The evidence of performance is clear in Linden

Nov 03, 2010 Letters

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Mr Editor,
Henry Jeffrey can be assured that my understanding of Guyana, its history, politics and political economy is delicate enough to allow me to examine and interpret the impact that people like him and his “sub-class” have had on our nation’s development and its peoples.
He is also fortunate that I am not a student of his at the institution to which he fled, to seek refuge and live out what is left of his academic and political careers, or I would have led a successful revolt against him at the University of Guyana both as a lecturer and as a defunct politician who should not be allowed to use our premier academic institution to bamboozle and distort the young minds of our nation – You have done enough Henry!
Jeffrey’s pronouncement that I  “ lack a sufficiently nuanced understanding of the subject on which I seek to comment” and his school teacher like correction of my use of  “West Minister” as against “Westminster” are atypical of his sub-class – They always thumb their noses at and demonstrate a deep disrespect for people who they consider not to be of their “academic standing” – (whatever that means).
One can discern their barely disguised contempt in much of what they write and how they speak.  They fail to accept that even the language which we use to communicate is changing.  Our youngsters today are changing even the way we spell.  I say this not to explain away my own mistake (which indeed it was) but to make the point that it was academics like Jeffrey and others who not only created the1980 constitution which entrenched the “West Minister” style government and controls our elections, but they also revised it and voted for this revision in parliament (do you remember Henry?) in the mid 1990s.
So Henry you were involved in the making of our current constitution and the changing of it, both times on the side of the government of the day, PNC and PPP, so clearly it has to be ideal for you.  You are hypocritical and politically dishonest in taking the stand that you are taking now against the efficacy of the current constitution.
Today all of our Government institutions, all of our political organizations and actions, the way state controlled resources are managed and distributed and by whom flow from this constitution.
I am in a better position to regale against it, to want to change it, to mobilize and organize against it.  I never supported it, I never voted for it in parliament nor in a referendum, never sang its praises – I just simply accepted it like so many other Guyanese.
So how am I to judge you when you now tell me and the country that this same constitution is the cause of all our problems in Guyana; that the opposition in Guyana and others are against it?
How can you now regale me about its structural and other imperfections? When you, personally, along with the people who now make up the current opposition, in fact conceived it, wrote it, advocated it, voted for it and promulgated it?  Is it any wonder Henry, that ordinary people like me are of the view that it is the academics and intellectuals, people with letters in front of and behind their names like you who screwed Guyana up?
And it will take and is taking ordinary people who are grounded in an intricate knowledge of their local conditions, a passionate belief in themselves and their abilities to change their communities and Guyana for the better, who are now making a positive difference.
And President “Lula” and what happened in Brazil over the past 8 years are used as positive inspirations and examples.  Lula is no academic or intellectual; he is an ordinary man, leading the most powerful and successful country in all of Latin America.
As you rightfully indicated, all governments are imperfect; particularly in the way they manage and distribute resources.  I argue, however that it is the commitment, steadfastness, resourcefulness and downright courage and “oomph” of the constitutional opposition that makes the difference to their constituents.
In countries like Guyana the opposition is integral and indispensable to democracy and the way it is implemented.
In constituencies like Linden and Region Ten which has a history of, and was constantly fed a diet of pathological hatred and distrust of and for the PPP, it behooves the leadership of the opposition today to ensure that its members and supporters participate in and benefit from all government programmes and projects, but when the opposite is true, and when the opposition leaders preach and implement a policy of criticism of and exclusion from any and all government programmes and projects and they get what they wished for, the cry of discrimination and neglect, though it may appear real on the surface, may sound hollow.
Let me provide some real life examples of what I mean.
First of all, understand me and my participation in Guyana’s political life.  I intervened upon the political scene in order to help bring about positive change and development for the ordinary man.  My modus operandi was not to support any political party or group, or movement on the basis of blind political loyalty, obeisance to the leader or leadership, or racial affiliation or ethnic cleavage.
So when I took any political action it was always based on whether that particular action was going to bring benefits to the people on whose behalf I was acting.  Personal political promotion and/or ascendancy were never a part of my motivation nor was it ever in my mind.
When I was a card bearing member of the PNC in 1986 I mobilized the community in Wismar/Christianburg to fight against then President Hoyte’s attempts to disband the Electricity Distribution Co-operative Society that is owned by all the residents of Wismar and Christianburg.
I was publicly attacked and warned by Hoyte.  I ignored him and continued my quest.  The fact that that Co-op society exists and is flourishing today is testimony to the fact that we won that fight.  The then PNC Government wrote off billions of dollars of the then Guymine’s debt. Included in that debt was money purportedly owed by the said Co-op Society to Guymine for electricity distributed.  I argued then and I still do today, that the state absorbed the totality of the debt therefore, that debt must be taken off the books and off the backs of the residents of Wismar/Christianburg.
