Category: Letters

Dear Editor, Dear Editor, An opinion survey I conducted for the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) last week found that the overwhelming majority of the nation wants President David Granger to appoint, without any further delay, the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission from the latest (third) list of six nominees submitted by Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo last month.Gecom has been without a Chair since last February, when Dr Steve Surujbally resigned from the position. The Commission’s critical election work has been largely suspended since that time. Jagdeo…

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Dear Editor, I refer to an article captioned “Local Government Commission (LGC) will be given some consideration – Granger”, which appeared in sections of the media. The article stated, “Granger told reporters at State House, when asked about the establishment of the commission, that he was abroad for about a fortnight, resulting in this and other matters being held up.” For the record, the PPP submitted its nominations to the LGC since July 2016, and Granger being out of the country for two weeks has very little to do with…

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Dear Editor, President Granger did not mention the phrase (tax reform) once in his “2015 manifesto” message, while his PM Candidate stated that his team “proposes to restructure the tax recovery system, not to oppress the wage earner, but to catch the tax dodger”. But after some two and a half years, although the Government’s Tax Reform Committee made sweeping recommendations, tax reform appears to have been relegated to the back burners. I want to focus on one particular set of tax measures against the backdrop of the Guyana Business…

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Dear Excellency President Granger, First, let me thank you for your humanitarian suggestion to invite to Guyana our Caribbean brothers and sisters from Dominica, who have suffered from the ravages of Hurricane Maria. I would like to think that you would hold community meetings to hear the views of citizens, because they are the ones who would have to host the Dominicans. More than anyone else, YOU should be aware that Guyana is facing a socio-economic crisis. The closure of some sugar factories has caused increased unemployment. Employers would soon…

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Dear Editor, Assuming the accuracy of the statistics provided (in another section of the media on 10/1/17), Demerara High Court trials are in a state of serious dysfunction. Of the 167 cases listed on the docket, only 28 cases made it to trial, of which six ended in a jury verdict. Of the six, one murder and one rape case ended in conviction, with the jury returning not guilty verdicts in the other four. The rest of the cases reaching court were disposed of administratively, either by changing pleas from…

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Dear Editor, In his 1993 Budget speech, the Senior Minister of Finance, Asgar Ally described the hopelessness that the PPP inherited from the PNC after the 1992 general election, saying: “The task we have inherited can be compared with that of a man who is required to climb a mountain with both his hands and feet tied and a heavy haversack on his back.” One year earlier during his 1992 Budget speech, Carl Greenidge, who served as Guyana’s Minister of Finance under successive PNC administrations for nine years (1983 to…

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Dear Editor, I am very much unsurprised at the recent desperate tirades by Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, as he made another futile attempt to personally attack the good name and character of the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party and Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo. While it is cognisant that any response to Mr Ramjattan would dignify his utterances, it would be remiss if I didn’t point out that such reckless, spurious and juvenile outbursts have become characteristic of him and demonstrative of his indisputable monumental…

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Dear Editor, A Education Ministry report of November 6, 2008, revealed that, up to 2007, 13,844 students had dropped out of the primary school system, representing four per cent of the national population. The report continued: “… according to Evelyn Hamilton, Chief Planning Officer of the Ministry of Education, the situation is much worse, particularly in primary and secondary schools in hinterland areas, like Region One [Barima-Waini] and Region Nine [Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo], where rates are more than tripled.” However, the previous Administration had significantly lowered those figures when the…

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Dear Editor, A couple dozens of Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trinis, joined by a few nationals of other countries, rallied mid-afternoon on Saturday, September 16, in Richmond Hill in support of DACA (Deferred Action on Child Arrivals) which was terminated by President Trump on Sept 6. Meanwhile, four Indo-Guyanese lawyers in Richmond Hill held a legal clinic, or session, to assist DACA people. DACA is a limited federal programme that was designed to protect immigrants who came to the US illegally as children (known as Dreamers) with their parents. There are some…

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Dear Editor, The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) finds it incumbent to respond to Mr Gobin Harbhajan’s letter, titled “Not doom and gloom for sugar workers”, which appeared in sections of the media on September 16, 2017. Mr Harbhajan seemed very upset by the GAWU-organised march and public meeting which was held at Corriverton, Berbice on September 12, 2017. Like Mr Harbhajan says, “action speaks louder than words”, and quite clearly the workers, by their actions, have demonstrated that they are opposed to plans by the APNU/AFC Government…

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