The time for damage control has long been in the Rupununi

Apr 07, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
First, please allow me the honour of congratulating Mr. Sydney Allicock, APNU Parliamentarian, for his excellent, honest and thorough assessment of life in the Rupununi during the Budget Debates. Even though I did not hear the presentation, it has indeed generated a lot of debate in the media, inclusive of the now discredited Chronicle. (The opposition was quite in order not to give them a cent).
Here in the Rupununi, residents from all over on hearing of what was in the Kaieteur and Stabroek, rushed down to Lethem to get their personal copies, but all were exhausted, there were no more papers for them. I wish that the Editors of these two media houses can donate a few hundred of the papers so that they can be distributed to the out-lying villages.
The event as carried by both dailies drew knowing looks and nods of agreement with that distinguished son of the soil. I think indeed he is a true hero-a hero of the people who was so bold and honest in telling it as it is.
We also saw the banner headline of the Chronicle of the same day. Nobody bothered to read the article because we knew what would have been inside. Needless to say however, that the headline was misleading. Today’s Chronicle (Friday 5th April) was even more aggressive with four (4) articles on two facing pages. Yes, they sought to do damage control. Mr. Editor, the time for damage control has long been gone because the people of the Rupununi know what Mr. Allicock was saying; they can relate to it.
Firstly, there was an emergency meeting of the PPP at the local freedom house here in Lethem. The articles had them scampering to find answers to the Budget presentation. I guess they could not find any so the rest is obvious: discredit the messenger and to hell with the message. That is the PPP modus operandi.
So the Chronicle has the results of that panic meeting.
Mr. Editor, please allow me the space to examine the various articles. We have one with comments attributed to the President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), Mrs. Jacqueline D’Aguiar.  Ms. D’Aguiar is totally out of touch with reality. She claimed that there have been continuous improvements especially in the health and education sectors.
Mr. Editor, I challenge Mrs. D’Aguiar to itemize those improvements. While she is at it Mr. Editor, I want her to consider the following:
· There are many students in Grade six that cannot read or write. They have spent six (6) years of their tender lives not knowing the difference between letter a and letter z. They cannot compute. In other words, they are totally illiterate. I know this because I once attempted to give extra lessons to students of this grade. I quickly abandoned the project when I realized that I was not equipped to deal with the situation. I promptly reported my assessment to the parents and the then Education Officer. I am not sure what was done about the situation, but I do know that that kind of situation still exists;
· The Lethem Hospital cannot diagnose typhoid. I know this because I had typhoid last year and could not be diagnosed. I had to seek help elsewhere. Additionally, we still have issues according to Mrs. D’Aguiar. The ventilation at the hospital is virtually non-existent. There is no natural air flowing through the hospital. Unlike the old hospital that we used to have. I know this because my sister-in-law was a patient at the facility and I had to purchase a fan for her. The ward was an oven. This will render rehabilitation and recuperation difficult;
· This morning (Friday 5th April) I was awaken to the sound of contractors repairing pot-holes in a newly paved road. I know this because it happened in front of the gap where I am living;
· Some residents can hardly feed themselves. I know this because they come to me for help. There is a particular family that fell on hard times that I would ask other residents to assist, and they do so very willingly. There is simply no second chance for this family;
· The dormitory at St. Ignatius Secondary School is overcrowded to the extent where students are made to study in shifts;
· The St. Ignatius Primary School is also overcrowded and the Government did not see it fit to improve the learning environment for these children.
Mr. Editor, the Education Committee also joined in the attempts at damage control, and in turn did mislead the general readership. It must be noted that while the Headmistress at the St. Ignatius Secondary school has been doing an excellent job, there have been attempts to discredit her and make her life uncomfortable. I alluded to an incident recently where a junior teacher was allowed to get away with murder: she engaged in actions to malign the head teacher.
Mr. Editor, I would like the Education Committee to state why they did not inform Regional Councillors of the presence of the Teaching Service Commission to Lethem. I met them on their way out of Lethem that morning and only then became aware that they had visited the region to deal with disciplinary matters. Not surprising Mr. Editor, that particular case was not presented to the Commission. I took the opportunity to raise the matter with them and they were very disappointed that the matter was not even raised. They mentioned that the issues raised were very frivolous and could have been dealt with at the department level, but that one they would have loved to address.
It must be pointed out that the interference in reflected in the percentage passes for last year – 56%, a drop of 17% over the previous year’s results. What improvements?
While I am at it Mr. Editor, the Committee expects Mr. Allicock to know of certain things when I, who am on the council is now reading it for the first time. For example, the building identified for the Technical Institute – was that matter brought to Council? Did the location get the full approval of Council? Were other stake-holders consulted to ensure that all are in agreement with the location?
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs too joined in the fray. I would like to take the Permanent Secretary to task. Until the electricity provided to these communities can be used to lift them out of poverty, to create jobs, and to enable the residents to engage in manufacturing, I would advise that he hold his tongue.
The solar panels provided can energize but 3 bulbs at the most. Additionally, residents are warned that they must not use the panels for radio or television because the authorities will know if they do, and the appliance will be repossessed. What utter nonsense. This clearly is an attempt to ensure that the residents do not listen to news from the outer world. This is an attempt to keep the residents in the dark.
Mr. Editor, the Permanent Secretary is 20 years late. This is the age of fast-paced information and residents of the Rupununi, as Mr. Allicock has stated, are very intelligent people, so they ensure that they are kept abreast with the news. They come to Lethem and purchase their news papers, not Chronicle, but Kaieteur and Stabroek. They are informed Mr. Editor.
As Mr. Allicock has stated, we do not want people living on the coast making decisions for us. That is exactly the position with the solar panels. The PS sat in his office and decided that the best thing for the communities is solar panels. The communities need and deserve much more that solar panels. They need electricity so that they can transform the many wasted fruits into marketable products; they need electricity so that they can power their refrigerators, televisions, radios/stereos, blenders, micro-waves, washing machines and other house-hold appliances. I detect an air of surprise in the PS Mr. Editor. He did not know that the Amerindian people are so advanced, so he thought a solar panel will suffice. How wrong he must be.
Mr. Editor, what the detractors fail to realize, is that the backwardness is in the way the government treats the people. We still have dirt roads when our neighbours have paved roads; we have no streetlights when our neighbours have lights on every lantern post in every street; we do not have a security policy when our neighbours have professional internal and external security; we have a dilapidated electricity generating system while our neighbours have access to hydro-electricity; we have a health system that does not cater for our needs while our neighbours assist us with our medical needs; we have high rates of unemployment while our neighbours go to work every day; we have incompetent management while our neighbours frown on incompetence; we have garbage everywhere while the communities of our neighbours are clean; we have Public Officials who are accountable to no one while our neighbours’ Public Officials are accountable to the people; we have destroyed all of our systems while our neighbours are proud to uphold and embrace theirs.
The PPP has made all of that possible. To use Mr. Allicock’s words, the lack of vision, the lack of prudent management, and the abundance of corrupt practices have combined to make the Rupununi the most backward place in the entire Caribbean. That is a serious indictment on the government and they should do the decent thing and resign. They are a miserable failure. Consequently I will side with Mr. Allicock’s call not to support the budget. Well done sir, you have made us here in the Rupununi proud. May God bless you as you continue to expose the harsh conditions under which we exist.
I will encourage Mr. Allicock to convince Mrs. D’Aguiar to embrace APNU since therein lies Guyana’s salvation. She needs to do this to ensure that her late husband Mr. Harold D’Aguiar, the very first and youngest Regional Chairman of Region # 9, under the PNC, rest in peace.
Carl Parker
Regional Councillor

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