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GovT. petty – AFC leader

Nov 14, 2010 News

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman, is calling for voters to make the right decision next year and remove the PPP/C Government.
At least that is what the party will be aiming for in the General Elections set for next year.
Trotman made the comments Thursday following the publication of photos showing a section of the trench in front of the home of columnist, Freddie Kissoon, being ignored during a trench cleaning exercise, Wednesday.
According to Trotman, it was clear that the act was a deliberate one to stifle press freedom.
While several of the government officials in Parliament on Thursday said that they were unaware of the canal-clearing outside Freddie Kissoon’s residence, quite a few refuted accusations that workers were instructed not to clean the trench in front of Freddie Kissoon’s home.
According to Minister of Housing, Irfaan Ali, the charge is ridiculous.
“It is ridiculous to assume that the incident was done on purpose. The day had come to an end…Workers would not purposely take care of every gap and leave one out, which happened to be Mr. Kissoon’s.  It was cleaned (on Thursday).”
On Wednesday, workers preparing for the upcoming UNASUR meeting in which several Latin Heads of Government are scheduled to come to Guyana later this month, cleaned a trench in front of Kissoon’s home but skipped the section in front of his home on the Railway Embankment at Turkeyen.
After the photo was published in the Thursday edition of Kaieteur News, workers were seen cleaning the swath of weed that they had left behind.
Many had expressed that Mr. Kissoon’s unrelenting criticism of the administration has led to this vindictive response.
On Thursday, PPP/C General Secretary, Donald Ramotar, said that he had spoken to the foreman of the clearing exercise yesterday on the report that was carried in this newspaper and the official denied that he even knew that Kissoon lived there.
“I think that it is nonsense to say that Freddie Kissoon’s home was bypassed.”
As a matter of fact, the Parliamentarian said, there were no instructions to skip the area in front of Kissoon’s home.
The outspoken columnist described it as a clear act of discrimination.
On Thursday, President of Guyana Press Association, Gordon Moseley, in a comment on the incident, said that he hopes that it is just a mistake or a lack of judgment.
“I hope that Guyana has not become that petty as a nation.”
According to Kissoon, workers told him that they had been contracted to clean the canal, located immediately south of the embankment. They also said that they were ordered not to clear the trench in front of Kissoon’s home.
Asked to explain this, Works Minister, Robeson Benn, on Wednesday said that there were two teams clearing the canal and they were working from the two extremities. He said that when they called it a day they had reached the section of the canal outside Kissoon’s home.
Minister Benn had said that anyone who concluded that Kissoon was being targeted is promoting a conspiracy theory. He said that there was nothing to the non-clearance of the section of canal outside Kissoon’s home. “Don’t jump to conclusions. Everything will be cleared by (Thursday)”.
He said that the government would not be so petty and any evidence of this is merely coincidental.
Kissoon is adamant that it was a clear case of spite by government authorities and a direct attack on the sensibilities of Guyanese where one citizen has been attacked because he dared to speak out.
It was only a few months ago that Kissoon was attacked during a visit to a supermarket on Robb Street. At that time, the columnist was about to enter his vehicle when a man threw faeces on him. His attacker then escaped in a waiting car.

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