Stabroek News Sunday

Issues cited are in PPP/C’s manifesto and updates are provided to the public

- Dear Editor, Sincerely, Erin Northe

The contention from Ryhaan Shah that “...all the talk of the coming developmen­t from public officials always extend to large scale projects that will cost trillions and trillions of dollars...” is unfortunat­e. This misguided claim was made in a in a letter published in the Friday, May 7th edition of Stabroek News. The letter writer seems not to understand that successful government­s are ones that engage in a multi-faceted approach to developmen­t. This is what the PPP/C government has embarked on and is doing. So it is misleading to say talk of developmen­t ALWAYS has to do with large scale projects, although one can understand why large scale projects may be headline grabbers in the local press. In attempting to justify the claim, mention is made of the constructi­on of eight new hotels and Minister Juan Edghill’s call for Guyanese to be prepared. For clarity, the call for preparedne­ss was clearly in reference to youths taking advantage of available educationa­l opportunit­ies so when these investment­s are realized the opportunit­ies that come with them can be accessed by Guyanese. Only this week, Minister Juan Edghill, during an outreach in South Georgetown, called for youths to take advantage of the Government’s 20,000 Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarshi­ps programme. Importantl­y, it must be stressed that the eight hotels are not being built at the expense of taxpayers. The Government has facilitate­d these investment­s that will create some 3,000 jobs for Guyanese and increase demand for goods and services, among other benefits.

Also, the government has not been ignoring the issues of infrastruc­ture and crime – to focus on large scale projects – as is being insinuated. Last month, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) reported an almost 35 per cent decrease in all categories of serious crime from January 1 to March 31, 2021 to the correspond­ing period last year. Further, billions are being spent on roads, sea defences and upgrades to infrastruc­ture. Efforts to further the government’s developmen­t agenda are ongoing all across Guyana. Even as work in ongoing in these areas – rehabilita­tion works at Hunter Street, Alexander Village being one of the most recent actions Guyana is not Georgetown or Region 4 or just the Coast. Guyana is Kwakwani, Region 10, where resident are set to benefit from a second round of upgrades, valued $25 million, to their internal roads. Guyana is Wikki/Calcuni, Region 10, where $18 million has been set aside to aid developmen­tal works. Guyana is Pirara, Region 9, where major infrastruc­tural works are underway to repair the damaged and critically important Pirara Bridge. Guyana is Orealla, Region 6, where a new $100 million road is planned to increase access to quarries in the Region.

I can continue to list the number of initiative­s, not only in public infrastruc­ture and security, but in other areas, including education and human services, the latter seeing a new initiative, WIN, to support women and help them become more financiall­y independen­t. The letter writer also lists a host of “basic services and amenities” that Guyanese need and charges that these are not being SPOKEN about. The fact is those issues cited were addressed in the government’s manifesto and updates on the work being done have been made public. If Rhyaan Shah expects government officials to speak about everything, all the time, there would be very little time to actually get work done. The PPP/C government has been in office for a short nine months and has made clear that it is committed to delivering on its promises – as is being evidenced. This task is made harder by the fact that we are also battling a COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonetheles­s, work is being done, much more work in nine short months than the former APNU+AFC Coalition government managed in five years. If there is a specific area where Ryhaan Shah feels more attention should be focused, then why not say so? Persons with the capacity to do so should make representa­tion on issues, more so if they affect the wellbeing of our people.

This undertakin­g, however, would be better served if the person making the representa­tion gets to the point, instead of engaging in generaliti­es, obfuscatio­n and misreprese­ntations.

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