I weep for my country while others pontificate from afar

Aug 28, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As one of our leaders said, “We have got an election to win, a people to foster, a country to develop, children to educate, old people to love and care for, the disabled to be made able, fields to be planted, mountains to be climbed, valleys to be explored, factories to be built and the list goes on.”
If some want to make this election about personalities rather than issues, the electorate will decide. Many who write from their comfortable abode overseas, I would like to say to them that being on the ground in the sweltering August heat is what I’ve seen every day.
I see beggars spilling over on the streets and at unexpected places with their hands outstretched, uncaring and impatient drivers hitting down the elderly, young people looking for jobs, people lining up at Western Union and Money Gram to collect the small piece to help them survive, crime and fear, overwhelming frustration at the daily struggle to make ends meet, while the Government continues to misuse our tax dollars, jet around the world, live a life of plenty while many suffer and go to bed hungry. I see hunger, starvation, hopelessness, discrimination, division and crime.
I see the Garden City left to become the garbage city because the Government wants to suffer a City Council it does not control. I hear of dengue attacks and see the potential for other communicable diseases because of the unhealthy environment.
I breathe the stench and it remains on my clothing and in my nostrils even after I leave. I hear about pensions that cannot even buy basic necessities. I see young girls forced into prostitution as the only means out and the despair in the eyes of parents who want better for their children. I see rampant corruption and mega mansions built by drugs money and people who are above the law. This is what people see. This is daily life for them. I weep for my country while others pontificate from afar.
There are accusations of a Corbin/Jagdeo deal and private meetings. Mr. Corbin’s meetings with Mr. Jagdeo are done in his capacity as the Leader of the Opposition meeting the President.
If persons sincerely care about the facts and not spewing propaganda, information from those meeting can be had. Persons are also advised that a scribe is present at these meetings.
Those who want to defend the interest of their parties that is OK given the nature of politics, but you are also advised that the PNCR will not allow you to promote that interest at the expense of misrepresenting its records for your political mileage and expedience.
As such the public is reminded that those who now conveniently denounced the PNCR ‘mo fire slow fire’ and talk about violence, the PNCR since back then said persons were paid to infiltrate its protests.
They also ignored the fact that Khemraj Ramjattan and Freddie Kissoon were also the recipient of similar disruptive and destructive tactics. Have they forgotten Khemraj calling in the media and showing the people who were paid by the PPP to protest in front of his office? Have they also forgotten Khemraj talking about the PPP paying people to infiltrate protests? Why do they ignore these facts now? Are these indications of the lowball politics to be expected as the election season heats up.
There is too much at stake. The PNC remains committed to giving those who want a change from this oppressive government an opportunity to do so come 2011. Our records are there to prove what we have done when in government and we will tell the electorate what we can do again.
Those who want a debate on the parliamentary performance of the PNCR and AFC – it’s a debate the Party will not shy away from. The party will entertain debates on its merit and will not be sidetracked by persons’ fictions, fantasies and misguided focus.
As such those who accuse will first have to prove. People’s lives are too precious and the stagnation of the society too suffocating to waste it on promoting leaders and not the people’s interests.
Some who were unperturbed working with the PNC in the Joint Opposition People’s Partnership (JOPP) to prepare, submit and distribute the Human Rights Dossier today thrive on condemning an association with the PNCR because its election time. The PNCR still remains the major opposition party and the misguided efforts to target it and not the PPP who is in government and misuses our tax dollars and suffers the people is not a matter for the PNCR to explain to the public; but one for those preaching this to help the public understand why their votes must be used to attacked the PNCR and not the PPP who is the source of their problem.
Finally, those who are making persons the ‘problem’ for the opposition chance to win next year you are reminded that the PPP is the one that controls the rein of government and has been oppressing you, denying you and refusing to treat you as first class citizens in the land of your birth. These elections are about you. Only you can make the decision. If you want to continue another five years of the PPP, or if you will allow those with their self serving interests to let you think it is OK to have the PPP suffer you for another five years because of some ‘problem.’
B. Beniprashad Rayman

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