THE VOICE OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS…Bath Settlement and its importance to 2020

Nov 25, 2015 News

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By Sase Singh

Bath Settlement is a village in West Berbice which has seen the development of a new housing scheme and an increase in its voting population by some 26 percent since 2011. Bath draws its sustenance from the sugar industry, but there is a strong entrepreneurial class in the villages around the “shallot” business.
Historically Bath Settlement has been the epicentre of the PPP in West Berbice.  They have core competencies at grass root militancy that they learnt in the sugar industry.  Starting as far back as 1948, they stood with Dr. Jagan and his legacy through thick and thin.  Winning over Bath should be the objective of any progressive political movement since they have strong foundations in working class struggle.
These villagers were fully aware that they were getting the short end of the stick from the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal.  They saw the beachfront hundred-million-dollar mansions and they knew that the Jagans’ legacy was dead under Jagdeo.   In 2005 with the formation of the AFC, a small but politically significant core group out of Bath / Woodley Park NDC made that strategic decision to break with the Jagdeoites and align with the AFC.  The AFC Constitution offers the kind of language that will always be music to the ears of the people of Bath –”commitment…” to treating all of our people “fairly and equitably in the allocation of national and regional resources”.
The elections result from the Bath / Woodley Park NDC in 2011 saw the following results: APNU – 22 votes (mainly from the WPA influence), AFC – 615 votes and the PPP – 2,789 votes. The Jagdeoites were on trial and the beginning of the end for them was in progress.
I have checked all the records since 1953 and there is no evidence to substantiate that any political party other than the PPP had the capability to draw more than 50 votes from Bath.
The AFC did it in 2011. Much credit has to go to the AFC foot soldiers including a young dynamic woman called Cindy Sookdeo who was a “fireball” on that 2011 campaign trail.  She was ably supported by many others including Pradeep Bachan, Abel Seetaram (now Regional Advisor to the Hon. Prime Minister) and many other unsung grassroots champions.  The message was potent, relevant and was able to find fertile ears in Bath.
Then in 2015, AFC made a strategic political move that was grounded in the concept that it had to stop the plundering and raping of the Treasury by the Jagdeoites.  It took its political capital into alliance politics with the vision of more fairly allocating national and regional resources to all our people for the good of the nation.  The Cummingburg Accord was constructed; the Coalition was built and the mission commenced that was aimed at offering the good life.
Although the PPP tried to drive ethnic fear in the minds of the people of Bath / Woodley Park, they could not destroy the breakaway group. The results for the Bath / Woodley Park NDC in the 2015 elections were as follows:  APNU/AFC – 557 votes, PPP – 3,646 votes. Bath Settlement in the main held, as we saw 557 persons, mainly East Indian, voting for a team captioned – Granger for President / Nagamootoo for Prime Minister.  In the political landscape in which we operate, these 557 persons can be considered as political gold.
Sometime in October 2015, GPL removed some 20 street lamps from Bath in an era of a continuous crime wave that was inherited from “Rohee and Rohee Inc”.  The PPP knew they messed up while in Government and offered a political inducement for voters in Bath.  But the 557 voters saw through their “carrot on a donkey” mentality.
But the core point remains – can a coalition that won the general elections by 4,545 votes afford to withdraw these 20 street lamps; especially in light of the upcoming Local Elections?  These street lights act as a critical deterrent to the wild west banditry that is rolling all over Guyana in fine style.  More importantly in people’s mind, these street lights offer perceptive personal security comfort.  In human development, this is very important.
The people of Bath do not give a “hoot” about who was right or who was wrong; the real perception in their mind is that GPL under this Coalition Government took away 20 street lamps from their community and has placed them at grave risk to the banditry that is rolling freely all over Guyana.  This is not a figment of their imagination.
The political reality remains that because of this decision, the PPP was given a platform to speak directly to these 557 voters and they have not failed to dish out some serious “political uppercuts” on this issue as a means to a political end. Why should they not?  This is a real political boxing match and if you drop your guard down, then you should not be surprised if a “political left hook” or “political straight right” comes your way.
If one does the cost-benefits analysis within a socio-political-economic framework, one will have enough evidence to prove that this decision was a human development disaster.  It will cost GPL about G$26,000 a month to power these 20 lights.  Are we prepared to lose 557 votes to save G$26,000 a month?
It sickens me to my core to see this quality of decision making and analysis in government. There are people in Government who continue to make the jobs of the President and the Prime Minister very challenging with such poor decisions.  The Government’s mission is to offer all Guyanese a shot at the good life, but GPL and whoever else authorized this decision have undercut the Coalition politically.  The buck on this one stops at the desk of the Minister of Public Infrastructure.
There is a perception that this community was being targeted by GPL.  This may be totally false, but all politics is about perception. Do not tell me about legality and illegality and NDC and a whole bunch of bureaucratic gibberish. The decision was nothing but infantile stupidity and executive immaturity.
I must commend the team at GPL for recognizing their error and for engaging the residents of Bath with a vision of putting back on the lights.  Even stupid decisions can be corrected. However, I am getting a sense, based on feedback out of Bath Settlement, it is too little, too late, since the Coalition has already lost some of those 557 votes.  I hope this will not be an exercise in egotistic lunacy.  We must see these lights back on before Christmas 2015 with a solemn commitment to never remove another street lamp from any of the public streets of Guyana, irrespective if they are in Buxton or Bath
Guyana is too rich to not give the people in each of the 65 NDCs a G$300,000 annual subvention for street lights.  Let there be light on the dams and streets of Guyana; it will take us closer to the good life.  That is what we promised and that is what we must deliver.
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