As the garbage crisis remains citizens’ health under greater threat

Aug 07, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy has finally admitted what many, including the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), had warned about. According to reports, the Minister believes that the rise in the number of cases of dengue fever among citizens in Georgetown could be attributed to the deteriorating garbage crisis.
This is a serious development that warrants the widest possible condemnation and protest. Given Minister Kellawan Lall’s controversial statement a few weeks ago, it is difficult not to indict the Government on this issue.
The WPA therefore reiterates the position it first enunciated in a press statement on July 18 2010 that the failure of the Government to treat the removal of garbage as a public health issue confirms a widespread belief that the ruling elite sees nothing wrong in imperiling the lives of hundreds of thousands of Guyanese in its pursuit of total control of the institutions of government and state.
Now that the Minister has spoken, the Government should act as swiftly as possible to deal with what is fast becoming a health crisis.
Should the situation continue to escalate and the safety of citizens is furthered compromised, the WPA will hold the Government totally accountable for what is clearly a human rights violation.
In the meantime we call on the citizens of Georgetown and Guyanese in general to lift your voices in righteous indignation in your own defence and for your collective safety.
We also call on environmental groups and public health advocates to take a stand now.
Desmond Trotman
WPA
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Failure to keep options open could result in self-destruct and political oblivion

Dear Editor,
The Alliance for Change (AFC) has in a recent statement ruled out, rather ironically, any ‘alliance’ with either of the two major political parties in Guyana – namely the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C and the main opposition party, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
These two parties command a preponderance of popular and electoral support in Guyana, together encompassing roughly 85% of the Guyanese electorate, if the results of the last elections are anything to go by.
This ‘closing of the door’ to any possibility of political reconciliation has come as a great surprise to political commentators and analysts especially since that party had always sought to project the view that it is open to political dialogue aimed at forging national consensus.
This position is quite unlike that of the ruling PPP/C and the main opposition PNCR both of which has openly embraced a politics of inclusivity and in the case of the PNCR, ‘shared governance’.
The surprise decision to close the door to any form of dialogue with the major political parties is indicative of tension within the party with one faction in total opposition to alliance politics and the other, perhaps the more enlightened segment of the party leadership, advocating an open mind insofar as alliances are concerned.
It would seem that the former faction has won the day which only time will determine the efficacy or otherwise of such a move.
The argument advanced by the AFC is that both the PPP/C and the PNCR are ‘incompatible’ with the aims and objectives of that Party and therefore could not be counted on as genuine partners in any coalition arrangement. Instead, the Party has opted for an approach in which individuals from the two major parties would be ‘encouraged’ to join the party, a position not inconsistent with the AFC’s own political genesis which saw its two leading members defecting and joining forces to form the AFC.
In the case of Party Chairman and now presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan, he was expelled from the PPP for consistent infringements of the Party’s disciplinary code as opposed to Raphael Trotman who defected from the PNC after major differences with PNCR Leader Robert Corbin.
Interestingly, none of the two major political parties have made any overt or covert attempt to seek political alliance with the AFC which renders its rejection call hollow if not infantile and not without a fair measure of political presumption.
The AFC from all indications appeared to get carried away with its own rhetoric and has in recent times developed a certain degree of political snobbery and arrogance which could only lead to its political demise.
To begin with, the AFC as a new kid on the political bloc is in no position to, as it were, call the shots when it comes to the fundamental questions of alliance politics. Its only ‘claim to fame’ politically has been its ability to capitalize on internal differences with the PNCR which was festering for quite some time but culminated in the breakaway of Raphael Trotman from the PNCR and the eventual formation of the AFC with the support of expelled PPP member Khemraj Ramjattan.
That the party was able to garner a few seats at the last general and regional elections seems to be more a case of political fortuity rather than any real sense of popular support. Moreover, there was the mistaken view that with the coming on board of Khemraj Ramjatan, the Party would have been able to pull significant support away from the PPP.
This turned out to be wishful thinking as the PPP/C managed to expand on its popular and electoral support in contrast to the PNCR which actually lost significant political ground all of which basically went in the direction of the AFC.
The fact is that that both the PPP/C and to a lesser extent the PNCR have been largely successful in holding on to their respective political bases which to a significant degree resulted from the politics of the early 1960s which saw a manipulation of the political structures along the lines of race and ethnicity.
This divide and rule tactics engineered by the colonial powers in active collaboration with local reactionary elements succeeded in the removal of the PPP from office in the elections of 1964, even though the Party improved on its popular and electoral support when compared to the previous elections. Significantly, the PPP was the only political party that increased its electoral support as demonstrated in free and fair elections held nearly three decades later. Unlike the 1960’s when the PPP failed to win an outright majority, the Party in 1992 won the elections by a comfortable majority.
More significantly, the PPP was able to gain multi-racial support in a manner no other political movement in the country was able to do.
It demolished the myth that the PPP is an ‘Indian’ party which had dominated the thinking of many opposition elements including some of so-called ‘academics’ who consistently preached the sermon of race. It is this false assumption that led to the prediction in the 1992 and subsequent elections that the PPP could not win an outright victory in those elections. It was this false assumption that gave birth to the AFC which erroneously was projected in some quarters aided and abetted by fictitious polls as the party that could hold the balance of power in terms of parliamentary control.
It is not for me to suggest any policy or strategic approach or its choice of presidential candidate that the AFC should take as it seeks to broaden political space. One thing that any political party worth its salt should not do is to limit its political options at any stage of its political evolution.
In other words, any serious political movement must at all time keep its political options open. Failure to do so could result in self-destruct and political oblivion.
Hydar Ally
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One should never condone the despicable practice of vote rigging

Dear Editor,
I find it necessary to reply to an article in today’s (Friday, 2010-08 06) Kaieteur news entitled, ‘’Bad guy vs. Bad guy; there is no good guy.’’
Freddie really give us an idea of how dangerous his philosophy and agenda is when he made the following horrendous point in his article, ‘’Was President Hoyte naïve or unlearned or even foolish then to have ignored the sociological binary that Forbes Burnham used to practice to practice politics during his presidency and accept the Jimmy Carter formula of free and fair election?’’ This was very disappointing coming from Freddie who considers himself a reputable university lecturer.
What a euphemism, ‘’sociological binary,’’ for rigged elections! It is indeed very troubling for an individual with such a reputation to make such an immature statement.
Robbing a people of their constitutional rights as Burnham did is never something to be justified.
If Freddie feels that it is wrong for people to vote for a party of their choice (he claims that 98% of the PPP’s vote came from East Indians in the last four elections), then the Government cannot be blamed in totality for this.
The viable alternative forces like the PNC R and AFC have to create imaginative and exciting manifestos to convince the East Indians they are better than the PPP/Civic. The answer is never to condone the despicable practice of vote rigging.
Guyanese in the Diaspora are following everything that is happening in Guyana with great interest.
I expected better from you Freddie. Your statement seems to come from a man who is bitter and frustrated.
You should be praising Hoyte for being honest and doing what was honourable. Election victories should be won fairly and not stolen.
Mahindra Persaud

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