Home Letters APNU/AFC Ministers are “celebrities” costing taxpayers $50M per hour to interact
Dear Editor,
The APNU/AFC coalition Government’s recently held outreach in Region Six was a testimony of its eroding support and its failure to resolve issues that are confronting residents of Region Six.
The President (ag) Moses Nagamootoo and his Cabinet’s sudden diversion to a Cabinet meeting at State House, New Amsterdam, was a deliberate tactic. This was a calculated strategy to delay the Ministers in order to avoid embarrassment, knowing that residents would not respond to the outreach and at the same, protest instead of meeting with the Government Ministers.
The APNU/AFC coalition Government’s gimmickry of, “Bringing the Government to the people” is a very expensive venture with no positive results. The millions expended on these outreaches is a desperate political campaign attempting to support a collapsed regime.
The Ministers reluctantly arrived at Tain Campus at approximately 15:00h, forcing their way and almost hitting the protesters on the roadside because of the speed of these Ministers’ vehicles. This incident was seen by police officers at the location and was brought to their attention too. Imagine, only staff and APNU/AFC activists were there to receive the Ministers, they were forced to leave the location in less than an hour because persons were not there to interact with them.
The President (ag) Moses Nagamootoo, had his staff do a photoshoot to show that he was meeting a resident while the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, and REO of Region Six Kim Williams Stephen were speaking with two ministerial advisers in the Communities Ministry attached to the region, Mr Baker and Mr Butcher. The Guyana Chronicle newspaper captioned that as Minister and REO reaching with residents. That was so blatantly desperate and disgraceful.
On the contrary, when the PPP/C was in Government, they reached out to the masses during outreaches. In 2010, President Jagdeo said during an interview that of all his duties, he enjoys meeting with the people in the nation more and that it is during those outreaches, when he can interact with the people with an ambience of camaraderie and an atmosphere of relaxation and speak with them with cordiality on a one-to-one basis is where he gets to learn first-hand whether the systems the Government has put in place are successful and where and how the breakdown occurs, if and when it does.
This method by the PPP/C Government was responsible for 23 years of good governance and development in Guyana. When we reflect on where we were and how we emerged with a young man thrust unceremoniously into the leadership of a nation in the throes of political upheaval, infrastructural devastation, bankruptcy and severe social dislocations, coupled with problematic neighbours and a distrustful, uncooperative international dynamic, which saw its major industries taking a battering in the global marketplace with the added advantage of an international identity paralleling that of Jonestown, we must complement the PPP/C Government and the stewardship of Bharrat Jagdeo.
The APNU/AFC coalition Government is definitely failing the people in three basic ways, as Guyanese are ruefully discovering,
1. The Government is failing to deliver vital services, these services can be delivered but it is done poorly and expensive while favouring political cronies
2. The Government is crunching Guyanese people under their feet as Government officials accumulate more power, wealth with no transparency or accountability
3. The Guyanese people show that trust in the Government has sunk to historic lows and is still dropping.
These basic failures have shown that the APNU/AFC coalition Government cannot rectify or regain the trust of the people.
Regards,
Zamal Hussain