PROMINENT physician Dr Rohan Somar and Chartered Professional Accountant Tameshwar Lilmohan were among the four persons appointed Ministerial Advisers on Diaspora Affairs at Sunday night’s Alliance For Change (AFC) Appreciation Dinner and Dance held at the Woodbine Banquet Hall in Toronto.
The other two, who were also presented with their Certificates of Instruments by Vice-President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, on behalf of President David Granger, were Earth Marshall and Ron Alert.
Dr Somar, Marshall and Alert are members of the AFC New York Chapter, while Lilmohan serves in Toronto. The appointment of the four followed an undertaking by President Granger during his visits to both Canada and New York prior to, and after, the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections which saw the APNU+AFC coalition government emerging victorious at the polls.
The Guyanese leader had also promised to convene a conference of the Diaspora prior to Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations in May 2016.
In delivering the charge to the four, Ramjattan said both the government and the AFC had recognised their outstanding contributions over the years, and their pivotal roles which led to the formation of a new coalition government.
Dr Somar has been chairman of the New York/New Jersey Chapter of the AFC for the past nine years, and is also Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine at Saint Clare’s Health System, New Jersey.
Lilmohan, who is also a long-serving member of the AFC in Toronto, is the current chairman of the body, and along with other members were instrumental in organising last weekend’s professional and business forum, and the appreciation dinner and dance.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who along with his wife Sita were also in attendance, hailed the efforts of both the Toronto and New York Chapters, and assured those in attendance that “things are better now” in Guyana than what was inherited from the previous administration.
Describing the coalition government as a “Guyana cook-up”, Nagamootoo declared, “We have a very good working relationship, despite the efforts and racist policies of some to set David against Moses.”
According to the prime minister, Guyana can be assured of strong no-nonsense leadership between himself and President Granger.
Nagamootoo insisted that the new government had kept most of its pre-election promises, among them the increases in public servants salaries, higher old age pension, the proposed lowering of the Berbice Bridge river tolls which is still in limbo, raising the bar of persons paying income tax, and the subsequent introduction of river taxis in Berbice.
Government, he said, intends to look at the bigger picture and not at the antics of the opposition.
Touching briefly on the contentious salary increases granted to ministers and parliamentarians, Nagamootoo sought to justify them, saying that all the present government was doing was trying to correct the deficiencies of the past.
He also disclosed that the Granger administration will not turn a blind eye to the strict implementation of ministers and parliamentarians declaring their assets, and this would include any business he/she owns. He was also adamant that there will be absolutely no corruption as was tolerated under the PPP/C government. Nagamootoo also promised that investigations into the alleged wrongdoings of opposition members will be ongoing, and those found culpable will be charged and placed before the courts.
Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin also formed part of the four-man Guyana ministerial delegation.