If Ebola hits Guyana many of us will not be around to vote

Sep 10, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

APNU’s ultimatum to the government for the announcement of local government elections is ill-timed. Right now the Guyanese people have their own worries. The last thing on their mind is local government elections.
APNU, of course, has now awakened to the reality that the AFC has once again outfoxed it. The AFC had lulled APNU into unconditionally pledging support for a no-confidence motion against the government. APNU was hoping that the passage of this motion would have triggered elections in the run-up to which APNU and the AFC would have joined in a grand alliance to contest those elections. It is now clear that all along the AFC had no intention of forming a pre-election coalition with APNU.
There is a saying ‘once bitten twice shy’. APNU ought to have been shy of the AFC, since the AFC has more than once broken ranks with APNU in the National Assembly. It also refused in 2011 to come under the Big Tent.
APNU has also suddenly realized that the ruling PPP was pretending that it was not interested in local government elections, but that behind the scenes the PPP administration was doing tremendous development works in communities across Guyana as it secretly prepared for local government elections. The recent opening of a $604M access road to La Parfaite Harmonie, the resurfacing of roads in many villages along the coast, the launch of a billion-dollar countrywide clean up- campaign, the commencement of major road works in East Bank Berbice, the impending distribution of close to a billion dollars as a grant to parents of school children are all signs that the PPP is ready for local government elections, but was hedging so as to allow these works to be completed.
APNU, which was drawn back into its constituencies in checking the Preliminary List of Electors, must have been taken aback by the massive amount of work that it saw being undertaken in many communities in Guyana.
APNU has therefore taken a decision to press for local government polls, so as to defuse the PPP making further gains. The problem, however, is that the people are not in any mood for elections.
Right now the main concern of the Guyanese people is Chikungunya. There have been many kinds of flu to have hit Guyana. One recalls the deadly effects of a flu which was called the Hong Kong Flu. Guyana was spared the Bird Flu and SARS, but there has been no avoiding Chikunguya. While there have not been significant fatalities associated with this flu, many Guyanese are literally hurting because of the outbreak of Chikungunya.
As Guyanese would say, the pains in their joints caused by the Chikungunya are no “three cents” affairs. Chikungunya is extremely painful. Many have complained that the pain can at times be excruciating. And it seems as if there is not letting up with this virus. It is spreading throughout the coast, even if it is at a lesser rate than when it first began a few months ago.
And while Guyanese are trying their best to avoid contracting Chikunguna, they are also well aware of the fact that in West Africa there has been a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus. It is understood that nationally there is a plan being developed to help prevent an outbreak in Guyana and if necessary, to deal with any possible outbreak.
Well, I would like to warn those involved in developing a national response to any possible outbreak of Ebola in Guyana, that if Ebola comes here, it will rapidly increase the number of dead on the Preliminary Voters’ List. If GECOM is not worried about the couple of thousand dead persons whose names still appear on the PLE, it would have to think differently if Ebola comes here.
If Ebola hits here, the hospitals are not going to be filled. They are going to be emptied, because no one will want to go anywhere near where an Ebola patient is. Ebola is serious.
There is no national plan that Guyana can launch to contain Ebola within our borders. The only solution is for Guyana to prevent it from reaching our shores. And in order for this to happen, Guyana has to immediately place immigration controls on any person coming from countries in which the Ebola virus has broken out. It also has to prevent entry into Guyana to any individual landing from those countries.
This is the ultimatum that APNU should be issuing to the government. It should be ordering the government to close its ports of entry and border to persons coming from those countries where the epidemic has been discovered. If Ebola hits Guyana, there is no election, local or national, that will rescue this country.

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If Ebola hits Guyana many of us will not be around to vote

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