Only the PPP is right on Amaila Falls Project, everyone else is wrong

Aug 06, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Like most Guyanese, we are encouraged by the opposition, especially the AFC’s oversight assessment that the Amaila Falls Hydro Project is the most expensive in the world and that Guyanese will have a very heavy financial burden to carry for generations to come if the deal goes through. Further, the project will not meet the target of providing electricity to all Guyanese and that there is no guarantee that it will end the constant power blackouts that are occurring daily.
As reported in Kaieteur News, the Technical Coordinator of the project, Winston Brassington admitted that within a year of the completion of the Amaila Hydro Falls project, the demand will have utilized the total supply thus the government will have to find new sources of electricity to meet the nation’s demand. In other words, Brassington is saying that by 2019, Guyana will be back to square one in terms of electrical supply after spending roughly US$2 billion. So we say thanks to Kaieteur News for being in the forefront to prevent this PPP cabal from hiding the truth from the people. After all, Kaieteur News is the people’s paper and all Guyana can count on this national renowned Kaieteur News team for the facts and its accurate reporting on the issues in Guyana.
All estimates have shown that when completed, the Amaila Falls Hydro project will cost the taxpayers over US $2 billion as stated by Chartered accountants Christopher Ram and Ramon Gaskin and accountant specialist, Sasenarine Singh. If Guyana’s most prominent economist Dr. Clive Thomas is correct that the Amelia Falls Hydro Project will become outdated by 2019, then why this stubborn and reckless PPP cabal would want to invest over $2 billion of the taxpayers money on such a flawed project? We are not against the Amaila Falls Hydro Project but what we opposed is the high cost that will burden the people for the next 25 years.
Like Kaieteur News, we are concerned about the Government’s aggressiveness in pursuing this flawed hydro project deal without the due diligence and at such high cost to the taxpayers of Guyana. But before we go any further, we would like to ask the minority President what has happened to the funds from Norway that was supposed to benefit the Amerindian communities as promised? Is this another broken promise to the Amerindians by this regime?
Back to the Amaila Falls Hydro Project. Guyanese have been traumatized by the recent adverse analytical and financial findings which highlighted the extremely high cost of the project now pegged at US$884 million, an increase of US$44 million. We call on the PPP to remove their blindfolds and listen to logic and reason; instead of attacking the opposition for speaking the truth, they should cut their losses now.
Is the PPP telling the nation that they are the only ones who are right and everyone else including the international community is wrong?   This is more serious than we thought and this type of mental imbalance by the PPP cabal is cause for concern that requires some serious psychological therapy. We are convinced that when the PPP is finished with Guyana, the water in all the trenches, streams, lakes, rivers and the ocean will be dried up, the earth will be scorched.
In other words, there will be no Guyana with enough of anything.  This is exemplified at the Congress where the minority president’s uncompromising stance has set the tone for conflict with the opposition instead of creating an agenda that will lead to economic development, create jobs and thus improve the lives of the poor.
Further, his constant threat to call snap elections is nothing more than a threat. The PPP cabal knows that if they call snap elections they will not only lose more seats because there are too many people even their own supporters who do not trust the PPP anymore. So we call on the minority president to stop his bluffing and call the elections now.
Rather than face the reality and take a sober second look at the cost of the Amaila Falls Project, these sycophants will use their Congress to spread propaganda, distort the truth and cuss-down the opposition and the other stake holders who opposed the project. They will exaggerate their story telling to their delegates and their diehard supporters. They are not serious about the welfare of the people or the human development of Guyana.
They remind us of the Titanic’s captain, whose casual but famous last words might well have been “There’s a bit of ice up ahead” but he did nothing to prevent the ship from hitting the iceberg. They are accustomed to twisting the facts because they do not have the ability to tell the truth or to recognize illusion. Facts are facts and the PPP cannot distort or twist them and expect the people or even their supporters to believe them. Anyone with a little bit of commonsense will not believe the PPP cabal and their “Jim Cock Bring Ram Goat Stories.”
Most Guyanese understand what the problems are. The most fundamental is that the PPP is inefficient, corrupt and a hindrance to, rather than a facilitator of, human development. There is nothing wrong with having a modern electrical system such as the Amaila Falls Project but not at any cost to the Guyanese taxpayers.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

 

 

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