury, the PPPC implemented a most bigoted policy to import nurses from Bangladesh and Cuba to replace the Linden’s nurses, paying them much higher salaries with living quarters and transportation costs to Guyana. This is all-out racist!

3. Like in other Afro-Guyanese communities such as Mocha, the PPPC inhumanely bulldozed the homes of poor residents, insulting Linden as having a “culture of squatting”; and sided with migrant Venezuelans, trashing Lindeners that they are lazy and charge 3 times what the migrants charge for doing work. This is not only racist, but also economic treason to promote depressing of the already low wages in Linden.

4. The PPPC shut down the Linden Enterprise Network program, withholding $300 million handed over by the Coalition, thus axing a highly successful 20+ year program advancing the community’s economic development with small businesses financing. This vile action which has put several small companies out of business, is not only racist, but also a deliberate undermining of the region’s economic sustainability.

5. The PPPC spitefully broke their 2020 promise to deliver “good drainage to prevent flooding”, and neglected the sound technical recommendations from community leaders to alleviate flooding, resulting in the disastrous worsening of the drainage system causing numerous never before seen floods that continue to wipe out Lindeners personal belongings and properties and creating grave health risks including mosquito infestations. If the frequent floods aren’t bad enough, in one instance, 300 hampers sent by the Civil Defense Commission for distribution to flood victims, were left to spoil at the residence of a PPPC activist.

6. The PPPC intends to shut down the Region 10 EPA Office in Linden which, along with the Corentyne Office, were set up by the Coalition as part of its Plan to have offices in all 10 Regions to ease the cost and inconvenience for hinterland communities doing business with the EPA. The PPPC abandoned the Plan for offices in all Regions and intends to discriminatingly close the Linden office while keeping the Corentyne office open and fully supported with staff, transportation and measuring equipment. On the other hand, the Linden office has been treated like a step child without any vehicle or equipment to conduct basic functions, resulting in a recent law suit because the office lacked any capability to conduct investigations of a complaint. Besides close monitoring and timely response to environmental issues, closing the office is a slap in the face of the Region, inflicting tortuous inconvenience and costs to residents having to travel to Georgetown to conduct business with EPA.

7. Over one year ago, the Linden Town Council (LTC) discovered roads contaminated with dangerously high concentrations of toxic materials dug up from areas where wastes from aluminum manufacturing were dumped. The levels of contamination are as high as 400 times the safe limits and can cause cancers; behavioral issues in children; and neurological, reproductive, cognitive, liver, lung and kidney damages. The PPPC uncaringly refuted the LTC’s analyses, but cannot produce any supporting evidence. In the meantime, these dumps remain the major source of these toxic materials used for construction, meaning that the contaminants are all over Linden in homes, roads, streams and river – more clear evidence of the PPPC’s wicked attitude towards the health, safety and environment of predominantly Afro-Guyanese Linden.

8. Though regarded as the mecca of Guyana’s track & field manifested by it producing the most national athletes and winning the national championships 8 consecutive years, the PPPC has willfully deprived Linden of any sports activities. The Coalition handed over a partially completed all-weather athletic track for completion in 2022, but still not completed with no end in sight. The McKenzie Sports Club (MSC), Linden’s only sports facility was seized by the PPPC and demolished, rejecting any input from Lindeners relative to its new design and purpose, with no end in sight for completion. Meanwhile, all Lindeners, especially the youths, are stripped of crucial opportunities to participate in sports. Yours truly was honored to represent Linden at table tennis and Guyana at cricket, only because I, and the many others who wore the national colors, grew up in the MSC, luckily before its destruction. Besides dragging down the athletic primacy of this predominantly Afro-Guyanese Linden, this PPPC action attacks development of the physical, mental and healthful wherewithal necessary for making productive citizens of our Linden’s youths.

9. Afro-Guyanese Lindener, James Joseph, 2-time Olympian and only Guyanese world record holder in cycling, ever, bought a piece of land on the Linden highway next to Linden to build a center for free training and development of Guyanese cyclists; but, true to form, the PPPC corruptly took away the land, sending him to a desolate undeveloped area so as to give the land to their rich friends and cronies. That is unquestionable racist and disdain for Lindeners to its core, no matter how much we serve our country.  

10. The PPPC shamelessly attempts to fool Lindeners in taking credit for the Wismar/Mckenzie bridge and the Mabura/Lethem/Linden and Soesdyke/Linden roads, when the truth is that all 3 projects were handed over from the Coalition. Moreso, the PPPC never put any funds in their budgets for these projects until pressured by the Coalition to do so. They even brazenly attempted to divert the United Kingdom (UK) funded Mabura road to their region, but forced to recant when threatened by the UK to cancel the funding. Further, they altered the Coalition’s Soesdyke road design from a new international standard, well-lit 4-lane, safe road, to a dangerously second-hand, resurfaced, 2-lane, unlit death trap road; though, this road will be the gateway to Brazil and South America, making it most vulnerable to intensive traffic, and environmental and safety risks due to the massive amounts of hazardous goods and chemicals transported to and from the mining areas and Brazil. In contrast, the Corentyne, West Demerara, East Bank and East Coast roads servicing the PPPC areas, enjoy the benefits and safety of new and modern designed 4-lane highways.

11. The PPPC could never hoodwink any Lindener into forgetting the cold-blooded slaughtering of 5 of our young men under their reign of power; nor will we forget the rewarding of the responsible individuals with the highest level of promotions, instead of accountability as any decent and law-abiding Government would do. We will also not forget Ali’s broken promise to compensate the affected families, cruelly leaving them and the fatherless children to a lifetime of suffering.

12. Lastly, I convey deep solace to our few beloved Lindeners who dedicated their lives to the PPPC, only to be humiliated to find out that not a single one of them were found to be qualified or fit and proper to be on their party’s very long top-up list of 126. On top of that, the geographic list of four, comprised two Ministers living in G/town, including the gross insult of Juan Edgill who has no connection to Linden, thus guaranteeing that there is absolutely no chance of any of our PPPC Lindeners being in Parliament. Our closely knit and proud community takes this as an insult to all of us, and the fact that they would belittle their supposed own in such a disdainful way, affirms the PPPC’s unabashed scorn for all of Linden. 

I challenge the PPPC to do the impossible of refuting any of the above facts and am most happy that the information provided herein will no doubt make the choice very easy for Lindeners.

Respectfully,

Dr. Vincent Adams