I write in response to a missive from Ms. Sheila Holder (Kaieteur News, February 4) in which she attempted to address my contention that the AFC’s lofty ideas lack real substance. In a previous letter I highlighted the inherent flaws in one of the AFC’s proposals, should they become the ruling party – the execution of ethnic impact studies. The AFC, as I stated in that letter, proposes to conduct these studies ‘for all important Cabinet decisions and all new major programmes within government departments.’  ‘All’ being the operative word. This was highlighted at the party’s campaign launch on Saturday January 29, and reported by the Stabroek News on Sunday January 30.

I stated very clearly that such a proposal is impractical since it suggested that an ethnic impact study would be conducted by the AFC prior to the execution of, to use the AFC’s words, ‘ALL important cabinet decisions and ALL new major programmes’. I then asked if this should be taken to mean that before anything tangible gets done in this country under the AFC, these ‘studies’ would have to be conducted. If so, this would obviously impede the timely implementation of policy and execution of projects across Guyana. I know of no government in the world that conducts studies before every important Cabinet decision is made and every new programme implemented. This is what the AFC said it would do.

Ms. Holder’s response, captioned, ‘Taking ethnic concerns into consideration cannot slow economic development’ is profoundly off the mark, misleading, and in no way addresses my concern. In fact, the very caption of Ms. Holder’s letter reeks of deception. It is the methodology which the party said it would use to ‘take ethic concerns into consideration’ which I was questioning – the execution of ethic impact studies. How long would these studies take to be completed? Who will conduct them? What criteria would be used to determine the geographic area the study is to be conducted? Most importantly, if this procedure is to be followed before anything gets done; when in the world would an AFC Government get something done?
What the studies may reveal is irrelevant to my query Ms. Holder. Your attempt to address my concern is however appreciated, albeit off the mark.