A man of the people

Aug 16, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor
On my visit to Berbice, a member of the 600 strong crowd at the Alliance for Change (AFC) Canje meeting asked me, why a young man like you still got time for Guyana, when you can just progress your life in North America and forget about “abee dese”?
My answer to him was a quote from Rabindranauth Tagore – “Go not the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down and lift someone who is down-trodden”.
We in the AFC are on a mission to use the instrument of authority provided by elected office to lift up the down-trodden. I want to share a private moment I had with our Presidential Candidate for all to better understand what they have at their disposal in the AFC and compare it to what is being imposed on us by the PPP. On my visit to the home of our Presidential Candidate, which I did not see for some six years (in those days lots of political dialogue happened in the law lab on the ground floor), I noticed that the only difference from the main hall, kitchen, dinning room and the famous law lab on the ground floor was a new TV. Not even one as big as the ones my brothers sport in Richmond Hill in NY.
I am just swept over and amazed by the modesty of this man, a true son of Cheddi Jagan who followed his value structure of lean, clean and mean to the nth degree.
Here is a man who could have shut his mouth, follow the cabal and draw the millions in easy contracts from the PPP that are available to friends of the ruling regime but he did not. He chose a path of truth, justice, humility, financial integrity and morality rather than put his mouth where the soup is leaking.
Sitting with him, while he personally made me some coffee, I reflected on all these “slumdog millionaires and billionaires” who continue to plunder the treasury so that they can build swimming pools with imported Italian tiles and executive gyms with equipment paid for, with grease gifts from their North American business buddies (some now under investigation by the FBI).
What use is it that a man can progress his life and the lives of his children when hundreds, maybe thousands of people and their children in Guyana need help in freeing themselves from this elected oligarchy called the PPP? Many have shut their
eyes to the cause of the poor in Guyana but Khemraj Ramjattan is very focused on their plight and has made the sacrifice to do something about it. This is what we have in our midst in Guyana, a modern day Cheddi Jagan, a man of the people; for the people.
The taxpayers and VAT has ensured that there is no shortage of money in Guyana , yet the PPP continue to deny the people their fair share of the $165 billion budget. One can easily observe in Guyana many large buildings being constructed by members of the ruling cabal and their economic sycophants.
What was even more glaring is immediately next to these concrete albatross, there are many dilapidated buildings all in a row; a clear reflection of the inequity in Guyana as the newly minted rich boys get richer and the poor get poorer.
For me, this is not progress since progress cannot be defined in this manner. This is economic growth for the few at the expense of the many. How can a society grow when a few have the resources to feed themselves millions of times over while those in the dilapidated houses next to these ugly cube castles are struggling to buy bread to feed their children?
How can a society grow when we witness at the social occasions of the ruling cabal, imported Grey Goose vodka being drunk from the mouth by members of the ruling cabal and then the remaining majority of the bottle is smashed to demonstrate testosterone fortitude, when the poor man is struggling to buy rice to feed his family?
What a waste when a few have the ability to smash $20,000 in unused alcohol on a concrete ground for all to see and his fellow men have children who wish they could just suckle a little milk for their own growth and well-being. This is Jagdeo’s Guyana .
It shall change for the better once the people give the AFC that one chance to show the PPP and the PNC how to really set up a Government for the people, by the people and of the people.
Based on what I have seen from the AFC meetings in the PPP heartland in Berbice, I am convinced that change is coming to Guyana. The people are ready, I hope the PPP is ready for the reality that is about to dawn upon them.
Sasenarine Singh

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A man of the people

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