When I was Chairman of the said co-op and the people of Ituni were in darkness for months on end, I took money that was slated to pay a part of this debt and purchased and established a generating facility for the people of Ituni.
The then finance Minister, Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds officiated at the commissioning of this facility.
What is today being touted as the largest housing scheme in Linden started many, many years ago under the PNC Government with the Brezina and self-help sections of the scheme.  Its current expansion to what it is today is owed to then Regional Chairman, Mortimer Yearwood whose motivation then was properly articulated by President Jagdeo when he recently pointed out to Lindeners that ownership of a home i.e. a house and a piece of land is the beginning of value accumulation and provision of pride and dignity for ordinary men and women.
I aggressively supported Chairman Yearwood and used my position as MP then to effectively sell the idea to the Cabinet through then Housing Minister Henry Jeffrey, who when told by some of his colleagues that the land was just bush with no infrastructure on it, said that the people must be given the land and the project must start, the infrastructure would follow.  (Bravo Henry, in those days you had groundings)
The PNC at that time criticized the Government for giving the people “house lots in bush” and even went on to use it as a main plank in their criticism against the Government.  Mr. Yearwood and I ignored them and pressed on with what we jocularly called “Yearwood’s Land initiative”.
Today as they say, the rest is history and Amelia’s Ward and the great land and housing development taking place there stand out as a testimony of what can happen when we work across party lines in the interest of the development.
When the then Finance Minister, Bharrat Jagdeo, some time in the mid 90s, announced his regime of investment incentives for Linden, although it had many shortcomings, I never the less publicly and in a speech in Parliament supported it and wished for its swift implementation with modifications along the way.
I  was roundly criticized and ostracized by the “Leaders of the PNC” who went on to say that I was making the Government look good and openly discouraged their members, supporters and potential investors from taking up these incentives.  Not much has happened in the area of new investments in Linden and Region Ten.
I will strongly advocate for the revival and modification of these incentives going forward.
The then Mayor of Linden, Mr. Stanley Smith; the then Regional Chairman, Mr. Mortimer Yearwood and yours truly, who was the Region Ten Member of Parliament did a lot of work in the mid-90s towards the establishment of an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in which primarily Brazilian industrialists and businessmen were going to import raw materials and components free of duty into Linden’s EPZ for assembling and manufacturing finished goods for export to Caricom and further afield.
Land at Dalawalla was identified and properly demarcated; about 36 Brazilian enterprises were fully onboard, committed and ready to participate in the establishment of the required infrastructure.  Legislation was all that was needed to actualize this project which would have created hundreds if not thousands of jobs with training for Lindeners.  When the leaders of the PNC were approached by me for help in getting the then President Jagan behind the project we were told that a project of this nature would make the Government look too good and that we should wait until the PNC took back the reins of power in Guyana which was supposed to have been 1997.
What a difference this EPZ would have made to Linden then and Linden today!! In 2001, the Government of Guyana (GOG) through the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) was aggressively embarked on a programme to eliminate chain-saw logging and chainsaw operations from Guyana’s Forestry Sector.  In response, I organized all small loggers in Region Ten and formed an organization called the Region Ten Forest Producers Association (RFPA) and mobilized them to represent their case at the “Court of Government”.
After some discussions, negotiations and struggle, the Government agreed to have a second look at small operators in the Forestry Sector, adopted the RFPA’s programme and today G.F.C has an entire division that is dedicated exclusively to what is now called Community Logging Associations.
Whereas in 2001 community logging associations did not exist, today Region Ten boasts over ten community logging associations having in excess of 500,000 acres of forested land allocated to them through State Forest Permissions (SFPs) providing hundreds if not thousands of jobs to residents of Region Ten.
Jeffrey must learn that a “consensual constitutional framework” does not only necessarily flow from a piece of paper called a constitution, people properly motivated and organized and working within any constitutional framework can positively bring about change in their circumstances and change their country in the process, particularly when they are dealing with a government that is proceeding with the implementation of policies and programmes that are geared to bring development to Guyana.
So Henry I do not go “scurrying around to all and sundry for bits and pieces to help my community”, l do whatever I can to bring whatever immediate relief I can to any if not all of the thousands that come to our centre for help.
I can tell you horror stories that will stand your hairs on end of real suffering in our community, perhaps I speak passionately and angrily because I see and vicariously experience this reality on a daily basis.  So I will not accept you thumbing your nose in disdain at my efforts and by extension at the people who are helped by my efforts.
While you are desperately in search of a new political perch on which to rest your weary talons, if you will not help with your own “little bits and pieces” then hold your peace! And especially do not rant and rave about the constitution, it’s your creature!
Phillip G. Bynoe

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