The President is missing out on the issues of the people

Feb 05, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Perhaps if President Jagdeo was in Guyana at the moment, I’d have penned this letter directly to him, through my editor of course. But the sad reality of the situation is that he is not.
The Barticians have collectively voiced their dissatisfaction at Government’s mining policy. An entire sub-region was shut-down due to the people recognising their democratic right and pooling their resources together.
An overnight solution will not come for the Barticians but they surely have had the attention of the entire country — I would want to believe—-Government included. If we had more Barticas in Guyana, this country might’ve been a better place.
But Guyanese do not like to speak out openly. Quarrelling among friends in enclosed spaces they are good at, but when the time comes to speak out and take whatever heat comes after, there comes fear and trepidation.
But let us get back to our President Bharrat Jagdeo. I cannot add anything new to an excellent piece in last Sunday’s SN by the Editor on the trips of our President and our ‘queer’ foreign policy.
Furthermore, I am happy that the political parties are being more vocal nowadays about the President’s continental travels and its ‘hidden’ costs and ultimate burden on us the taxpayers.
But I believe it is now safe to say that no amount of Editorials about this matter, letters in these columns and press conferences and statements by the opposition parties would be enough to stop the frequent overseas trips even as we Guyanese are informed about them way after he leaves the country, and speculation and contradiction flood the media as to who is attending with him; the true purpose for the trip; the benefits garnered from such trips and the costs of these trips, which have been shrouded in secrecy from the people.
It is only now that a political party has made a spending figure public (I had expected a much higher figure; but does the figure include cost value of his entourage and chaperones?) of the President’s trips. But can’t these parties demand the results of the Auditor General’s report with regards to these trips?
Has the administration got anything to hide? It preaches transparency so much then why is Government so reluctant to address the ‘nitty- gritty’ elements of the presidential trips?
Doesn’t President Jadgeo like being in Guyana and governing his country he was elected to run? Instead, it would appear that he loves spending more time out rather than in.
The electorate is hurting, President Jagdeo, your electorate is hurting. Presidents, in their final terms in office, have been known to act with little care and concern as to what the people has to say about their policies. Is that the case with the President?
The President is missing out on the issues of the people in this country. It’s like the father of a home who sort of abandons his family to spend time elsewhere.
As soon as one thinks he would return, he runs off to somewhere else. Is this the same man we voted for five years or so ago? Is this the same leader of the touted ‘democratically and people- driven’ political party which Guyanese have voted time and again in office? I think not. I believe the President has become someone Guyanese do not know anymore.
The recent actions with regards to getting a little too close for comfort with one of the nations in the world which has severed all diplomatic ties with most of the free world; which has an ‘underground’ uranium enrichment scheme which it very well intends to use to advance covert agendas; which has openly criticised and refused to amend ties with the American Government and people — good friends of Guyana; and a nation which forms part of the ‘axis of evil’ trio.
Government has been defending its stance with foreign relations with that country through numerous letters in the press. But I still cannot get it, letter writers.
I still cannot believe that we as a nation have stooped so low as to employ the foreign relations that we are currently embracing and ‘showing off’ to the rest of the world.
We are Guyana; a poor nation, just a little better off than our sister CARICOM nation Haiti — then why are we being so pig-headed in becoming part and parcel of plans and “promises of help” from nations like Iran?
President Jagdeo, wherever you are, come back home, the Barticians need you; your supporters need you; the country elected you to be President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and demand you cut back on your time spent abroad.
Your absenteeism is getting overbearing; it’s not looking too professional for a young leader in this part of the world and in CARICOM and whether or not these outings are for taking Guyana’s name and your name abroad and on the international scene, I cannot, for the life of me, see any benefit whatsoever to the hardworking taxpayers in this country.
It is time you take off your ear-plugs and really listen to the voices of reason. Take a break on your frequent flyer miles!
Leon Jameson Suseran

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