Dear Editor,
A new coronavirus is causing a deadly global SARS-like infection. It started in China. Cases have now been documented in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the USA. With global travelling and a human-to-human transmission mode, no one knows the trail of death and serious illnesses that this new bug will bring. Volda Lawrence is too busy inciting people. Not a word from her. PAHO/WHO decided to hold a press conference on Friday to update and bring awareness to the Guyanese people. The Guyana Government agreed to partner with them. But this has been cancelled to a later date. It is not PAHO/WHO’s responsibility. It is the responsibility of our Government, through the Ministry of Public Health. As usual, they are missing in action (MIA). Were I Minister, I would already have updated Guyanese and already taken the lead. PAHO/WHO and CARPHA would have been my technical support, not leading any action in Guyana.
Incidentally, Diamond Regional Hospital is falling apart. It is a disgrace. Nothing works. On Friday morning, every outpatient needing lab tests were being sent to private labs. Volda is nowhere to be seen, MIA. We have an MIA Government.
In the last several days, horrible examples of school violence have emerged. Guyanese everywhere are expressing disgust. School violence is a real thing. Every Guyanese has a fundamental right to think their children are safe in school. Every child has an inalienable right to a safe school zone. Teachers and other school personnel have a fundamental right to safe zones in schools. Unfortunately, our schools are no longer safe and free havens. Parents have become anxious about the safety of their children. Teachers are demanding greater security in school zones.
Nicolette Henry is MIA. She still sits in the Minister’s office, instructs the staff, drives in the fancy vehicles assigned to the Minister of Education. She has said not a word. Previously, in response to another violent action in a city school, Ms Henry insisted these things are normal and “happen all the time”. If there was some event like giving out computers and bicycles, rare things for this Government, she would show up. The fact is, anytime it matters, Ms Henry is missing in action (MIA).
But MIA is the story of the David Granger-led APNU/AFC Government. People lost confidence in their Government because, among other grave things, they are always MIA. There is the increasing violence against women (VAW), another global problem. Guyanese have a right to expect Government to act. How many times have we heard Mr Granger address this issue? Only once in five years that I know of. If there were other times, it is still too few because this is a national priority. He has been MIA on this issue, as are Khemraj Ramjattan, Volda Lawrence, Amna Ally, George Norton and all the relevant senior Government officials.
RUSAL announced two days ago that another 140 employees have been sent home because their operations have been affected by a shortage of fuel. Where are Raphael Trotman and Keith Scott, the relevant APNU/AFC senior officials? They are MIA. RUSAL a few months ago had sent home several hundred workers. It was only after Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP mounted pressure on behalf of the workers that Trotman visited the workers. It was amusing, but good, looking at Trotman handing over a check for $100,000 to a small hotdog vendor. Yet, for five years, he was MIA. He did not see the struggles of workers who lost their jobs, or small vendors struggling to make a living. He has never visited a sugar worker who is still not working. But it is election time and they do not have a positive track record to talk about. So they are clutching at straws. The big, blazing story of him donating to a small hotdog vendor now exposes them as charlatans who only discover working-class people during elections.
Livestock farmers got up last week to discover GuySuCo and the Government were bulldozing them out of their livelihood in Mon Repos. Without notice, GuySuCo simply moved in and took possession of the land farmers have been occupying for decades. It was heartless that farmers were informed by bulldozers. These are not wealthy people. They work hard, struggle to put food on the table and now that survival opportunity has been cruelly extricated from them. MIA Noel Holder has no concern. Ronald Bulkan is MIA. The whole APNU/AFC is MIA.
In Black Bush Polder where APNU/AFC has held two public meetings the last week, one just yesterday in Zambia, of the five irrigation pumps in Mibikuri, only two are presently functioning because of fuel shortage. The farmers are struggling for irrigation water. Where is Noel Holder? Where is Bulkan? Just three days ago, Moses Nagamootoo with a hundred security personnel, with a convoy of close to 10 official vehicles, with several busloads of people from New Amsterdam, Manchester, Nurney and other places showed up at Whim. He was not concerned about the Black Bush farmers. He was showing off there were a couple of hundred people in adulation of the son of the soil in Whim, never mind, the no-show Whim residents. APNU/AFC is MIA as the Black Bush farmers struggle for irrigation water while three irrigation pumps stand still because there is no fuel.
I can fill a big book with the shameful list of APNU/AFC MIA stories. Incidentally, the farmers in Mahaicony who lost their land for at least two years because of salt water that came in from the breached sea defence are still waiting to see David Granger, David Patterson, Noel Holder or any one of them. Just like Granger landed in the middle of Hopetown with his helicopter, these farmers are hoping the helicopter will bring Mr Granger to them. But this is truly an MIA Government.
Sincerely,
Dr Leslie Ramsammy
