Dear Editor
SIMILAR levels of attention and albeit less cash support were required in managing the bauxite operations with their non-core activities and responsibilities for their associated communities, along the Berbice River. Recall that ALCOA after it had bought REYNOLDS, announced that it had no need for the Aroiama operations, another occasion of a potential shutdown! WE PPP/C took it over, merged the operations along the Berbice River and managed it until we attracted a core partner, RUSAL, which gained a 90% equity position in the core operations. We owe a huge debt of thanks to Mr. Morrie Stuart, the old miner man from Australia who managed the Demerara and Berbice operations in turn, in the difficult circumstances and restrictions of Government ownership at that time.
We worked at encouraging the development of new economic activities in Linden, offering non-core bauxite assets for new use, and seeking outside work as appropriate. I can mention that we arranged with the company which won the contract for rehabilitation of the Demerara Harbour Bridge to sub-contract the Bauxite Plant Machine Shop to assemble (weld-up) the large unit pontoons; the extension of farming at West Watooka (from which pumpkins were exported to Barbados); the encouragement and facilitation of the small loggers of Linden, Ituni, Kwakwani (who have now found themselves increasingly in limbo over the last year); the convenient, successful small-man, private-sector, competitive river-crossing at Kwakwani (under threat recently) which replaced the steadily more uncertain, no-charge company service; our repeated persevering attempts to emplace IT/call centre’s in Linden (the last, longest surviving one an eventual casualty of the 2012 disturbances).
Despite the attention and subsidies occasioned by the state of the bauxite companies, our fellow citizens of Linden and Region 10 benefitted no less in the provision of infrastructure and social services. On the recommendation of a group of local engineers, we gained approval for a more economic design for the first rehabilitation of the Soesdyke-Linden Highway – the savings enabled the upgrade of the bridges and the rebuilding of the main roads in and through Linden, including Burnham Drive and Avenue of the Republic. Works on school buildings in Linden were not delayed. I recall accompanying then Minister of Education, Dr. Dale Bisnauth on Valentine’s Day in 1997 on a tour of about a dozen school buildings which had major repairs or were being built anew, and Linden benefitted equitably in subsequent education improvement programmes. It took sometime but in time, we the PPP/C had the funding to build the new McKenzie Hospital and for the major reworking and expansion of potable water supply in Linden. Our housing programme got going in Linden after we had made some headway to remedy the acute situation in Georgetown and its environs, yet we can all be proud of the Block 22 and the extensive development in Amelia’s Ward at mid-2015.
Concerning the attempt to initiate reform of the electricity supply in Linden, highly subsidised electricity, leading to twice the average consumption on the coast, is the last remaining feature of the company town, from the time when nearly every household contained at least one company employee. Today, the situation is quite different with perhaps only one in 10 households containing a company employee. Our PPP/C proposal which stood in the National Assembly for some hours without protest was intended to initiate the merger of Linden’s electricity into GPL in a number of stages over a number of years. The proposal entailed adopting and utilising the (less) subsidised GPL pricing formula, but in the first stage consumers in Linden would only be charged half of what is calculated and the savings would have been utilised in helping consumers to transit.
The PPP/C is not the problem for African-Guyanese: the propaganda and focus on Indian-Guyanese as the nemesis of African-Guyanese is the problem and it distracts many African Guyanese from really getting on with their lives. I have put a lot into presenting the facts in this letter, well aware that those sentiments presented by Dr. David Hinds are matters of perception and emotion shared by too many African-Guyanese. And yet facts matter. Nonetheless, we of the PPP/C — every member, supporter, and friend – should hold ourselves challenged to overcome those perceptions and emotions which arise in the course of the hundreds of interactions, even just fleeting ones, which we have each day with fellow Guyanese who are African-Guyanese. Being right, and doing right should be beyond question, but that is not all. There is much that we can add and learn by trial and error, and little by little, once we hold in mind and act out our desire for good for every fellow citizen. As all the sages have said, we should be ready to share the other’s burdens, walk any number of miles with him: there should be no problem, no hardship for us of the PPP/C, for we Guyanese are all on the same journey. Our (PPP/C) smiles and attitudes of friendship will eventually undo the historical decades of propaganda against us of the PPP and PPP/C.
Regards
Samuel A. A. Hinds
Former President & Former Prime Minister