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Endorsement of an illegal operation

Aug 29, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I voice my disgust at what I feel is an abuse of power or something like a government official showing blatant disregard for the people and the country as a whole.
I made mention of backtracking in a letter that was published on Saturday August 15, 2009.
In that letter I mentioned the benefits of this illegal trade and I also discussed how much more can be achieved by shutting down the backtracking.
I guess a few people read that letter and I am sure that the Honourable Minister must have gotten news of it and guess what?
Many people at home and abroad read the article captioned “Suriname to reopen backtrack route” (SN Monday, August 24, 2009). The first paragraph reads: “Surinamese authorities have decided to reopen the illegal route across the Corentyne River, from today, following discussions between Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud and his counterpart in Nickere, yesterday”.
Was it an error that the word illegal was printed in that paragraph, or do I not understand it correctly when I read, illegal route?
On the international scene we as a nation must be quite the laughing stock now that our minister made special efforts to have an illegal act come back into operation and this honourable minister welcomed the reopening of the illegal route.
As a religious person, I believe in re-incarnation and so as a people we must have done some terrible things in our previous birth to have a man such as this minister to be a leader. There are questions that come to mind, and I do not know why some of the more consistent writers did not address the issue.
Our minister is pushing an illegal trade and he is still a minister – we sure are gone as a nation. Is this how we work ‘collaboratively’ with our neighbour?
Since this minister is so bold, as has been indicative by his endorsement of the reopening of this illegal route, does he have the courage to make the necessary representation to legalize this back track? That is necessary because people are still being charged for leaving the country illegally.
Guyana has to find ways to raise additional funds so that we can maintain our new status as a ‘middle income developing country’, so my guess is that the minister is out to give the nation the impression that it is ok to go backtrack and deep within his mind he sees a source of revenue, because some of these people will be caught and sent back, after which the Guyanese police will charge them and each will be fined $20,000.
This is an ingenious way to source funds because we do not get much from the state of the art Skeldon Sugar Factory.
I wish to suggest to this minister who was described by a lecturer at the University of Guyana at a public function, some time ago, as the future president of this country that it is folly to believe that one can thrive on anything illegal.
The minister will have to explain to the hard working taxpayers, why the ferry stelling at Molson’s Creek was built with their money and at the same time the illegal trade is being pushed.
Charrandass Persaud

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