Well, the President’s showing he’s a man of his word! He promised he’d be taking the Office of the President to the people, and he did just that for the second time; this time, in Region 3! Did you see those lines snaking into the Leonora Track and Field Stadium?? Looked more like pythons than snakes!! Giant pythons!! Five thousand issues were addressed, so there had to’ve been TWICE that number present, don’t you think?? Since Pressie lives right there in Leonora – a stone’s throw from the stadium – your Eyewitness wonders if he has lines waiting in front of his house when he visits from State House?!!
But your Eyewitness has a question. It’s great that Pressie’s showing the flag and bringing Government to the grassroots, but don’t we have MPs representing each region?? And as best as he remembers, Reg 3 got two of those: exactly what are these MPs doing for the voters in the Region, when at least TEN THOUSAND of them had unaddressed ISSUES?? For the record, there were 72,000 voters, of which the PPP snagged 47,000!! Shouldn’t those MPs be doing exactly what Pressie’s been forced to do??
Hey!! It wasn’t Pressie on his lonesome who solved those 5000 issues; he brought representatives of the various agencies. Doesn’t take rocket science to figure out these MPs can do the same!
Let’s face it folks: It’s very laudable for Pressie to be extending himself like this, but there’s a number of potential problems – not the least being that Pressie might just suffer from burnout, even though he’s a young man. The human body can take only so much.
The second problem is: his Ministers are getting away with murder!! They can just throw back, counting on Pressie to rescue them. And thirdly, he may foster the belief in the ordinary man that ONLY Pressie can solve their problems!!
The other concern your Eyewitness has is: with the oil industry taking off so rapidly, Pressie needs to have time to focus his attention on the big picture – as to what’s ahead – rather than becoming bogged down with the minutiae of individual problems at the grassroots.
Then there are the political challenges in implementing his One Guyana vision. He’s been doing a great job, but it gotta be taxing!!
It’s your Eyewitness’s expectation that categorisation of the problems/issues that have come up would be used for the Regional Ministers to hone in on the suggested working outreaches – which they should now embark on immediately!! These ministers now have a model for their Regional work. The President has set the bar – let’s see if they can not only match, but surpass it. After all, there are FORTY of them to Pressie’s ONE!!
…fathers
Your Eyewitness knows this argument as to whether Jagan or Burnham’s the “Father of the nation” is far from over!! It’s one of those things like “who’s the best batsman”!! Everyone got their own measuring stick!! Well, one fella wrote a letter suggesting we take a completely new tack – considering other worthies!! Makes sense, doesn’t it?? Are there folks who might’ve surpassed Jagan and Burnham??
The fella proposed Critchlow!! Yeah, the trade unionist whose statue fronts the Public Buildings. So wha’d he do for Guyana?? Well, he formed the first Trade Union in the entire Commonwealth – not counting Britain, of course!! That’s a biggie!! But two challenges: his Dock Workers’ union didn’t cover a cross section of the country, even though in the Indian-Guyanese community he was initially known as the “Black Crosby” because he represented some of their problems. Unfortunately, he got involved in an organization that saw Indians as a threat, and soon refused to support the universal franchise that would’ve allowed them to vote.
Sorry. Next??
…contortions
Your Eyewitness finds the contortions – verbal and physical – of the fringe elements trying to force the Opposition Leader into their hysteria hysterical!! Thing is, they’re getting no traction, and look like Chicken Little crying, “The Sky is falling…!”
