Dear Editor,
The complaint by some ‘organisations’ that the country is moving at a “bewildering pace” would be laughable if it were not true. Guyana is moving forward at a pace; 10,000- plus house lots were delivered in 2021, after the Granger period of five years when no new schemes were developed and when existing lots were seized and redistributed.
The revenues from Guyana’s oil sales languished in an account in the United States, and would have stayed there as long as Granger was in power. These funds have now been withdrawn and put into use for the betterment of all Guyanese.
The complaint by the ‘organisations’ (we will come back to this word) includes fears about who will be appointed to manage the Natural Resource Fund and who has oversight. There will never be a consensus on who should be appointed to manage the Fund or have oversight of the Fund. Although it should be clear that the Guyanese people should be the beneficiaries of the Fund, it seems some in Guyana believe the funds should sit dormant in the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, boosting that nation’s bottom line; a shameless display of Colonial Mentality, if there ever was one.
My suggestion is that President Ali should scrap the NRF Act and put the money into our Consolidated Fund, where Parliament has oversight and the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act governs our actions.
Now to these ‘organisations’, among them is the Guyana Human Rights Association. There are more words in the GHRA title than members, but the title has a power that is difficult to ignore. Who among us is against human rights? Who is willing to be perceived as opposing human rights? And this is the shield from behind which one man, who rarely represents anything other than an anti-progressive, pro-colonial mindset, slings his mud and arrows. Words and titles are powerful things, but are subject to misuse and misappropriation.
Mike McCormack is a British citizen who found comfort here during the Burnham era (when Guyanese were fleeing the shores). McCormack is an avowed Catholic, and has this in common with every executive officer of Transparency Institute Guyana Inc (TIGI), who make a point of including this odd fact in their biographies on the website. President Fred Collins lists Administrator of Methodist Mission, Compton Meerabux is a Catholic priest, Vedawattie Ram lists her work in pioneering the Guyana Chapter of Child Evangelism as her defining accomplishment, and Alfred Bhulai goes the extra yard to claim status as a Disciple of Jesus Christ. We can assume that the Ursuline Sisters are also catholic, and are driven by the same sense of righteousness as GHRA and TIGI; for, make no mistake, we are dealing with religious fanaticism in an albeit subtle form.
There are numerous Christians/Catholics among the Ministers in President Irfaan Ali’s Cabinet: Bishop Edghill is the obvious, and the lot includes Nigel Dharamlall, Priya Manickchand, Hugh Todd, Kwame McCoy, Oneidge Walrond, Gail Teixeira, Susan Rodrigues, and Collin Croal (apologies if I missed anyone), but the religious right seems obsessed with the President, who is the only Muslim leader in the Western Hemisphere.
The year is 2022, and we are post-COVID; the future beckons those with vision; there is no willingness to spend time and effort listening to bigoted voices who want to see Guyana rooted to the spot, or return to the Burnham era.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh
Devotee of Hanuman
