SASENARINE Singh, in a recent letter to the newspapers, was again on his favourite hobby horse of trying to pour scorn on Guyana’s move towards a low carbon economy.

He remains almost singular in not seeing anything positive in the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which continues to be hailed as a model for other rainforest countries in the fight against catastrophic climate change.

It seems as though, for personal reasons, he is very bitter with President Bharrat Jagdeo and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government. But he should not allow this to cloud his judgement about the LCDS and the historic partnership agreement Guyana has reached with Norway on coping with climate change.

He is being very emotive on the issue and therefore fails to see the strategic nature of the LCDS which is a development strategy that is moving forward.

It was the soundness of the LCDS that led to the milestone memorandum of understanding between Guyana and Norway that has been hailed as a well thought-out model of partnership between a developed and a developing country that can be applied elsewhere in the world.

And this is further testimony to the quality of leadership that Guyana is continuing to earn plaudits for on the international scene.

Since its launch in June this year, Mr. Singh was one of the staunchest critics of the LCDS. He, among other things, claimed that it was a pipe dream which would not get national and international support.

Well, he has been proven wrong and now that the LCDS has been firmly recognised as one of the first national scale model for low carbon development in the world, he is trying to shoot it down with shallow arguments.

He talks about the impact of the LCDS on mining and forestry; but the stakeholders in these sectors are positioning themselves for optimum performance within existing laws.

It is good that Mr. Singh is spending so much time studying the LCDS and the MOU with Norway, and it is to be hoped that he will eventually come to see their value to the development of the country.

Given his obvious bitterness at the government and the President, Mr. Singh seems to be suffering from an acute case of sour grapes at the international recognition and high profile that Mr. Jagdeo has earned for himself and the country.
A strong bilious wash may do Mr. Singh some good in his cold roost in the United Kingdom.
L. DANIEL