Harry Gill, the obsolete Don Quixote

Sep 29, 2013 Letters

---

 

 

Dear Editor,
From the very first letters of Harry Gill, to his letter on Mon, Sept 23, 2013, I identified an obvious familiar trend, an overture to the state for a favoured re-migrant slot in the national body politic, the ramblings of an obsolete Don Quixote. To understand the quest of this less than lofty ‘Quixote’ one must have an overview of the social history of the ‘Genesis of Guyana’.   There were people who left Guyana in the early times after 1966 for reasons of special economic and education-field opportunities, others were terrified by the connotations of ideas like socialism and communism. There were others, a ‘some’ who left because they could not bear the de-colonizing period, caste privileges  shattered, and ‘Dem’ in charge.  That relevant ‘some’ of this letter went to  Scarborough, there to have all elusions burnt as their favoured status turned out to be a colonial scam played on them by Her Majesty’s sociologists. Insanity and grave disgruntlement followed those who could not adjust. Now we have the Ogres on the horizon of Harry Gill.
Harry Gill proposes that APNU and the leader of the opposition have failed ‘we’ who voted for them. I am sure that Harry Gill did not vote for any of the political entities that constitute APNU. I have read his letter and i will not indulge its baseless ‘gaff’. I will, instead, proceed to outline briefly ‘an overview’ on what the joint opposition [AFC included] has done in the interest of the nation. The 10th Parliament came fully on stream on January 2012. For many of us our expectations had to be tempered to understand that these men will have to use up all the space of a full time Parliament, which we don’t have, to reconstruct Nineteen years of premeditated mismanagement and corruption; of boatloads of petroleum products vanishing, of 10%- up Ministers, of the opening of Guyana to organized crime and a money laundering haven, and a loss of humanity where mediocrity, extra judicial killings and the forty thieves of Ali Baba  imprisoned all national values in the abyss of free fuh all lawlessness, resulting in the misguidance of a generation into believing that ‘runnings’ and political patronage and not education and hard work are the criteria for ‘getting up’ economically, leading to the impoverishment of Guyana’s professionals who remained here.
As the drug money undermined legitimate businesses, Real estate prices escalated and our mineral hinterland and forest reserves did not escape.
Now let’s look at some of the work done by the opposition. January 2013 the leader of the opposition moved a motion in parliament to have an inquiry to probe criminal violence from 2000 to 2010. For some reason, the Speaker altered it to 2004 to 2010. The AFC surprised us, and voted against it. Maxwell, I am sure, was unaware of that change when he wrote his letter on 10 Jan, 2013. The PPP, guilty of another state of wanton bloodletting far greater than the 1961-64 disturbances, now to 2000-2010, did not support the motion Though they try to play the race victim card as much as they will,  they are guilty as sin, of being in bed with Roger Khan and his criminal killer gangs, that slaughtered Ronald Waddell and hundreds of others. Next; Culture was always a too complex phenomenon to the PPP. The still troubling unclarified  Caribbean Press fiasco with Dr Frank Anthony and the 1823 monument aberration led to the motion to establish the National Commemoration Commission on 26 Jan 2013.  The Local Government Bills upon the evidence of the PPP’s Local government Minister’s indifference to the deterioration of the capital, coupled with the spiteful region [4] four budgetary allocations emphasise the importance of these bills; which however all remain in limbo. Even Mr Isaacs, the clerk  of parliament, seemed unaware of his line of command, the details of his prerogatives, under the shadow of the previous “Nah worry wid de law, jus do wah we she.”
He too must adjust to the required professionalism of his mandate.
It cannot be argued that Amaila falls would have been, as its true nature is unravelled, a giant payday for many at the consequence of the nation’s further impoverishment. It ranks with the scent of a callous scam rather than pure cluelessness, as was Clico, the Jagdeo airwaves handouts, and the travesty of the- Marriott exposed, and numerous other corrupt indulgences open to us due to the scrutiny of the 10th parliament and the courage of the private media. The Marriott Hotel which continues to raise the unanswered questions “What is for who “ and “What for?”, in the face of our non-existent tourism market, and astronomical unemployment, which with its phantom gang legacy of abundant weapons has ushered in a new wave of crime?  The burdon of correcting the PPP’s devastation of Guyana lies with a change of philosophy of braver minds within the PPP itself, to collaborate with those already evident in the joint opposition, particularly APNU.  David Granger and APNU have demonstrated consistency, and they will not sign the current Money Laundering Bill until it is ready in the national interest. Before us lies the movement to formulate a National philosophy  that will in time require constitutional change.
The opposition is well poised in demanding a more suitable Home Affairs Minister. A reading list of the insensitive banal utterances of this character renders him inappropriate for any sensitive complex decision making position. I will say of Mr. Rohee, he confirms my father’s advice when he instructed me, I was around twelve –thirteen years old, to read the condensed books of Readers Digest which he subscribed to, dictating to me that what you don’t learn or understand between fourteen to twenty six, you can’t  adapt to, at fifty.  I would suggest to Harry Gill in his next letter to tell this nation why Barrat Jagdeo should not be at the Hague on charges of presiding over numerous extra judicial murders, some randomly committed by Norco-organised crime Militias and rogue police empowered by his Government. Tell us why Mr. Winston Brassington should not be now charged for public mischief among other things. Of course he would just be at the top of a very long list.
Barrington Braithwaite

 

 

---

---