Dear Editor,
For this 2020 general and regional elections – Guyana’s ‘silly season’ – many candidates have come out of the woodwork putting themselves up as presidential candidates, who promise to work for the good of all the citizens if elected. One such presidential hopeful is hotelier, Robert Badal.

Let me side track a bit, why do politicians have the tendency to resort to the numbers game, the reference to numbers, in efforts to give credibility to their particular point? That they do, is to sound impressive, with the aim of convincing their audience, hoping to attract their sympathy and support, especially if it is an election campaign – their votes. But often, these numbers are ‘blahed blahed’, without any credible explanations or proof to support their actual existence, or intended, if it be the latter.

Linden has had the dubious honour of attracting a certain number, that of “2000”, the number of jobs to be created in that ‘then-depressed’ township, that former PPP/C president threw as a sop at a campaign rally, during his 2011 presidential campaign rally.

DID IT OCCUR? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Editor, this was plainly an act of a grievous political insult, intended to play on the economic emotions of a people, African – Guyanese, whose bauxite-producing township, once the epicentre of the highest wages paid in this country, with the largest concentration of the nation’s highest skilled and technologically-trained personnel, was deliberately reduced to beggardom by Bharat Jagdeo, during his presidency, when he closed the industry down.
Of course, Ramotar had an opportunity to make good on his “2000’’ promise. But what did Lindeners receive in return? State repression, replete with bullets and dead bodies, as the townspeople protested against his government’s intent to bring the town into the normal electricity grid that they could not have afforded, because of the then-existing high unemployment.

Fast forward, to 2020, year of another national election, and it is a certain Badal gentleman, leader of a newly-formed political party, Change Guyana, and contestant in the imminent national elections, who has also held out the offer of ANOTHER “2000” jobs, to be offered to the townspeople, pointing out that the town’s potential has never been fulfilled.
Without any apologies, this is yet another piece of glaring political fraud that like Ramotar, in 2011, is seeking to garner votes. Though it is normal for such promises to be made on an election campaign trail, in this instance it has to be seen as different, given the socio-economic state of affairs of the township and its people, during the pre-2015 brutal years of the PPP/C regime rule, and the reduction of this township to beggar status. One wonders whether Badal, with all of his multi-millions, did ever consider investing in business in Linden then, when Lindeners were asking for their dried tongues to be wet with just a little water from the thirst of a then crippling economic depression. Did he sound his voice when Lindeners were pleading to the then government for assistance? Or was he the among the numerous business voices who were condemning the protesting townspeople, as terrorists, and as endangering their business prospects, and hindering their transit route via the township?

This extends appropriately into his recent appearance at the University of Guyana, where he accused the coalition government of “not doing enough for the poor.’’
Editor, this claim, spurious and without any foundation, must first begin by examining Badal, in terms of the saying, “To whom much is given, much is expected,” and his corporate responsibility, as well as an employer – a hotelier, and maybe other businesses.
If Badal had any consideration for the welfare of his hotel workers, there would not have been repeated complaints and industrial protest, for better working conditions, led by their union within the premises of his hotel. Further, with a hotel which more than commands a super view of the entire Georgetown and its environs, one is certain that Badal would have been aware of persons living in shacks, not too far from his internationally-known business. Would it not have been a humane and kind gesture, for him even to partner with, say, Food for the Poor, to build homes for some of those squatters? Did he ever consider offering employment to any of these poor persons who may have approached his Human Resource Department?

Again, with his former office as chairperson of the Guyana Power and Light(GPL), proximal to one of the city’s depressed areas, has he ever held a Christmas party for the poor little children, or distribute kites to them at Easter?

The answers to those questions are A RESOUNDING NO, and the reasons are not difficult to understand – the Badals of this country are about themselves. They do not comprehend the poor as part of the socio-economic landscape as contributors, partakers, or benefitting from the national pie. As a matter of fact, the latter category is seen entirely as expendables, to be taken advantage of because of their socio-economic circumstances.
It is the same approach which Ramotar would have used in 2011 when he promised his “2000” jobs. In fact, had he and his government truly been genuine about turning around the fortunes of the bauxite town, they would have first, given the townspeople the right of choice of television channels, rather than deliberately confining them to the then PPP/C government-controlled Channel 11. It took the coalition government to give that democratic right to Linden.

If Badal is truly realistic about his accusation of the coalition government not doing enough for the poor, then he must commence at the 1992-2015 period of the PPP/C governance which not only criminally discriminated against a specific section of the nation, but which also evidenced the socio-economic resources being transferred to one side of the nation, with all the brutal consequences for this segment, and other poor, that such entailed. Now, even though there has been a change of government, how could it have been possible for an all solutions, to remedy the grinding dislocation which persons, outside the pale of PPP/C governance consideration, would have suffered? But, despite the challenge of an economy that had depended on narcotics for its daily sustenance, portraying a false front, the government has been able to wean the nation from this criminal veneer, and enact programmes of empowerment for the less fortunate. For example, in the major regions, there have been on-going programmes for at-risk youths, that will remove them from the possibility of falling prey to sub-social acts, while our womenfolk have been seeing the light of day because of the socio-economic impact on their lives of such government-sponsored endeavours. Never before, has there been so much enthusiasm and hope among formerly-perceived non-hopers, as they grasp the opportunities that are being offered. But I will put it in a nutshell: the government’s programmes, of an on-going nature, of socio-economic empowerment is designed for young people especially, but also cater for other chronological categories, which will set them on the course of entrepreneurship, as have been rapidly occurring, thereby making them and their families self-sufficient, thus removing them from the known tradition of rapacious employers. One only has to look at the magnificent HEYS programme, which have so far benefitted over 3000 young people from the hinterland, who are now businesspersons in their own right. Badal is here reminded, that most of this number – not from his nebulous 2000 – were once paid by the former PPP/C regime, to spy on their own communities.

The Badals can fool no one but themselves. At least not Lindeners, who fully understand from which direction their salvation, hope and renewal have been flowing, since May 2015. As a matter of fact, Badal have been known to complain of only receiving a reported 53 per cent of the concessions requested from government for the expansion of his Le Meridien. In other words – he wanted the whole hog. Has he stopped to consider what such a percentage, had he had to pay the actual sum, would do for the poor of this country, in terms of further initiatives for this category which he has suddenly embraced? How can the Badals profess such great love and concern for the poor and unfortunates of this country, when they display such gross selfishness, of a dangerous opportunistic kind?

Regards,
Earl Hamilton