Dear Editor,
The PPP/C Government has been fulfilling its 2020 campaign promises on a continuous basis since assuming office is August 2020, and neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the devastating floods can put a brake to the PPP/C’s developmental momentum, which has become an accepted norm in Guyana.
May I add another epidemic to these two, one which is attempting to frustrate this great developmental thrust -the useless Opposition.
The heartless closure of the Estates – Wales, Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon – brought untold pain, misery and suffering to over 7,000 persons and their families. Those directly affected would approximate to nearly 40,000. The domino effect did account for more than 60,000, since all businesses in the environs of these estates were severely affected and had to lay off employees.
New Amsterdam and Corriverton became ghost towns, and there was an upsurge of social ills. Many students had to drop out of school, since their parents were catapulted into immediate poverty. This worsened the situation, since the callous Coalition had removed the Cash Grant which had assisted parents to send their children to school.
Imagine, the AFC trio of Ramjattan, Cathy Hughes and Sherod Duncan were on the Alliance on the Move programme last Saturday condemning the Government’s reintroduction of that grant, when parents across the country are so happy for this great help at a time when they are confronted with not one, but two national crises.
This grant will increase each year, and the parents have confidence in the promises made by the PPP/C. This ‘Because We Care’ initiative assists everyone, unlike the Granger Bs, which were accessible only to the Coalition’s supporters.
No Government worth its salt would ever create such a wilful devastation to the lives of its people, and that happened without providing for the inevitable socio-economic fallout. But the Coalition were out for revenge, and were not satisfied with a pound of flesh; they went for the vitals. They wanted to cut the jugular vein of the PPP/C, since sugar workers were maliciously deemed to be PPP/C supporters.
Ironically, the Coalition destroyed themselves, since their criminal intent became clear for all to behold, and they will never again be trusted.
One of the promises of the PPP/C on the campaign trail, and enshrined in its manifesto, was to reopen the shuttered estates and to bring back socio-economic progress in those area by re-employing the severed workers. This began in earnest just after the swearing in of the PPP/C Government, and an allocation of $3 billion for the reopening of Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon was made, not without the usual condemnation from the Coalition.
The reopening process began at Rose Hall in September 2020, and to date nearly 500 persons have been re-employed in mostly the field and factory and to some extent the other departments. But today is a historic day for Rose Hall Estate, when close to 200 workers were offered employment at a “One Stop Shop” employment drive which saw persons from the communities nearby going through the employment process. Never were so many persons employed in any given day. They thronged the entrance of the Estate as early as 6 a.m. There was happiness in the air, and the beaming faces told the story.
Soon they will again live with dignity and self-respect. The re-employment will continue until the grinding operation commences in October 2021. It was a crying shame just last week to listen to the AFC Trio on the Alliance on the Move programme, again referring to GUYSUCO as the ‘dark hole’. They should have been at Rose Hall on this day to tell the re-employed workers that.
They must not hide in a TV station, they must face the people directly; and then they will experience what lepers went through in the biblical days. Well, I must say that they have been in leper-like self-isolation, and have been hiding behind the social media and the TV for some time now.
I must congratulate the PPP/C Government for continuing to deliver on their promises, despite so many adverse conditions. It is a manifestation of great, patriotic leadership and commitment to serve the people of Guyana.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
