Ramotar, Manickchand, Benn and their sheep

Sep 27, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

President Donald Ramotar held a press conference last Friday in which he said some hell-raising things which will be discussed in forthcoming columns. For now let’s briefly look at his defence of Bibi Shadick as Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority. His position is that someone with legal training was needed.
Out of 250 lawyers, Mr. Ramotar chose someone who has not excelled in the practice of law, was about to give up her law practice when she applied for the post of Registrar at UG and is a PPP Parliamentarian.
I guess if this is the best Mr. Ramotar can do then we can safely ask the last person to leave Guyana to turn off the lights (if GPL is still functioning). Of course there are much, much better choices that were open to Ramotar. Shadick was chosen for narrow, partisan political reasons and the opposition, civil society and a nation of sheep will accept this utter farce, masquerade and circus.
The circus doesn’t stop. Education Minister Priya Manickchand has retained the PPP domination of the UG Council. There are still four PPP MPs but now Odinga Lumumba is a UG Councilor. He also represents the Government on the UG Finance Committee.
This is the same Manickchand that is yet to reply to Christopher Ram’s two episodes on the number of pensioners at the Ministry of Human Resources when Manickchand had that portfolio. One is a letter in the Stabroek News, the contents of which Mr. Ram repeated in April this year at a TUC-sponsored symposium on the budget.
In a statistically-laced argument, Mr. Ram contends that when you take the last census into consideration, there are between 23,000 and 27,000 citizens who are entitled to old age pension minus those who reach sixty-five but chose not to take it. He concludes his letter stating that “there is a gap of between 15,000 and 19,000 who are paid but not entitled to the pension.”
This is the same Minister who promised Operation Rescue UG monthly dialogues. Only one took place in May. The context of Lumumba’s appointment is identical to that of Shadick’s. It goes like this – ‘we are in charge; we will put our own people, we will show you that you can’t dictate for us and to us.’
Not to be forgotten is that it was under the same Manickchand that Kwame McCoy was appointed on the Rights of the Child Commission. The PPP is in charge alright. The only people not in charge are those who won a parliamentary majority at the 2011 general elections and allow Ramotar, Manickchand, Shadick and Lumumba to do as they please. But what about Robeson Benn?
If you want to see sheep in Guyana, go to the junction of Albert and Lamaha Streets any morning during the rush hour. This is one of the busiest intersections anywhere in Guyana. Since the traffic signals came in 2008, the lights there have never worked. For some reason, the signals there cannot work (I guess Benn finds that it is rocket science). Thousands (not hundreds) use this gateway each morning. The distress tells a tragic story of a lost, sheepish nation.
There is total confusion at this junction from Monday to Friday. People look frightened and are frightened. There are always bumper clashes. There are always torrid temper exchanges. Someone is going to get killed at this place. To date not one of those thousands have penned a letter accusing Benn of not doing his work.
But even if you are sheepish and cannot call on Benn to fix the signals at least pen a letter informing Guyana on what is taking place. This is my third column on this nightmare.
I wonder if it is because I write on this drama that the Government refuses to fix the bulbs. It only proves what kind of rulers we are dealing with.
Remember the cleaning of the trench outside my home two years ago? How can thousands of drivers suffer that fright and humiliation for years and not chastise the subject Minister? Of course Benn did campaign in the last general election and he probably met victims of that fright junction and they probably smiled with him, he smiled with them then the next day, at Albert and Lamaha Streets, they endure their matutinal nightmare.
Where I live the roads are probably the worst in the world. The residents complain all the time. And Rohee, I was told, was in the very compound campaigning during the election last year. Sheep don’t drive so they don’t need roads.

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