Dear Editor,
OVER the past few weeks, I have heard things coming from the mouths of people that shocked me or can hardly believe. Why I say that?

The things I heard are from mostly Indo-Guyanese, whom I assumed are strong PPP supporters. Two Saturdays ago, I joined a taxi from Ogle Airport heading to Georgetown; the driver was an Indian guy who said he is living in Grove, East Bank Demerara. Anyway, as I sat in the front passenger seat the driver drove off and he said to me, “Bai, you watch wha this government doing”. I quickly grabbed my phone and assuming that I was trying to make a call, the driver stopped talking at that point.

Around my left wrist was a bright yellow band with carvings in green marked APNU+AFC. After hearing that I quickly moved my hand to the left ears and used my right-hand ease by ease to turn over the band to the wrong side. Inside of me, I felt it was the wrong taxi.
The driver of the taxi didn’t see me doing that, so I then put the phone down.

The driver went on to say, “you watch the news last night”?, I said yes, knowingly I didn’t, he didn’t know I am from Berbice. He asked me a question that shocked me. “Why under the PPP this wasn’t happening?” I said I don’t know. He said to me, “Look at the number of criminals, guns, drug dealers and illegal businesses that the police catching these days, wha PPP was doing”?.

He told me it was because they know what was happening and they were part and parcel of such. He went on to say, “Look as to wha happen to the big boys them that used to fly high, them days done because all the big drugs deal getting tek”. I kept listening. He said “Bro, people need to open their eyes and see for themselves that there is development happening although things slow”. He mentioned some of the infrastructural works being done in this area and surroundings. He was very proud of what he has been seeing.

Anyway, I kept silent not knowing if he realised that I had an APNU+AFC band. He kept praising the security and public infrastructure ministries mainly. I was shocked. I then turned to him and said, are you an APNU+AFC supporter bro?. He quickly said “no” and went on to say people need to understand what’s happening in Guyana.

Now that we are on Main Street, I felt comfortable. I told him to drop me off at the City Hall area. When I was about to meet my destination, I looked at him and said ‘well not all of us are seeing the way you are, some are blinded by the PPP hate towards progress”. The man shook my hands and then I turned over my band and showed him. He said to me, “Bro I thought you are a PPP supporter because you are Indian”. He further said, “You made the right choice and people need to give this government another term, so we can see more of what’s happening”.

I was so impressed by the openness of this driver. He was very much following the things that are happening in Guyana and mostly he was being truthful as to what he has seen happening since 2015. On this very day I visited a good friend of mine living in Parkia backdam, Region Three and the vibes and talks about development there were the same. People were in praise for the development that they are witnessing. Everyone had something good to say, be it from the new road, the bridge, the school, etc.

I was so happy. About a month ago I joined a taxi, this time heading to East Bank Berbice where Minister Khemraj Ramjattan MP and Minister Valerie Garrido-Lowe, MP, would be speaking at a public meeting. About five minutes after I got into the car, the driver started to talk about the works that are being done in Region Six. He said, “For decades the roads\streets in Canje were not accessible, but today under this government it is more than accessible”. He said, “that for 23 long years the Number 19 Highway was without road lights, today it is possible”.

The driver said to me that he is also a rice farmer and the government is doing all that it could for the rice industry, but yet for all some farmers are playing politics. He went on to say “that as long as a rice farmer is planting a small number of acres he cannot make large profits, unlike those that are planting hundreds of acres”.

He talked about the roads that are in the making in New Amsterdam and praised the government and MoPI for such undertakings. He spoke of the East Bank road and that “he sees for himself what caring means and this government is about caring”. He said, “all his life (68 years) he never saw so many works being done, especially in all the villages no matter race or politics”. After telling the taxi driver my destination, he asks me, why I was going to Glasgow community centre, and I told him.

The driver took me there and without any haste, parked his taxi and stayed for the duration of the meeting. This is what has been happening in Guyana since this government took office, positive vibes. But it’s hard for the PPP to believe what they are seeing — DEVELOPMENT.

Regards
Abel Seetaram