Dear Editor, Police ‘shakedowns’ (demand for a bribe for an alleged moving violation) of motorists are very common on the coast of Guyana. I experienced it a few times, and countless experiences of others were related to me as I travelled around Guyana and among the diaspora. The population also feels police shakedown is a common practice, and that the Government – preceding ones also — has not done much to curb or stamp out police bribery. As many people reveal, to say elements of the police are corrupt is…
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If Trinidad can do it, so can Guyana
Dear Editor, We have upcoming oil production with significant cash guaranteed for the national development of the country, therefore the Government could look at possibly forming a national aviation department which could be quasi Government/private with majority Government owned to utilize and offset the costs of operating any new Government aviation assets. Trinidad has National Helicopters Services Limited which enabled local Trinidadians to be trained to support their oil and gas industry and to enable the government to justify the acquisition and ownership of new helicopters which operate in various…
Read MoreAppoint the GECOM Chairman now
Another constitutional crisis looms as the approaches to achieving Local Government ideals purposed by the Supreme Law of our Land, become further divorced by the methods of the APNU/AFC Government. The recent abhorrent pronouncement by Ronald Bulkan, Minister with responsibility for Local Government that the non-appointment of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commissions (GECOM) will have minimum effect, is a mouthful of gibberish which further fuels the situation and flies in the face of all sane and rational Guyanese. No doubts exist that leading up to the last General…
Read MoreThe time has come for overseas voting to be returned
Dear Editor, I presented a paper at the recent University of Guyana (UG) Diaspora Conference where I sought to both critique our current approach to Diaspora engagement and suggest some ways in which we can begin to think differently about the subject. I think there is need for a new approach to the Diaspora that conceptualises our overseas brothers and sisters as an integral part of the Guyanese nation. We must change the narrative of “us” and “them” on both sides. There is a critical mass of Guyanese who live…
Read MoreWhy is such a huge investment in Guyana’s economy being made to eventually fail?
Dear Editor, I am a firm believer that the private sector in every country must be the engine of growth and development, and this must be facilitated by an enabling environment created for the most part by governments. Guyana is no exception. I am currently in Guyana, and was on Saturday given a tour of the Sleep Inn hotel and casino on Church Street by Mr Clifton Bacchus, the owner. I had never met Mr Bacchus before, nor was I aware of the principal(s) in the Sleep Inn investment. However,…
Read MoreGranger inherited a stable economy and is making a mess of it
Dear Editor, No proper historian can doubt that the most difficult economic years for the ordinary man in post-independence Guyana were during the last years of Forbes Burnham, during the period 1984 to 1985. Unfortunately for Desmond Hoyte, he was given the unenviable task of leading the turnaround of the economy post-1985. Significantly, he chose the “Economic Recovery Program” as his tool to assert his leadership, and eventually, by 1991, did turn around the economy. We have to remember that the economy did not grow at all during the last…
Read MoreGovt stubbornly refuses to release ExxonMobil contract
Dear Editor, Many persons have been calling on the Government of Guyana to release the full text of the Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil and its partners, but the Government has refused consistently to publish this document. The previous PPP/C Administrations of former Presidents Janet Jagan, Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar also failed to disclose it and kept it secret since June 1999. So, in a sense, they are all the same. At the GYEITI ‘Outreach’, held at the Marian Academy on July 20, 2017, this question was again put…
Read MoreGuyanese Diaspora in the US could help secure free and fair elections come 2020
Dear Editor, A handful of overseas-based Guyanese assisted in the struggle for free and fair elections in Guyana during the 1970s thru 1992, when the country held its first democratic election after independence. An appeal is being made to the diaspora to help secure a fair election in 2020. The group of freedom fighters who led the overseas struggle for democratic elections is no longer enthusiastic to lead, or even join, the campaign for an election that is free and fair and free from fear, which is due by 2020,…
Read MoreBarbados PM given ultimatum to ease tax squeeze or face national shutdown
Barbados is facing the possibility of a nationwide shutdown led by the island’s leading trade unions. The Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) yesterday gave Prime Minister Freundel Stuart 48 hours to respond positively to their demands for a reprieve from the austerity measures announced in the May 30 Budget, or they would take that action. The threat came after the leaders of the four unions had earlier aborted an attempt to…
Read MoreGuyana Govt pursuing policies that are taking us to dictatorial rule
Dear Editor, Over the last two years, the APNU regime has changed the course that our country was on: open, free and democratic; and has been pursuing policies that are taking us to dictatorial rule. We have travelled that path before — during the post-Independence period, particularly in the 1970s; therefore, we are easily able to detect the signs and recognize the policies and ploys as we rapidly descend into authoritarianism. The case involving the former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs is the most recent, albeit clearest, indication…
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