Campaigning for 2020 has begun

Nov 27, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,

Campaigning for General Elections due in 2020 has begun in earnest and with it the attempts at character assassination that have become part of the parcel. The ‘go-to’ claim is usually ‘racism’.
I strongly believe this is a result of lazy intellectualism; my experience is of a Guyana where most differing perspectives are due to economic and social positioning rather than ethnicity. Some are based on social conditioning within ethnic structures.
However, recent statements attributed to the Minister of the Presidency where he asserts that there will be no more ‘nice time’ for opposition PPP supporters who ‘sabotage’ his Administration’s programmes are indeed racist and thoughtless.
Am I to believe that Mr. Harmon has had knowledge of ‘sabotage’ in the past and let it slide? Or that ‘sabotage’ by non-PPP elements will be allowed ‘nice time’ status? The obvious answer is no to both of these questions.
Mr. Harmon has instead allowed his emotions to overtake his reason and crossed a line in his quest to absolve his Administration of failure to execute even the smallest of projects. With fewer than nine houses delivered in three plus years, APNU+AFC had boldly promised nine new housing projects in 18 months.
No doubt, this doomed to fail promise will be laid at the steps of Freedom House “saboteurs’ in due course. The better course of action would have been to re-evaluate the failing policy of delivering ‘ready-made’ houses to citizens. There are thousands of Guyanese living in Diamond, Providence, Tuschen, Farm, Herstelling, etc. who were provided house lots and who have built their own homes at their own pace as their economic situation allowed.
The Harmon line of ‘PPP saboteurs’ has been parroted again by Carwyn Holland’s talk of ‘Manchurian candidates’ among APNU elected councillors. This is the danger of speaking to sycophants, bereft of intellect. They believe anything said by their leaders is ‘gospel’.
Editor, during this prolonged campaign the lies that have so often been repeated will be sung as truth; the claim of the execution of 400 Black men persists. Can we, the people, ask that this be independently investigated by journalists and the truth be published? Can we ask the press to investigate what the subsidy has been on each house lot ever delivered to the citizens of Guyana by the PPP or shall we pretend that only ‘Pradoville 2’ received subsidies?
Shall we investigate why Ashni Singh and Winston Brassington have been charged with ‘gifting’ 4.7 acres of land by selling it at $30,000,000 per acre while current Go-Invest CEO Owen Verwey is lamenting those who refuse to take advantage of incentives?
“We have incentives in various categories like general, specific and even land…Land has been added because nowhere else you can get an acre of land to lease for lower than US$1 and in Guyana land is being leased for as low as GUY$25,” (http://guyanachronicle.com/2018/11/23/go-invest-aided-45b-in-investments).
Verwey would be better off advising Ministers of the ills of nationalization as done with the Berbice Bridge Company. No amount of $25 an acre land will attract investors to a nation that has no respect for private property.
Verwey may also want to seek legal advice before signing any agreement at 12 US cents per acre. Recently, I saw the emergence of claims that ‘corruption and thieving’ have their genesis in the PNC and PPP administrations past.
Editor, Strain theory ascribes criminal behaviour to the gap between social goals and social structures to achieve them. Those who commit crimes have chosen expediency over morality, the crime and blame must rest with the criminal, providing him/her with an excuse is a slippery slope that we do not want to go down.
Principles and precedent are often more important than the issue they address. The recent ceding of authority by the Speaker of the House will no doubt have ramifications for future generations. The very public control being displayed by the Prime Minister over the Speaker’s office is offensive to sensibilities and this type of political expediency comes at a high cost to any nation.
Editor, the next General Election is going to be about truth, which side of it do we stand; the integrity of our Fourth estate is critical to our understanding of events. Our very futures depend on it.

Respectfully
Robin Singh

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