I AM writing in response to a letter published under the caption, ‘AFC Region 5 rejects the outcast from the AFC’ in the Kaieteur News dated May 4th, 2014. I think it should have read ‘Region 6’ but I do feel that the writer is not from Region 6 but from the AFC’s cabal in Georgetown. The ‘caption’ and the ‘complimentary close’ both have ‘Region 5’. But revealing as that may be, it is of little significance to the lies and misinformation stated within that letter.** UG Student Loan

Firstly, in my ‘Commentary’ I corrected AFC’s Councillor, Donna Mathoo, when she told Berbicians that Dr. Ashni Singh deliberately ‘bundled’ the UG Student Loan with the LCDS Programme; that is, the Amaila Hydro Project so that the combined Opposition was forced to cut everything under that ‘Head’. I pointed to the fact that since November last year both APNU and AFC were given written notification to attend the 2014 Budget Consultation and that in December last year the AFC Leader refused by saying that it was too late. The AFC had ample time to make their recommendations with regards to the Head. I further pointed out that at that time Dr. Singh was still collecting estimates from some Regions. I then exposed the lie by stating the fact that since the UG Student loan was introduced in 1993, it was always presented under that heading, ‘031 Policy and Administration’ and furthermore five years budget estimates are on the Ministry of Finance website and all persons, especially UG students can ‘google’ it to verify the veracity of my statement. For all those five years, the UG Student Loan and the LCDS programmes were together!
I also went at length to explain that by the very nature of the expense, it cannot be shown under a different heading since under ‘031 Policy and Administration’ the monies are to be used ‘to facilitate the provision of critical and financial and other support services to enable effective services delivery’. Both the AFC and APNU did not object to this during the Budget Consultation.

** The AFC Manifesto
In my ‘Commentary’ I did not say that anything was wrong with the ‘AFC Manifesto’ as the anonymous letter writer is claiming. I exposed the fact that the AFC has in their own Action Plan the very items that they are ‘scissoring’ from the 2014 Budget. I quoted from the following heads from the AFC’s Action Plan:
– Hinterland Development
– Trade Policy
– Renewable Energy
– Health Care System
– Tourism; and
– Education Policy.

I provide ample evidences from the AFC’s manifesto to prove that they should have co-operated with the PPP/C Government since these very projects are contained therein. The writer foolishly asked me: ‘What is wrong with the AFC 2011 elections manifesto/blueprint for Guyana?’ Have I said that anything is wrong with it? No, but something is definitely wrong with the leadership of the AFC. They have miserably failed to keep their own promises! Even if the AFC is not in government they should have co-operated on issues and projects which they themselves want done.

** ‘Specialty Confusion’
The letter writer seems to be confused with the meaning of a ‘specialty’ hospital. It is a hospital which will specialise in providing a special type of medical service such as heart surgery. According to the definition in the Webster Dictionary it is ‘something (as a branch of medicine) in which one specialises’. The letter writer, like his AFC ignoramus leaders, claimed that ‘I think all doctors are specialists in their field and therefore all hospitals need to be a specialty hospital’. Even oil-rich countries cannot afford all their hospitals to be ‘specialty hospitals’.

** AFC ‘Honest leaders’
Next, the letter writer took umbrage when I spoke about cronyism, unaccountability and corruption within the AFC. I want to ask him to ask the then General Secretary Mr Sixtus Edwards about the findings of the inquiry which investigated allegations of fraud and cronyism brought against MP Ramayya by me and Donna Mathoo, another AFC Councillor. That investigation found Ramayya guilty and that he should be disciplined but the AFC Leader sent a press release to Stabroek News that ‘it was all a misunderstanding and miscommunication’. Donna Mathoo was so hurt by this that she said that she would wear her AFC t-shirt and protest in front of the AFC Office! When I questioned Ramjattan about this he asked me to keep quiet for the sake of the Party. Even the members of that inquiry were not informed about that press release until they saw it in the newspaper. These are the ‘strongest and honest politicians’ the letter writer is bragging about!
But this ignoramus should check the financial statement that was circulated at the AFC 2012 conference; it was not only unaudited but highly inaccurate. Since 2005 to 2012 the AFC produced no audited statements although its Constitution spoke about an annual audit. What hypocrisy! In another article I will give details of these inaccuracies.

** Rationale
The main reason for my programme ‘Commentary’ is to expose the lies and misinformation peddled to viewers in Berbice and I have no hidden agenda except that I want the AFC to support social and economic development and I do not want to spend my remaining years under another PNC government. I have suffered enough. I have worked three jobs, including ‘cutting cane’ and the present trend of the AFC reminds me of the UF position in 1964; and although the UF Leader regretted his actions afterwards he could not have changed the numerous sufferings of the Guyanese people which followed. Even the British and the Americans regretted their inputs into the 1964 Elections and their pre-independence support of the PNC.
I will continue without fear to expose the lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and dishonesty of the AFC!
I do not have the time to delve further into some of the nonsensical conclusions drawn by ‘Mr. or Miss Region 5’. I humbly exhort this letter writer to keep on listening to my ‘Commentary’ and you will get smart one day.
The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’.

HASEEF YUSUF
AFC Councillor, Region 6