…in governance
As part of his job, your long suffering Eyewitness has to plough through all four dailies to be informed about what’s going on or going down. Yesterday, something jumped out at him: in all the papers – EXCEPTING THE GUYANA TIMES – the Government had placed a centre page spread extolling their “accomplishments” in the year they’ve been in office.
Why would the Government blank GTimes? To paraphrase Shylock, is not GTimes a Guyanese paper? Does it not inform the people? Does it not pay its taxes? Does it not deserve equal treatment with any other Guyanese newspaper? Or does the “press freedom restored” the ad boasts about allow the withholding of Government ads to this paper.
Your Eyewitness understands the ad wasn’t placed by GINA as is normally the case – but by the Office of the Prime Minister. So was the ad withheld because this column had been giving its candid opinion of the Prime Minister’s performance in taking care of his onerous responsibilities? This Eyewitness doesn’t think so, but where there is smoke there might be fire, nuh?
Even though his paper was slighted, this Eyewitness holds firm to the sentiment in Lincoln’s masterful Gettysburg Address: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in…” And in that spirit he’ll look at some of the enumerated “accomplishments” the Government claims in the ad.
“New Markets for rice”??? Really? Where? The one in Jamaica where the faction in the Rice Producers Association backing the coalition during the last elections, complained it was a “giveaway”? And done without the approval of the Guyana Rice Development Board? So what about the one Nagamootoo found in Mexico? Shouldn’t the Govt take up Irfaan Ali’s suggestion to negotiate back for the OLD market in Venezuela where we got TWICE the world market price?
“Increased salaries for public servants”? Jeez!! Whoever put this in the ad certainly has a helluva lot of chutzpah. Or thinks Government workers are idiots. After giving themselves a 50 per cent raise, doubling the number of Ministers and slashed the number of parliamentary sittings by 3/4 than the comparable period last year – they want to mention the pittance public servants received? Over to Lincoln Lewis, for them!!
“New land for agriculture”? What “new” land? The 14,000 acres that’ll be available by October when they shut down Wales?
“Political victimisation abolished”?? They better have a chat with those 1972 Amerindian youths thrown out of work in one fell swoop.
…after audits?
We were told the Government spent at least $300 million on the audits of the 30 State agencies to find the “$500 billion” they’d claimed the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) “siphoned off”. Well they haven’t found evidence to even charge a single official (Minister Webster’s charge wasn’t because of any audit) and their supporters are getting antsy. After all, they were going to get “significant raises” from the aforementioned “$500 billion”!! They got Larwah!
But by now citizens have seen the method to the Government’s apparent madness: the audits are just to “throw talk” at the PPP and their officials. The latest one released was the National Insurance Scheme. As usual, they didn’t have the courtesy to afford the outgoing Chairman of the Board to respond to the wild allegations. Just the usual hatchet job and as the accused respond, since they’ve been already hung out to swing in the wind –the damage’s already done.
Where’s our Zola who could write a Guyanese, “J’accuse”?
…on fire fighting?
When it rains, it pours…and this Eyewitness isn’t talking about the May/June rains, but the Gafoors fire and its effect on the economy. But why were the firemen trying to “out” the fire in the bond? That was a lost cause.
Even fellas who “burn cane” to be cut, could’ve told them to contain the fire by isolating and dousing a swathe AWAY from the inferno.
