A bridge too far yet too close

Sep 01, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Among the persons that I have met, who are interested in the APNU+AFC coalition staying in power because they don’t want the PPP back, many have asked me why the current leaders come across as inept, incompetent and lost. This column cannot proffer theories for the misfortunes that have befallen a government that came in with enormous goodwill but has, by itself, dissipated that generosity given to it by the citizenry in 2015.
Space would prevent an elaboration, but I have from time to time in these columns offered explanations from both the theoretical perspective and practical politics, why the APNU+AFC leaders have been systematically making unnecessary mistakes, insensitive policies, and going in wrong directions. The latest in this concatenation of lapses is the bridge decision.
When the government decided to replace the Demerara Harbour Bridge (this was before the two prison infernos, so there was no thought of replacing the Camp Street eyesore), it was thought by perhaps all Guyanese that the new construction would dissolve two headaches – humongous traffic jams on the public roadways and the irritation of opening and closing the bridge for maritime traffic.
Of course the two problems are interconnected – when the bridge is closed to traffic, the vehicular congestion creates havoc. There was an announcement a few months back that the new structure would be a fixed one with no retraction.
We are now told that the Peter’s Hall bridge will be rebuilt at Houston and will be a retracting one. In other words, the bridge and the confusion at Peter’s Hall will be transferred to Houston. I have always argued in these columns that you do not have to be a lawyer to understand in-depth, the meaning of laws. It is nonsense to say that an educated person cannot grasp the meanings and subtleties in the Guyana Constitution the way an attorney can. I know one Guyanese who has no training in law, but comprehends the contents of the laws perhaps with greater erudition than many lawyers – Eusi Kwayana.
It is in this context I say that you do not have to be an engineer to know that the new crossing at Houston does not make sense. How can you choose the same type of bridge we have at Peter’s Hall to put at Houston? Why not at Peter’s Hall where you already have the foundations, the oil depots, the toll booths, the guard huts etc. If you are constructing a retracting bridge at Houston, then the traffic chaos will move from Bagotstown to Houston.
The sorry thing about politicians is that they make crucial mistakes that subsequent generations live with, only to be tormented for the rest of their lives. Two examples immediately come to mind. Forbes Burnham should not have scrapped the Demerara railway. We are paying dearly for such a decision. Secondly, Jagan refused to let UWI extend to Guyana. He opened his own university. We would have been better served by having a Turkeyen campus of the UWI. Jagdeo stands out as an example of a leader that made silly mistakes, but these were deliberate decisions to serve narrow political and ethnic purposes.
Jagdeo put the Berbice Bridge from D’Edward to Palmyra, instead of New Amsterdam. The economy of New Amsterdam suffered a tremendous decline. Jagdeo ignored several reports that justified the location at New Amsterdam, and for insular reasons, chose Palmyra. New Amsterdam was a town that always voted in municipal and general elections for the PNC. But here was every sensible reason to put the bridge in New Amsterdam – population density, business generation, night life enjoyment etc.
Perhaps no section of our population will endure the cruel hurt of wrong decisions by leaders than sugar workers. The Skeldon factory was the worst financial disaster in the history of this country. The fate of the sugar industry and sugar workers would have taken a different shape if Jagdeo did not use 200 million American dollars to invest in an industry that all the Guyanese and regional experts were warning the region about for the past decade – Caribbean sugar industry cannot survive globalism.
One hopes that sugar workers will survive the closure of the industry and that this country will look after their interest and those of their families, but whatever uncertainty is on the horizon, it came there because leaders’ mistakes put it there.
Will subsequent generations have to face the dire consequences of a Peter’s Hall-type bridge being erected at Houston? There is still time for this unfortunate error to be corrected. Maybe, if it was another country. Sadly, Guyanese politicians never admit when they are wrong.

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