Give the Coalition Government a chance to perform

Feb 05, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
At the recent 5th Biennial National Conference of the Alliance for Chance (AFC) at the Vreed-en-Hoop Primary School on Saturday, January 28, 2017, the newly elected Chairman of that Party, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, gave a passionate and timely charge for Party supporters and Guyanese in general to rise above destructive criticisms of the APNU/ AFC coalition government. He said (quote) “there will always be jealousies and pettiness, especially coming from lesser minds… and the party must seek to avoid that which will jeopardize the coalition’s existence to the detriment of the Cummingsburg Accord or to the benefit of Jagdeo and the PPP”.
His appeal could not come at a better time, when many Guyanese, particularly those who robustly supported and voted in the APNU/ AFC coalition government seem to have suffered Lacunar amnesia and murmur constantly. Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about a specific event.
Some specific events for which many people seem to have Lacunar amnesia effects include, but are not limited to, the following that took place between1995 to 2015:
· The wanton abuse, misuse, theft and conversion of State Assets by the PPP regime (example: Pradoville)
· The murders of over 400 (mainly Afro-Guyanese) during the period 2000 – 2005
· Mismanagement of GUYSUCO and the Skeldon Sugar production plant fiasco, which remains a burden on the Guyanese economy
· Baseless fear mongering particularly affecting Indo-Guyanese
· The Lusignan and Bartica Massacres of innocent citizens
· The assassinations of Satyedeow Sawh, Ronald Waddell and Courtney Crum-Ewing
· Poor contractual works (Examples: The Kato Secondary School in Region# 8 and Charity Wharf in Region# 2)
· Weakened foreign policy and territorial defense which embarrassed Guyana with the eviction of a CGX oil rig by Surinamese military gunboats in 2000
· Illicit drug trade causing the country to be listed by the United States DEA as a major drug trans-shipment hub
· Corrupt alliances and poor regulatory controls which resulted in $$ billions lost through illegal Gold and Timber exportation
· Dirty Capital City (Georgetown) and uncontrollable filthiness nationwide
· The neglect of Linden
· The destruction of cash-crop farms in Buxton/ Friendship
· The FATF blacklisting of Guyana for failure to enact Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing legislation
In the Holy Bible, the Children of Israel murmured against their leader (Moses) because of their Lacunar amnesia. Numbers 14:2, “And the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!” Such murmuring did not only trouble Moses, but it displeased God. As a consequence, that generation of the Children of Israel was not allowed to make it to the Promised Land. Numbers 14:27-29, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me”
Guyanese, with their murmuring and insinuation that the coalition government will only survive ‘one-term’ need to be wary of ‘self-fulfilling prophesy’. Many who utter such nonsense seem to forget their (Egypt) experiences under the PPP. They also seem to lack gratefulness and cognizance of the wide-ranging socio-economic, institutional and infrastructural improvements that have taken place in just under 2 years of the incumbent administration. Most of those who murmur are like loafing spectators who make very little contribution to the pot of development in this country and are effortless in changing their dispositions in the first place.
Our political leadership in the APNU/ AFC government and enlightened citizens need to recognize that the innuendos spread by those who murmur and senselessly criticize the coalition government can be harmful overtime. Greater community and public relations is necessary, in order to quell the infectious propagating by those perennial “murmurers.” As one man recently said on a CN Sharma’s Voice of the People program, “Give the government a fair chance to do their job”, “you can’t expect them to transform everything in two years when the PPP had over 20 and left a mess”
Orette Cutting

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