…a “Green State”
Whether the next elections are held in this year or the next, what we know for sure is it’ll be preceded by the longest elections campaign in our history!! The irony, of course, is that it was kicked off by the possibility that there could’ve been the SHORTEST campaign in history, if the Constitution had been respected by the PNC-Government on the NCM, with its order that elections be held in three months.
Suddenly, Government Ministers are hurtling like yo-yos from one end of the country to the other, handing out goodies like tropical Santa Clauses, complete with the obligatory “ho-ho-ho’s”!! But unlike Santa, who moves around via low cost reindeer that subsist on lichens, this lot has access to top-of-the-line trans-p whether via the sky, water or land. Cost is no problem, of course, since it’s all at the expense of the State (meaning your taxes, and mine) under the fig leaf of “Government outreach” missions!!
But the campaign isn’t limited to “touch the flesh” initiatives…they’ve even launched what’s in all respects their manifesto-in-instalments. Their latest insert is on “The Green State Development Strategy: Vision2040”. (GSDS) Now we all know the PPP under Bharrat Jagdeo had wowed the entire world when he launched the groundbreaking “Low Carbon Development Strategy” (LCDS) that became a model for sustainable development under the constraints of climate change.
Between 2009 and 2015 (when they demitted office) the PPP had implemented a host of initiatives that gave life to the strategy. One of them was the agreement honed with Norway which led to US$250 million being transferred into our economy for holding our deforestation rate down. It was a win-win proposition for us, since our deforestation rates were well under the proposed cap and we ended up not with just the money, but an institutionalised mechanism for monitoring or deforestation rate along with sustainable programmes that benefitted our hinterland citizens.
The PNC never even mentioned in their manifesto the need for an overarching strategy on a climate-sensitive development strategy. But in trying to get their hands on the last tranche of the Norway Fund of US$80 million that was earmarked for the Amaila Falls Hydro-electric Project, they had to “confirm devotion” to the LCDS! And this was the birth of their GSDS! An new name because they just didn’t want to admit they were following the vision of Jagdeo!!
Initially, they’d proposed a 15-year implementation programme – which would run to 2032, but that’s now pushed back to 2040.
Not surprising, since all they did for the first three years was just paint Government buildings green!!
…hysteria
There’s no question that the PNC’s running scared of Jagdeo. Very scared. And it’s not too difficult to see why”: he’s been running circles around them politically and making then look like amateurs! They thought the CCJ ruling was the end of the longest serving Guyanese President – who was still just 51. But they forgot that as the General Secretary of the PPP Jagdeo has an institutionalised platform to have an input into the political system!!
So what the PNC’s now decided is to intimidate Jagdeo by stifling his right to free speech. They took a snippet of his remarks at Dr Jagan’s death anniversary at Babu Jaan, where – in the context of the Government firing 4000 Berbician sugar workers and the then incipient illegality of the PNC regime because of the NCM – he advised the audience to not make them feel welcome.
And because of this the CID just visited his office to make good on their threat to charge him with “incitement”!!
Maybe Jagdeo should’ve told the Berbicians to “mala” the PNC leaders??
…deceit
Oh what a tangled web we weave…!! The Housing Minister and her Pastor/Contractor husband are trapped in the web of deceit on the CH&PA contracts the latter received!!
Confession, they’d know, is good for the soul!! Try it!!
