Are ordinary Guyanese not important enough to call for a Presidential debate?

Jun 13, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Please refer to my letters to KN dated June 2nd and June 4th , respectively titled: Is Ramotar pressing the restart button on the Jagdeo Presidency? and Why don’t you let Ramotar debate Ramjattan and Granger instead?
In response, please refer to one Jason Abdulla’s responses to my letters dated June 3rd and June 5th in which Mr. Abdulla suggested that by ordinary Guyanese such as myself calling on Ramotar to debate the other two presidential candidates, that Ramotar would somehow be attaching “importance” to ordinary Guyanese if he agrees to at least two debates or that if Ramotar actually agrees to debate Ramjattan and Granger at least twice, he would somehow be “pandering to the ego” of ordinary Guyanese.
Are the votes of ordinary Guyanese not important to Mr. Ramotar?  Does Mr. Ramotar think the votes of cane-cutters, bauxite workers, clerks, factory workers, public servants, farmers, market vendors, private sector employees, the unemployed and barely employed youths, mothers, fathers,  not important enough to call on him to debate Ramjattan and Granger?  Mr. Abdulla went on in his June 5th letter to actually suggest some names that I might call him for his penning a letter as a PPP supporter. I won’t, Mr. Abdulla. Rest assured, there is no one in and out of Guyana that is not acquainted with the infamous cuss-out, buse-down politics of the PPP Government, and in fact the AFC has constantly tried to draw to the attention of the Guyanese people that they are constantly under attack in the state media and in the PPP’s campaign speeches and that they are given no chance to respond to the ruling PPP’s massive attack machinery on them because the PPP controls NCN and the Guyana Chronicle. This bully politics of the PPP has to end. Using the Guyanese taxpayers’ money via the state media, the ruling party has been heaping scorn on the AFC’s efforts to bring the trials and tribulations of the Guyanese people under the PPP Govt, to the forefront. In fact the AFC was happy when the workers at Diamond sugar estate won their just rewards retroactively and the AFC shared their victory with them. After all the efforts from the AFC and the sugar workers themselves, it was worth it. The people won after their determined struggle against the government, and that is as it should be.
Now, Mr. Abdulla in response to a small portion of the AFC’s Action Plan to bring law and order back to Guyana, stated, “All of the steps to be embarked upon as listed above will take years to achieve.” No. Mr. Abdulla, it takes years only if a convicted drug felon ends up being fingered by the US DEA as the head of his own little “SWAT” team in Guyana for the purpose of conducting his own “business” or if a grand jury of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ever issues a 16-count indictment against a certain American individual, alleging conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and lying to the Internal Revenue Service, a person that the Guyana Government actually kept insisting was suitable enough to head the security and crime prevention efforts in Guyana while it was clear that he was regarded as a shady character in the US. I am not certain whether it was the conviction or the imprisonment of both Khan and Kerik in the US which changed officials’ minds in Guyana, or that it was ever changed about the infamous “SWAT” team, but given the years that were wasted, I would say that the PPP Government could have done crime fighting and security in Guyana in far less time if the help of honest, competent, law-abiding and honorable individuals was sought in the first place, which is exactly what the AFC proposes to do. So no, Mr. Abdulla, it does not take years, it only takes a Guyana Government that is not corrupt, that is not lawless, that is transparent and accountable; one that is serious about security and crime fighting, and then all Guyanese will be safer. The AFC’s plan is at least a serious, honest, trustworthy and lawful attempt to fight crime in Guyana. All Guyanese have a right to review the AFC’s competent Action Plan for our Guyana at voteafc.com. Do not allow more of the one-man shows talking down to Guyanese. See the AFC’s Action Plan and judge for yourselves.
Now, from the man grazing his sheep in the backdam to the businessman/woman who is eager to arrive at the day when he or she could finally throw open his or her door for business and not have to fear that someone would appear to take his/her life or hard-earned treasures, or the women in Guyana who would like to be able to live to see their children grow up, without fear of both them and their children being maimed and murdered almost every day, Guyanese deserve better. So to all those who would call for a return of the SWAT team, I ask why, why would Guyanese want to pile more lawlessness and corruption into the gaping wound of the pain and punishment and humiliation of the failures of the Jagdeo presidency? If this is all that Ramotar has to offer, then it is not surprising that he got both GuySuCo and Skeldon so disastrously wrong or not surprising at all that we fear a Guyana in his hands.
Now, the very fact that Mr. Abdullah has all these questions of the AFC says that we should all have those debates. Only the debates can truly answer these questions and decide for all of us, who is best suited to be Guyana’s next president. With the candidates testing each other’s program and ideas out in public, Guyanese will be the final judge as to who is best to serve us next. I hope Mr. Ramotar thinks that Guyanese are worthy or “important” enough to ask him to debate Ramjattan and Granger. We the people await his answer.
Roxanne De Cruiz

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