Not about political glory hunting

Nov 13, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Finally, opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo has attacked the government’s decision to take control of the operations of the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI), albeit temporarily, in light of the latter’s publicly announced decision to raise its tolls by an astronomical and unconscionable level in excess of 300%.
Editor, at last he has played his hand; but I wonder what took him so long? Let me first examine Jagdeo’s belated, but expected view.
This is his usual playing to the gallery, this time to the business and commercial or big money class, better described as the private sector; as well as for political mileage. Except, that he has attempted to justify his position, by concluding that the government’s position was a political gimmick, given the imminent Local Government Elections.
This is to deliberately overlook the fact, that the government not only exercised its right in accordance with the Berbice River Bridge Act, but also in light of a matter that had portents for a national crisis.
This is ‘jumbie’ economics and contradictory politics by an opposition leader, who has developed the template for always attempting to be a knight in shining armour in indefensible circumstances, in which he would have laid the troubled foundations during his presidency.
And the examples have been numerous, well documented, and in the public domain, with no need to recite here.
It is evident that his sole pre-occupation was with his buddy pal who it turns out is the major shareholder. Thus, for all of his publicly stated incantations of “objections” to the BBCI increases, and “let them produce the evidence to justify such”, he never came across as genuine in his objections, which were really expressions of great pretence.
Especially for a government, which has its administrative agenda filled with the challenge of repairing a broken state, in addition to the gargantuan task of preparing the national framework and otherwise, for the coming of oil, such a situation, as toll increases would have been the last thing that it would have wanted on its daily agenda, much less engineered, for political purposes, as Jagdeo is positing.
And I say this, given what could have been the socio-political implications of the unconscionable increases on citizens of both sides of the Berbice River divide, had such a decision of temporary acquisition not been taken.
Mr. Editor, it is instructive to note the proposed date of commencement of these BBCI toll increases, clearly intended to incite civil protests with the view of embarrassing the government.
But here is the great contradiction in Jagdeo’s two basic positions and line of reasoning: How does he balance the view of vehement objections to the toll increases, as against government’s most appropriate counter and decision to protect the travelling public et al, from what was clearly an intended unconscionable burden that would have been imposed by the BBCI?
Jagdeo must be reminded that government’s decision is not about political glory hunting. It is about protecting the welfare of the people, and in the process, the national interest.
Regards
Dillon Goring

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