People in 2022 who ruled in 2020

Aug 22, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – One of the sermons I preach on this page is an appeal to African Guyanese to let their minds reflect on the unadulterated propaganda that is being used to deceive and corrupt them.

When I read a column by Mr. Lelon Saul titled: “African Guyanese demand equitable distribution of the nation’s patrimony,” I decided immediately to do this analysis here. Mr. Saul was the CEO of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) during the APNU+AFC regime.

I wrote two columns on my experience with Mr. Saul. On February 7, 2019, titled, “CH&PA and City Engineer and you know what?” and February 15, 2021, captioned, “My experience with Lelon Saul, Trevor Benn and Colvern Venture.” No need to regurgitate the contents of those two adumbrations but a very brief summary is relevant.

During Mr. Saul’s tenure, Guyanese, including African citizens, complained to me about the impossibility of getting their documents from CH&PA. It was the identical situation at Lands and Survey (LaS). We will start with LaS.

I went to LaS to investigate complaints (yes, I have been doing journalistic investigations throughout my 34 years in the media) about persons not being allowed into the building.

I met five African-Guyanese who said that they cannot enter the building because LaS has instructed that persons must show gate security their ID card. I am talking about LaS during the reign of the APNU+AFC.

I went to visit Mr. Trevor Benn who at the time was out of the office. I was told that there was a robbery at LaS thus the requirement of an ID card. This was strange to me. If a robbery takes place in an institution, then security becomes the issue.

Gitfland experienced a robbery inside the building since then, but there is no request for an ID to enter. There is no ID requirement to enter GRA. There is no ID requirement to enter any Ministry. There is no requirement to walk into any commercial bank.

Hundreds of persons were turned away at LaS because of the ID imposition. From the time the APNU+AFC came to office, less than one percent of the applications for land lease on the Linden highway were approved between 2015 and 2020. I know three African Guyanese youths, who I met during the 2015 election campaign, never received a reply from LaS.

Now, up comes an article by Mr. Saul demanding that Afro-Guyanese receive their share of the country’s wealth. Mr. Saul has to ask himself the question – how much a role did the APNU+AFC government play in facilitating African Guyanese.

I have Mr. Saul on tape in a conversation with me. CH&PA officials did not visit the site of the applicant. Yet he was turned down. Mr. Saul agreed that the applicant was not fairly treated. I could send him a copy of the tape. Yet during his tenure, Mr. Saul did not reverse the decision. Mr. Saul is now shouting, “eureka, eureka!” He has discovered that African Guyanese need their share of the national pie.

I received dozens of complaints about the then Town Clerk, Royston King. All, I repeat, all were from African Guyanese vendors. In speaking to six vendors at the same time, they told me that King’s predecessor, an Indian woman, Carol Sooba, was far more accommodating.

To celebrate 50 years of Independence, the APNU+AFC regime intended to have the procession move off from Stabroek Market Square thereby disputing the livelihood of over 100 African vendors. There was no obsession at the time with African Guyanese’s financial life.

The chant since August 2020 is that African Guyanese must demand their share in the distribution of the country’s wealth. The sloganeers have a right chant. The question is how the recipients of the chant are taking it. Do they believe the people who are singing to them?

Should the recipients not demand from the PNC leader and people like Mr. Saul an explanation as to why African Guyanese citizens were not getting their entitlements when the APNU+AFC was in power?

I made that demand on David Hinds when he appeared on the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show. I asked him to explain the achievements of the two WPA leaders – Drs. Clive Thomas and Rupert Roopnaraine – when they acquired state power after 2015.

In case you missed his answer, here is what David turned to me and said: “You have something personal against Thomas.” I don’t, never did, but for the sake of argument, let’s say I did, it was and it still is obligatory for both David and Thomas to address African Guyanese on the achievements of the WPA from 2015-2020. Nothing less will be decent.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

 

 

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