CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCIES

Sep 03, 2014 Editorial

The one thing that watchers can bet their last dollar on is that politicians in this country can definitely be depended on to provide the most outrageous kind of comic relief.
An overseas investor, Bai Shan Lin, claims that it has a larger amount of forest concessions than the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment is willing to acknowledge. The Minister says that the figure stated is not true and that the company should retract the statement. Nothing was done and nothing will be done in that direction, so the citizenry should not risk asphyxiation holding their collective breath.
Another overseas company publicly states that it was leased 60,000 hectares of land for 99 years in the Canje Basin, and financing is guaranteed by the Government of Guyana. Not so says the Ministry of Agriculture; only 10,000 hectares was granted to the Ajeenkya DY Patil Group. Additionally the group’s website makes some astounding claims, including block concessions not afforded local companies.
Serious questions are being raised, including why are local entrepreneurs not up in arms to secure similar concessions? What is the purpose of the agency set up to provide information to Guyanese and other interested parties about the details of the various Memoranda of Understanding signed off by this government on behalf of the people of this country?
Why are the political opposition parties not making optimum use of parliament to halt the obscene level of corruption that is unearthed daily? There is no arguing about the inertia and complacency which seem to characterise the behaviour of leading stakeholders in Guyana.
To add insult to injury we are now being assailed by people with no conviction (pun intended) or commitment to any ideals, save and except to their own selfish aggrandizement. People who are more in the mould of gadflies engaged in pimpery. Why we ask; why should we continue to be held hostage by a rapacious clique which makes Attila the Hun look positively saintly?
The current goings-on which pass for good governance are fodder for any serious grouping which would like to see the backs of an administration whose only claim to fame is its uncanny ability to survive through condoning malfeasance and misfeasance, and ignoring all reasonable calls to do what is right.
But the contradiction that took the cake last week was at the ceremonial opening for the Airport Risk Mitigation workshop when the Minister of Public Works expressed what we are told was his personal opinion that this country is not meeting minimum standards on airport security. One would have thought that the public pronouncement of the minister would mirror his ministry’s position on this very sensitive matter with implications for how this country is viewed by international regulatory bodies in the aviation industry. The unseemly customary mad scramble to do damage control by the ministry only made matters quite worse in the attempt to distance itself from the subject minister.
First off all, no airport will ever have sufficient resources to respond to every emergency situation independent of other stakeholders, but – make no mistake – they are all subject to emergencies. How then can we reconcile what the minister is saying with the requirement to adopt a posture of universally acceptable aviation security standards?
In all fairness to the minister, his personal observations might very well reflect the views and experiences of many persons who regularly use the country’s two principal airports. What is of major concern, however, is the capacity and capability of those two facilities to handle emergencies resulting from any or all of several security challenges, including aircraft incidents and accidents; natural disasters; bomb incidents; presence of hazardous materials; structural fires; and power failure.
Even if we were to console ourselves that the relevant agencies are on top of their game this is no cause for celebration when the state of the hinterland airstrips is considered. Many interior communities depend on properly maintained aviation facilities, no matter how remote their location, for their very survival.
And therefore it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that everything possible is being done to achieve the necessary national aviation security posture if we are to avoid the opprobrium with which this country seems increasingly comfortable.

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