Failure by the government to protect the sanctity of lives

May 31, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The expression ‘sanctity of the contract’ has become common verbiage by the honcho and de facto president to cover-up his government’s failure to renegotiate the oil contract as promised in the PPP campaign during the 2020 elections. Now comes the dire need for ‘sanctity of office’ for all ministers and officials of the government. Taking an oath of office to uphold the Constitution and to serve and protect the citizens of the country envisages great responsibilities and integrity, which are sadly lacking in the general gamut of this – and the previous – administration. We are not dealing with building roads, bridges, and stadiums, but with the lives of people, especially the poor and the downtrodden, which this administration cares only about at election time. With local government election due in less than two weeks, the de facto president is all over the country making promises and buying votes with the taxpayers’ money for the PPP. Win or lose, this PPP regime will not fulfill none of those election promises. So let me be blunt, only fools will vote for them in this election. Further, President who was elected to govern the country is hardly in the country. Every week he is being sent overseas by the honcho and de facto president to attend conference so that he can run the country. It is time for President Ali to wake up and see what the honcho is doing to him.

There is existing danger that pervades Guyana: unsafe buildings waiting to claim lives. Look around the Capital and its suburbs, where half the population reside and you will witness (1) overcrowding of dwellings (2) unsafe electric wiring (3) parking encumbrances (4) garbage pile up and rotting (5) poor and unclean water supply (6) traffic bottlenecks that result in hundreds of thousands of lost work hours (7) sub-standard (Chinese) electric fittings and equipment and a litany of trashy products being purchased from China. All electrical products made in China are fire hazards and all Chinese products sold to this country are sub-standard and do not last long. They are inferior and because of that they are cheap.

Almost every public building such as schools, ministries and offices have pitiful safety standards regarding fire safety. The Camp Street Prison, where17 prisoners were burnt to death a few years ago bears ample testimony to this phenomenon. Extinguishers are either non-existent or non-functional while the absence of fire hoses and sand buckets compounds the dangers of the working environment; not to mention that absence of warning alarm systems, like a simple bell, which are conspicuously missing!

It is prudent to ask: When was the last time any ministry or school undertaken a fire drill?  The answer stares you in the face as such exercises are not deemed necessary because of the lack of fire stations and firemen in the rural areas of the country. Not only do they insult the people and act as their bosses when in fact, they are supposed to be their servants, but not even one of them performs with any competence or any semblance of alacrity to educate all persons who work in both public and private sectors to be cognizant with the five primary methods that are employed worldwide in cases of fire. The acronym RACEE aptly depicts this: R=Rescue anyone in immediate danger, A= Alarm-Call the fire department, C=confine the smoke/fire by closing doors and windows, E=Evacuate all persons, E= Extinguish small fires with portable fire extinguishers. Peoples’ lives at stake and this is not negotiable. The truth is the government has failed to protect the sanctity of lives in the case of the 20 children who perished in the inferno.

Today, we have a pompous set of ministers who are extremely arrogant and boorish, more than when they were in office for 23 years. The Minister of Local Government is the most arrogant, egotistical, pig-headed, and conceited of the entire Cabinet. He should resign for his failures of the RDCs and the NDCS in all the regions of the country and for exposing himself to a seventeen-year-old young woman. And if this was not bad enough, he lied when he said he lost his phone. And although the video was live on social media, not a single female minister in the Cabinet spoke out against him. These same female Cabinet members locked their tails between their legs like what dogs do when he told a female Opposition member in Parliament that she needed a DILDO to pleasure herself sexually. So, in essence, they also are guilty of his abuse against women. Where is their solidarity? The saying that those who are blind to the facts and deaf to the issues of the day will live to regret it when shunned by the public is true because there are examples; the PPP in 2011 and 2015 and APNU+AFC in 2020.

 

Regards

Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine

Real Estate Builder

New York

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• Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine, Minister of Local Government

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