OLD KAI is not surprised by the recent effort of the opposition, specifically the mask of the PNC = APNU, to condemn the most proactive anti-crime measure to have been adopted by the Guyana Police Force in the ‘Impact Albouystown’ project.

APNU leaders cannot lecture Old Kai on Albouystown; their most prolific activist from that community is a known drug addict who is regularly sent to disrupt anti-opposition pickets outside the National Assembly. So it comes as no surprise that they are eager to attack any initiative which will enhance public security in Albouystown.

For people like the APNU leaders, who can sit in their offices and pontificate, Albouystown is just the name of an area which was ‘one big shantytown’ when they were in Government. However, it is now convenient for them to project an image that they are the ‘godfather’ of that community, as they want to preserve ‘ethnic political support’.

Their political strategy is to ingrain, in certain sections, this ‘us-versus-them’ mentality when, as I have exposed just recently, these leaders in the opposition care about no one else but themselves.

How else can one explain a leader telling his/her followers to ‘destroy’ even their own brother if he refuses to toe the party line?

I have news for the opposition, though: Old Kai knows more about that community than the APNU leadership put together. As a youth, I spent many days with my friends in what was described as ‘a hopeless dump’ under the PNC. I later worked for one Mr. Gonzales, who, back then, operated a woodworking shop in the community, building pallets for Banks DIH Limited, among other companies.

I have experienced what life was like in that community under the dictatorship of which David Granger was a key member. People were literally starved of all resources. All over the community was littered with broken-down shacks; supported by broken-down shacks. Starvation led to desperation. There were no roads; just pathways filled with craters. At any given time that the community was visited, man, woman and child would be outside the home, unsure of where their next meal would come from. This is the legacy of people like David Granger and his colleagues.

I know; because I was there in the struggle. Can David Granger say the same? Since 1992, it has been painstaking, but change is evident. There is still poverty, but signs of progress are all over the community. Pathways are no longer crowded by members of that community during the day. There are still elements, some up to no-good; but for the most part, children are in school or in some training activity. The majority of single parents — mostly mothers – work, or attend some empowerment class. More and more businesses are opening to cater for residents. The roads have been repaved. There is a perennial issue with drainage and sewage, but the goodly Mayor of Georgetown, Mr Hamilton Green, prefers to fight with the Town Clerk and attack initiatives aimed at revenue collection, thereby denying the City much-needed funds, which it can, in turn, use to fix issues such as the Sussex Street canal and outfall to solve the drainage issue once and for all.

In all of this, security has been a recurring issue; not just youths using the community for cover to go out to attack and rob victims, but also interpersonal violence among residents of the ward; anyone paying attention to cases appearing before our courts would know this much. So it was to my satisfaction when I learnt of the plan by the new Commissioner of Police (ag) to confront some of the social issues in that community, and be more engaging with residents; but at the same time ensure the Force remains alert to those who would want to dissuade such a project from taking root in Albouystown.

I was waiting for it, and it came a few days later: APNU, led by David Granger, launched a scathing attack against the initiative, and urged the ‘Top Cop’ to ensure that “nothing is done to jeopardise public security.” Clearly, APNU cannot be referring to the security of law-abiding citizens, as they will benefit from the ‘Impact Albouystown’ project; so APNU’s ‘concern’ can only be directed to those whose activities will be affected by this project.
(To be continued…)