Does GPL supply the mining town with electricity? If not, leave it to Bosai

Aug 15, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,

The shooting deaths of three protestors by Police in the mining town struck me with a revolting sense of something gone terribly wrong in Guyana. How could this happen? Aren’t police trained properly? Aren’t they supposed to follow the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) which require them to use teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse misbehaving protestors?
I believe these shooting deaths should be treated as a stand-alone incident, and should not be tied to the cause of the protest. When four pro-govt. writers sought to connect the deaths to the cause of the protests and raised other equivalency or frivolous issues, they were all trying to mitigate, excuse and absolve Minister Rohee for responsibility for these deaths. Try as hard as they do, the fact is all Ministers are responsible for things that go terribly wrong in their Ministries under the doctrine of Ministerial Responsbility.
Minister Rohee is a serial failure and it is high time for him to be relieved of his ministerial portfolio. It is the responsibility of president Ramotar not to allow the crisis to simmer, resolve it quickly and stop the hemorrhaging to the economy. Protecting Rohee is an indication of the government’s desire to drag this thing out.
I studiously avoided getting involved with the argument raised, whether it is fair for the government to subsidize the electricity costs for Linden, and have the rest of the country pay higher costs – because this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the violation of SOP rules and the use of live bullets to disperse protestors.
Meanwhile I had mistakenly believed, as were most of the 700,000 citizens who live in Guyana that govt. was indeed subsidizing electricity costs for Linden. How could this happen, I kept asking myself. How could the parliament or the Utility Company, GPL, have entered such an arrangement? What were they thinking about when they passed this law or set electricity rates?
Lo and Behold! GPL does not supply electricity to Linden. I was stunned when I found this out. (This was revealed to me after reading a letter in SN written by Emile Mervin). How could a govt. impose “tariffs” on consumers for a good/service they did not supply? What is the moral or legal justification for this imposition on Lindeners?
Since the 1800s multinational corporations would secure a franchise or licence to operate a mine in some remote third world country. And, when they launch their operation, they literally create the civilization – they build roads, housing, schools, water, electricity, hospitals – everything for the town, and very often at no direct cost to the people.
Fast forward to today – and to Bosai. Bosai is the multinational that is in charge today. And, with the passage of time, some arrangements have changed. Bosai still generates its own electricity to run its operation – and sells the excess megawatts to the town. So who has the moral and legal right to charge higher electricity rates? The supplier, Bosai, of course. But this is not so simple. All governments (in independent nations) want to maximize their revenue and royalties from these multinational franchisees. As a matter of practical – and politically feasible – implementation of a scheme to raise your revenue from Boasi, why not let Bosai deal with the problem. After all it is Bosai who is supplying the good. Not government. Let Bosai figure out how to impose higher electricity rates.
There is another more important issue: a gross mishandling that created the Linden crisis: Loss of lives, burning of schools and buildings, interruption of commerce to interior districts etc. This issue strikes at the heart of the whole issue of governance and politics in the country. The government is perceived as an Indian government; the township is African.
We need to fundamentally change the politics of this country; to develop new kinds of politics that would forge a new political culture, one that would allow the citizens to rise above race – and help them to create a new political and social consciousness.
Mike Persaud

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