Attack on GCCI president unfair

Dec 09, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I was there, as a guest, at the Annual Presentation of Awards Dinner of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry last Wednesday (02-12-09) at the Pegasus and am more than a little disappointed, distressed and disgusted by the public response by Minister Robeson Benn to the comments made by the President of the Chamber at the function.
The Chamber’s President Mr. Chandradat Chintamani had been reporting to members of the Chamber and their guests about the organisation’s activities over the past year and was seeking to draw attention to the issues to be addressed in the interest of the business community and in the wider interest of the country.
He drew attention, for example, to the bottlenecks in the procedures at Customs and the delays experienced by businessmen in having their goods cleared. It was a situation, he noted, which lent itself to bribery and he appealed to his colleagues not to offer bribes in order to speed up the process.
Mr. Chintamani reflected the concerns of the business and wider community about the unstable supply of electricity by GPL and hoped in the interest of production and convenience the situation would be improved shortly.
These were the comments and observations of a leader of the business community, who was simply pointing out the obstacles and obstructions to business and development.
It was against this background that he commented on the locating of bus stops on Regent Street and the inconvenience to the parking of customer and delivery vehicles in a busy commercial area and the negative effects on the businesses located there….an extremely reasonable observation, which the audience applauded approvingly.
How and why then should the Minister of Transport and Hydraulics rant and rave at the observation, deeming the gentleman’s comments ‘mischievous’? What is mischievous about the comments?
It seems as if (and this might be the objective behind the attack) no criticisms are to be made publicly against any programme, project or policy initiated by the political administration.
Gerry Gouveia, Ramesh Dookhoo and the heads of the private sector organisation should take note.
In fact, even as a member of the audience, I must now be more sparing in my applause, if ever one of them still has the courage to venture into criticism in the future.
One final word, the Chamber’s President, Mr. Chintamani is an extremely gracious gentleman. I felt, at the time, that he was being too apologetic in the way he raised the concerns.
I have absolutely no doubt that no disrespect was meant and no mischief was intended.
The only mischief makers were those who coloured the report to the Minister, ensuring that he was suitably provoked and then waited for the release of the bull dog.
Leon Shanks

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