Beware of Paul Tennassee and his hidden agenda

Jan 01, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to a think-tank formed by Mr. Paul Tennassee set up to mobilize and involve ordinary Guyanese and organised civil society in crafting policies.
Mr. Tennassee says: “We believe there is wisdom in the grassroots on how to solve many of the problems and we believe a lot of the bottlenecks and a lot of the real issues that affect our peoples is within the communities that they live and unless they could be educated, reoriented, empowered and be facilitated to act to resolve these issues, we cannot do it,”  One media house in reference observed, “ Mr. Tennassee, a former leader of the now defunct Democratic Labour Movement (DLM) political party which had been part of the Patriotic Coalition of Democracy (PCD) in Guyana’s struggle for free and fair elections.”
My question  to Tennassee is:  “Have you and your organization, what you call yourself ‘Think tank’, The Roraima Institute’s (TRI),checked out the following:
· The Local Democratic Organs’ (or whatever they were called then) performance in the various communities under the last government for all the years?
· The reason why Local Government Elections were not called for so many years.
· Who were getting the contracts and which communities were getting money for development and which were not because of race and party affiliations.
· Which schools, where they were located and benefitted more than others under the last government? How and why President College was neglected to fall into disrepair?
· Which areas got health centers, sport facilities, better roads, banks etc.
· The problems of the grassroots in the affected and neglected areas – Neglected for all those years for obvious, selfish and other reasons you are very well aware of.
The list goes on. Please be informed – the Coalition which inherited the great burden of mismanagement and corruption in May 2015, is trying under dire circumstances to correct the suffering inflicted on the people, the grassroots. For a start, since May 2015, THE COALITION GOVERNMENT HAD TO SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO SHORE UP THE FAILING SUGAR INDUSTRY TO KEEP THE WORKERS THERE EMPLOYED. You talk about crime, the Minister of Security mentioned a while ago, that some of that money could have been used to fight crime and be inputted into other initiatives, if the sugar industry was not left in the terrible state the Coalition Government inherited. There is a Guyanese saying ‘Yall deh pun a bundle of stupidness’.
TRI officials – Tennassee and Melanie Smith – found, “There is a great cry” across the coast to address the huge gap between incomes and expenditures, resulting in many persons “hustling” several jobs to earn sufficient money. “Guyanese in the grassroots are alive and kicking, they are hustling. They are trying their best. They want to make it but somehow those who govern have to reach out to them and be in constant communication with them,”  Yes, people have to hustle, more so because the Drug Economy has taken a hit, due to the anti-drug policies and plans put in place by the present government. Drug money and spin–off activities and employment are not circulating as before. With time, things will get better as other employment opportunities by the government, private enterprise and self-employment kick in. It is not easy. Why only harp on the tax on water and electricity in the budget, what about the other items in the budget which are very beneficial to the people. I do not know the cost/benefit to the people from the water/electricity tax, but what is obvious is these commodities would not be wasted as before.
Mr. Tennassee went on; “Despite calls for farmers to diversify and produce more, the TRI official said farmers were crying out for government to find markets in the Caribbean. The markets of Guyana cannot provide a living for the farmers of Guyana. It should be declared a State of Emergency to find markets for these products. “We need markets and we need markets urgently. A policy recommendation for diversification without real assistance for markets is hallucination and what is going on in the grassroots today is hallucination.”
I say to Mr. Tennassee – why don’t your 70 academic and professional representatives come up with a workable proposal with input from Guyana to alleviate the overseas farmers’ market problem you are so concerned about? That would be an operation in a positive direction instead of generally getting involved with the Government development program and/or private resource inputs to assist in the communities involved, when possible.
Here is more of this man, Tennassee; “We intend to lobby both government and the political opposition to have consensus on fundamental major life changing policy issues. It’s going to be tough but I believe that both government and the opposition are patriots, I believe they are nationalists, I believe they are democrats and I believe they are all antiracists.” Is Mr. Tennassee for real? Are these guys in the so-called think tank for real? Have they been following the racial politics being perpetuated at home and abroad by certain political individuals to shore up support for 2020? The government should BE AWARE AND BEWARE OF these kinds of ‘foreign’ movements among the grassroots. One never knows whether the motives are devious or not.
Thomas Saunders

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