Latest update June 15th, 2026 1:01 AM
Anjandai Chan is going blind
My January 19 column was captioned, “Face to Face with evil in Berbice, Saturday evening”. In that column, I mentioned how cheap life is in the rural parts of Guyana. I related the story of two women I met at a wake and the tragic past they have to live with.
Anjandai Chan’s father was killed by a speeding police car at Cotton Tree, Berbice. Inside the car at the time was one of the leading police officers whose driver was out of control. Ms. Chan told me there was never an inquiry into her father’s death. Not one police officer ever came to her home. That was the end of the story.
Then two years later, her father’s brother died when a commercial truck struck him down. The wife of this brother told me that the driver was charged but she never received a court date to testify. Months after, she saw the driver on the road. When she inquired, she was told he was freed. The wife told me that she cannot collect death benefit from NIS because there are no records.
I promised these two women that I would tell Guyana their story when I got back to Georgetown. I did that in the January 19 column. The same day of the publication of the article, Anjandai Chan called me to ask for help because she is going blind. Her description of what the Ministry of Health did this poor (in economic terms) soul makes you livid.
Ms Chan said that she went to the Georgetown Hospital. The diagnosis was made. The operation could only be done in Trinidad. The Ministry took her details and she never heard back from the Ministry. I sent Ms. Chan to my personal eye doctor to ascertain if the previous diagnosis was correct. It was. Ms. Chan has to go to Trinidad because even at the Balwant Singh Hospital, the surgery cannot be done.
I contacted the Minister’s Secretary. She put me on to his Secretariat where Ms. Noel promised me to look into the financial arrangement for Ms. Chan’s treatment. I never met with Ms. Noel. I spoke to her four times on the phone. I accepted her assurances. Since January, Ms. Chan was not contacted by the Minister’s Secretary.
Ms. Chan since January 19 has been calling my home. My wife told me she called as recent as last week. There is nothing more I can do for Anjandai Chan. I did all I could. I will not even contemplate going to the Minister. He is not someone I want to dialogue with because I know I will be wasting my time. I know the Minister from our old days in the seventies. My characterization of him is someone who would be hostile to me. He has been so in the past when we sat together on the Council of the University.
The story of Anjandai Chan tells about the insanity of power in Guyana. When I read about the money spent on medical bills for Ministers and Government officials, I thought of Samuel Doe and the way he reacted against the Government that he overthrew in Liberia. This is the third time in my columns I have made reference to Doe’s reaction.
It cannot be accepted that a Minister can get $2.1 million for dental treatment while Ms. Chan goes blind because the Ministry of Health has forgotten about its obligation to her. My daughter was born with terrible crooked teeth. We spent ten years at Dr. Bera’s clinic at the Woodlands’ Hospital getting orthodontic corrections at the cost of two million dollars.
This is the reality of life in Guyana for the ordinary citizen. I met a relative of Dr. Cheddi Jagan last Sunday and he said he cannot imagine what could go through the head of the PPP leadership that they could give free money to Ministers to fix their teeth. This is a close relative of the founder of the PPP. A poor woman is going blind, but Ministers could get taxpayers’ money for dental purposes.
What will make it even more depraved and lead you to think of Samuel Doe is if the dental expense was for aesthetic purposes and not corrective surgery. We don’t know. Maybe the new kid on the block, Elizabeth Harper, could find out for us. When we read about these horrible distortions in power arrogance as with the medical bills for these officials, we should now call on Ms. Harper to get her reaction. I will have much more to say about Ms. Harper before May 11 comes. Meantime, Guyanese should brace themselves for more scandals.
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