Promise to rebuild East Bank Berbice road not kept

Dear Editor,
It was reported in the Independent private media on May 5th, 2013 at the Albion Sport Complex that “President rallies supporters against opposition.” Well that rallying is most welcomed; only if it was backed with substance rather than subterfuge, deceit, propaganda, distortions and untruths? Last year President Ramotar promised the residents of East Bank Berbice that the road will be built by the time he returns in May 2013 to celebrate the Indian Arrival Day. One year later not even a pebble has been laid. But as Dem Boys seh, “Donald ain’t no fool. He avoid dem people [from East Bank Berbice] and go to Albion instead.” Now he is talking all this froth but the people want the substance. His statement that  an AFC/APNU government would ban peas, potato and dhal; mostly East Indian dishes is nothing but hogwash.
Do the people think that with a political leadership in Guyana like a President Moses Nagamootoo and a Senior Vice President and Prime Minister like Nigel Hughes, we will have “food shortages” again in Guyana?  Never! What nonsense is coming out this man’s mouth?  Hughes who is down in the Rupununi savannah  fighting for the rights of our Amerindian brothers and sisters will not support any type of food shortages? Nagamootoo is the champion in Parliament fighting for the people especially the poor and the working class against the unconscionable and uncaring PPP Ministers and he will bring food shortages to the people?  If horses can fly; then it is time to listen to President Ramotar.
Why is the President so cowardly to only flounce on stage like a “bundarie” with empty sound bites and not getting down to the real business of calling the elections?  If he is so certain of the East Indians support then he should not hesitate and call the elections immediately?  But he knows that the East Indians are not going to support his corrupt regime and despite what he and the PPP cabal think, East Indians are not stupid or docile people who will willingly listen to anyone especially one who has done very little for them in the sugar and rice industries. Actually the President is one of the principle architects who “bruk-up” the sugar industry and who wasted US $200 million of the taxpayers’ money on that white elephant sugar factory at Skeldon.
Ask the sugar workers and the rice farmers who is fighting for them day in and day out and the names Nagamootoo and Hughes will jump out of their mouths every time. Ramotar and the PPP cabal have abandoned the sugar workers and the rice farmers, in fact, they have abandoned the East Indians in Guyana for their wealthy buddies. The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal believes that no matter how badly they treat the East Indians, they would still vote for the  PPP. That is why the PPP continues to use the race card to drive fear in the East Indian population that their black brothers and sisters are their enemies and therefore not to be trusted. We are telling the East Indians that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal is their biggest enemy and not their black brothers and sisters who continue to struggle just like them to feed their families.
What has President Romatar and his team of Ministers done for the East Indians of Guyana other than to have political, social and mental control over them.  The PPP leaders are the new “massa”  in Guyana; the only difference is that they do not ride horses but turn up in very expensive PRADOs to greet their supporters whom they describe as peasants.  In the minds of most East Indians, this is what is resonating:
· Naked discrimination against the Berbicians with the high toll charges on the Berbice Bridge, all to make a few of their business buddies so much richer on the backs of the people, especially Berbicians.  The PPP is so callous to the plight of the ordinary people in Berbice and those who use the bridge that Minister Robeson Benn said in February 2013 that his Government has “no plans to reduce the tolls on the Berbice Bridge.” In blunt terms, he is telling Berbicians to shut up and pay the toll or don’t use the bridge. Isn’t this taking the East Indians for granted?
·  What happen to the East Bank Berbice road Mr. President?   What happen to the Industrial Site at Hampshire on the Corentyne and the associated jobs?  What happen to all the long hours of blackout after PPP cabal spent over $40 billion of the taxpayers’ money on GPL?  Why is the water supply brown in color like “ground coffee” in a country that spends over $15 billion on the water supply system?  This is the same PPP that criticized Burnham for the blackouts and the poor water system twenty two years ago. We want Mr. Ramotar to tell the people why there are still power blackouts today? The Whim Playfield has been dug up for years as an act of vindictiveness against the people of  that village because they supported the AFC?  These are some of  the questions on the people’s mind Mr. President, not all the rubbish from you and your cabal.
·  Did the AFC do the right thing in Parliament to cut $31 billion from the budget; absolutely yes! The workers are aware that is $31 billion less for the PPP cabal to enrich themselves and their relatives and then the same heartless PPP will ask the same East Indians whom they have abandoned to join with the other peoples of Guyana to work harder to pay it back.
·  Let us make it clear, the AFC did not follow APNU on the Budget cuts. This is pure propaganda from  President Ramotar as he continues to misrepresent and distort the facts. The AFC led from the front from day one of the budget debate.  If the President is to check the Parliamentary records, it was the AFC that submitted the first amendment to the 2013 Budget and stuck with its principle of supporting his regime if proper explanations were provided; if not – CHOP! CHOP!  This 2013 Budget has allowed the AFC to blossom as the Political Party best ready to lead Guyana in 2015 under the leadership of Nagamootoo and Hughes; the dream team which has become the PPP worst nightmare!  The PPP is definitely not scared of APNU and David Granger who remains a toothless Jaguar.
· Will a Nagamootoo and Hughes join with David Granger and APNU; as President Ramotar will want the East Indians to believe?  Let us pick some sense from the President’s nonsense! How can that be possible when the passive Granger is still stuck in the PNC balloon just like Ramotar with their racist politics?  It is the PNC/APNU and the corrupt Stalinist PPP that mobilize Guyanese based on race. The AFC does not mobilize on race; it mobilizes on issues and ideas.  Unlike the corrupt PPP cabal and the jaded PNC/APNU, the AFC will respect and serve every Guyanese fairly regardless of their race or political affiliations. So the General Secretary of the PPP is clearly being mischievous and rascal in trying to link the AFC to a political party that uses race as a tool of mobilization. Because of its racist politics, the PPP is more inclined to join with the PNC/APNU.
In the final note, we dare the President to spend the monies cut from the Budget since this case will be taken all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice. And when the Court rule that the PPP cabal illegally spent funds that were not approved by Parliament, we expect charges to be laid on those PPP operatives who illegally spent the funds.
So to all our East Indians brothers and sisters, please educate this President of your rich history and its connection with your life of struggle; your culture, your “satsang” and your “nrtya”.  East Indians are not docile, stupid people that the PPP would want us to believe!
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh