Category: Eyewitness

Opposition sabotage We didn’t need a poll to tell us the opposition’s been sabotaging the government’s development programme. But it’s good to know the NACTA poll confirmed that a whole lot of ordinary folks in the street have their eyes wide open when it comes to the stunts the opposition have been pulling. They’ve obviously wised up to the yawning chasm between their ‘sweet talk’ on the campaign train and the reality of their mean and vindictive actions on the budget. I mean, how could they ever justify voting Gy$…

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Ultimatum The opposition has served an ultimatum on the government. Unless Rohee retires within “48 hours”, they’re coming out in “mass protests” in the city. Both APNU and AFC made the threat. Well, Nigel Hughes, chairman of the AFC, did – leader Ramjattan and Deputy Chairman Nagamootoo were nowhere to be seen. Benschop substituted. Guyanese should know by now what ‘mass protests’ in Georgetown means. It’s a code for them to literally flex their muscles – with the street and criminal riff-raff sure to quickly take control. You should know…

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Do as I say The GPF just launched another Junior Officers’ Course. CoP (ag) Leroy Brumell, fresh from his testimony before the Linden Commission of Inquiry (CoI), addressed the future police leaders. He advised they have to be “honest and professional” in all their endeavours. But Brummel has been around long enough to know by now that actions speak louder than speeches from a stage — especially to impressionable young people. What were some of Brummel’s recent pertinent actions? Well, right off the bat, we had the CoP (ag), responding…

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Forked tongue Justice Cecil Kennard has just been sworn in as the last member of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Linden shootings. So you’d think we’re moving towards closure on this issue, wouldn’t you? But perish the thought. In one of the most egregious examples of reneging on their word, APNU announced they’re not satisfied with the terms of reference (ToR) of the CoI!! You heard that right! This is the same APNU that negotiated with the government for interminable weeks, making one demand after another. All to…

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Under fire The police are once again under fire. This time, in the wake of a raid they conducted in Agricola to thwart a robbery being plotted. As one critic, APNU’s Mark Archer conceded, this had to be the result of good intelligence. When the police got to the scene, there were conflicting reports about what happened. The police claimed they came under fire and responded, killing one young man and wounding another. They recovered one revolver at the scene. Then the opposition politicians jumped right in. AFC’s Nigel Hughes…

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Destroying Guyana In our column recently, we carried, a blurb on the Muckraker’s badmouthing of the signing of the contract for the construction of the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project (AFHEP). It followed a story on their total fabrication about a primary school in Moleson Creek. The Muckraker felt it necessary to carry a foreign piece claiming that the construction company China Railway First Group (CFRG) was not reliable because a section of a bridge it had constructed in China had collapsed. We’d called the story ‘slanted’ because it implied…

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Executive prerogative David Granger and the APNU sound like the proverbial “broken record”. (Incidentally, do young folks nowadays know what’s a broken “record”? It’s like a scratched CD! – Just keeps repeating a line most annoyingly!) They’re back whining that they ought to be on a “Tripartite Budget Committee” to craft the budget. Can you believe this ‘eye pass’? Who do they think they’re fooling? What is a budget? It represents in a “dollar-and-cents” sense, the vision of the executive being implemented – based on the resources available to it.…

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Neutral? We’ve missed our old punching bag, Sase “Thunderbolt” Singh. The bounder who now hangs out in NY, seems to have taken a longer vacation than his pals who hogged the AFC seats in Parliament. Haven’t seen head nor hair from him in months. Jumped ship, Thunderbolt? Anyhow, his letter-writing pen pal, Asquith Rose (yes, “Asquith!) seemed to have parted ways and company with him. Of recent, Rose (‘by any other name’ than Asquith) has been writing with a “Harish S Singh”. We’d wondered whether Thunderbolt might have assumed a…

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Last Saturday, the police had to remove the latest ‘tent’ of the so-called “People’s Parliament”, erected in the work-in-progress park opposite the Public Buildings. Did you see photos of the structure?? This was a very fancy-smancy undertaking – precisely aligned and fitted aluminium struts bolted onto the concrete posts. Throw on some zinc sheets and you had a house better than half the structures in Sophia. A week or so ago, the police had taken down one of those portable collapsible camp- style tents and told the organisers to scram.…

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Sponging The opposition captured a one-seat majority in Parliament and declared the beginning of a “new dispensation”. So what differences have they introduced – apart from hogging control of the Speakership and all the committees? I mean there’s nothing new about that old Burnhamite grab for total control, is there? With two admirers of the Kabaka – Trotman as Speaker and Granger as opposition leader, who expected different? Not to mention those two unreconstructed Stalinists Ramjattan and Nagamootoo bringing up the rear. They didn’t change anything about duty-free vehicles, did…

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