Chilling depiction of a failed government

Oct 27, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There are macro and micro signs of a government on the brink of collapse. Political analysts tend to ignore the small details. For them these micro-features are not important enough to be incorporated into the broad evaluation of a government that is facing disintegration.
They tend to emphasise the macro factors. For example, the sugar industry may not survive 2010. Lights, sewage and water will virtually limp along in 2010. That fragile Berbice Bridge will encounter trouble next year; it appears shaky to the naked eyes.
No citizen that has lived under the PPP since Dr. Jagan died is that stupid enough to believe the present campaign of the government that the electricity disruption is coming to an end. This nation has been told that the past ten years. The opposition parties are pathetic.
They haven’t explained to the Guyanese people why the electricity madness will continue. The reason is because the three second-hand (I say second-hand; I don’t have to believe Dr Roger Luncheon when he said they were brand new; I know they aren’t) Wartsila plants are replacements for a fallen system.
They are not additions to the GPL that will result in more power output from the company. What these old Wartsila babies will be doing is to ensure that the present delivery does not fall to a disastrous level.
Next year when these three old babies start to get sick, you will get replacements not ADDITIONS. Please note the emphasis. It is important to understand this distinction. The harsh reality that every citizen from rich businessman to poor house wife must understand is that the Guyana Government cannot fix the collapsed electricity system because it hasn’t got the money.
Setting GPL on a modern footing is an expense that the Government cannot afford. Another aspect of that harsh reality is that electricity disruptions will be with us for years to come. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
The Wartsila plants are going to work beyond 2011 so there will be no electricity disaster during the election campaign. This is how the PPP leadership sees it. I doubt that. I think there will be blackouts in 2010 and beyond. GPL has collapsed. I will recall this essay as the crisis starts to bite again next year.
Back to the micro-indicators of a failed government. There are tiny things that you see that point to confusion inside a government where things are drifting from bad to worse. One of these tiny signs is the open ventilation of the frustration of supporters of some standing in the society who are not supposed to speak publicly of the government’s faults.
Recently, one such person did a devastating critique of the crash of the GPL. He lives in a fancy suburb in an upper middle class house. He wrote that as the electricity supply returned after hours of blackout, he saw the wire that is attached to the fluorescent light on fire.
He sensed that it was time to shut down the power supply to his house which is what he did. According to him, had he not been at home, his house would have burnt down.
This supporter of a semi-fascist government that has ruined the hopes of the Guyanese people was spared. But others in the past and at the present time have not been that lucky. I haven’t read of one case where the GPL has built back a home reduced to ashes because of the incompetence of the Guyana Government.
What was interesting about this gentleman’s comment is that he contradicts Minister Rohee’s suspicion about the two fires within a week that occurred in the Hamid family on Regent Street. He seems to feel that one of the fires was caused by the power surge he experienced in his own home.
There are heart-breaking manifestations of the collapse of the Guyana Government. The gentleman that weeds my yard told me that as the power came back he watched as his fridge caught fire.
This man cannot afford to buy even a second hand fridge. I know him, and I told him that I am coming to his home and drag him out on Election Day to vote against the PPP. Look at what Guyana has come to with a government that received hundreds of billions of dollars in aid from the global community over seventeen years.
No one’s house is safe. How can any East Indian that lived under the Burnham rule still cuss out the PNC Government? How many houses will turn to ashes before we get a good government?

Latest News

Chilling depiction of a failed government

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Eagles survive shaky start on Rain-affected opening day

TCL hand over trophies for Mashramani Street...

Nagassar was re-elected as President of GCUC

Herstelling and Eccles SC chalk up wins in latest...

Golden Jaguars CONCACAF home match against...

Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport endorses...

Features/Columnists

An Open Letter to the election observer missions

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Azruddin Mohamed development-the constants

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Chilling depiction of a failed government

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]