I WISH to refer to a Kaieteur News article in its issue of Tuesday August 12th, 2014 under the caption “Halt and investigate Bai Shan Lin’s operations immediately –APNU- seeks special Sectoral meeting to probe operations.”

1. The Bai Shan Lin Logging Company is working within the Forest laws of our country and their operations must not be halted. With Elections in the air PNC/APNU Joseph Harmon is simply engaged in political campaigning aided by the Kaieteur News using Bai Shan Lin as their Political Football.
2. Harmon seems to be masquerading as a forest expert but is totally an ignoramus on the operations of Guyana’s Forest Sector spewing Fluff and Hogwash about the Forest operations of Bai Shan Lin in the Kaieteur News. But it is said that “empty barrels make the most noise” which aptly describes the PNC/APNU whose agenda is to fool the Guyanese People. But they shall fail and fail miserably.
3. Harmon is a dunce. The Parliamentary Natural Resources Sectoral Committee met a few weeks ago and now Harmon wants the speaker of the house to call an “Extraordinary meeting of the Sectoral Committee” with the presence of Bai Shan Lin’s officials to explain their operations. This is absolute balderdash. Why didn’t Harmon put to the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources all questions pertaining to Bai Shan Lin and the Natural Resources Sector when the committee met a few weeks ago? This shows that Harmon is on the campaign trail with the aid of KN. But as usual Harmon and his PNC/APNU will be victims of defeat.
4. Harmon must know that the harvesting of forest produce by all companies must be below the allowable cut and in this regard the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has its monitoring systems in place. So the photographs of Bai Shan Lin’s logs and containers in the Kaieteur news are total Non-issues. To prove what I’m saying Harmon I am inviting you to the Forest for a field walk.
5. Finally, the REDD-Monitor.org is a website that lies about Guyana’s Forest performance and matters that pertain to Guyana’s forest. Janet Bulkan usually posts comments on this website. No wonder the KN gets its erroneous information from this website. Nevertheless I am challenging both Harmon and the Kaieteur News to studiously apply themselves to the response given by Mr. James Singh, our commissioner of Forests in relation to the erroneous information about the Bai Shan Lin Company
(KN Fri Aug 8th, 2014)

Peter Persaud