I WISH to comment on the recent spate of negative criticisms that the President has received recently over the project of free laptops to poor families.
The President first announced this intention some 2-3 years ago; and now that he is ready to deliver, he is being portrayed as a villain! Suddenly, everyone has become an expert on laptops and business dealings. It makes you wonder which planet some of these people are living on. People have found all the reasons why it is a bad idea, i.e., extra financial burden, a bad deal with Lenovo, open to abuse, family members will steal it and sell it, the government is awarding contracts to their friends and supporters; and the list goes on!
The fact is that the President made a pledge to the nation and he is delivering. The advantage of a laptop versus a desktop could be related to a sometimes lack of or inadequate electricity supply, primarily in the hinterland regions; now those children will be able to charge the battery at school and get their homework done when the power is cut. They will be able to download information at school and store on the laptop.  It just means that the children will need to be better prepared and organised to get the best use out of these laptops.
I can understand if the President was embezzling the taxpayers’/treasury money, but this is not the case. I am not a supporter of any political party, and I certainly don’t have anything to gain from the President, but I do understand the difference between fairness and unfairness! And the critics are very one-sided on these current issues.
People conveniently forget that Guyana is a small country that is recovering from decades of corruption and, more to the point is the fact that the ordinary people are talking about what they see the government developing. The fact that some contractors are less than honourable professionals does not make the idea of a project bad.
People have criticised the government about favouritism in awarding contracts. This practice has been going on for centuries in the best countries of the world. We can start with Rome and move forward today to the United States, GT. Britain (where I reside), the rest of Europe and Asia. People talk about lies, well, I challenge those people to show us which country has politicians that do not lie. Look at the behaviour of the members of parliament in England, as well as the European Parliament. Which country has businessmen and media houses that do not lie?
Despite these criticisms, however, it appears that the President has become habituated to such adverse strategies and is continuing to do what he believes is the right thing to do. Good luck to him.