Dear Editor,
IT seems as though Lincoln Lewis has come out of the woodwork and has awoken from his deep slumber of irrelevance and nothingness.

He is now seeking to twist and misrepresent the facts surrounding the collapse of the bauxite industry in Guyana.

This man, who single-handedly engineered the near collapse of the Guyana Trades Union Congress and the Guyana Labour Union, now comes up with the “big lie” that under Bharrat Jagdeo’s presidency, the bauxite industry’s self- contributing pension fund, worth more than $2.5 billion, was destroyed, among other things.

Lewis, then in his missive, alleged President Jagdeo and President, Dr. Irfaan Ali are guilty of discriminating against one group, the Afro-Guyanese in favour of another group, the Indo-Guyanese.

Lewis should not be taken seriously in Guyana or elsewhere for that matter, but I have to set the record straight for all who lived through the very period he refers to in his letter, and for history.
I will do so too for the young people and the Afro-Guyanese youth who might be led astray by this very so-called union and labour representative.

Firstly, it was the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic that rescued the bauxite industry when it came to power from being badly mismanaged after it was on the verge of collapse under the Peoples National Congress Government.

It had already been virtually destroyed under the PNC and it was in 1983 that the bauxite industry suffered its first major retrenchment of workers, and the alumina plant and the bauxite operations at Ituni were closed.

Let Lewis dispute that and let him dispute that it was under former President Desmond Hoyte that the decision to sell the industry to private interest was made.

By this time, the PPP came to power, the production of bauxite was one-third of the production in 1975 and an increasing decline was evident. PNC killed the heartbeat of the Linden Mining Enterprise (LINMINE) steam power plant, not the PPP.

Secondly, the bauxite industry self-contributing Pension Fund was not worth more than $2.5 billion at the time when it was audited. Anyway, the PNC made sure it was not managing the funds of Pension Fund properly and per strict financial laws. It was wiped out because there was never really any transparency and accountability.

If anything, the workers know that it was PPP that saved some of the funds or else all would have dried up. I challenge Lewis to provide a document that proved they were wiped out because of the PPP’s deliberate mismanagement and to say to the nation what he or any labour representative did to stop is. It is simply not true and Lewis knows this! He is just being political because he has to sing for his supper!

Thirdly, Lewis’ letter seems to be the grumblings of a bitter old man. The contents are bitter, vexatious and vacuous. Putting former President Jagdeo and President Ali’s investments in the sugar and agriculture industries, and tax support for the private sector, and what happened with bauxite, in general, is neither smart nor going to support Lewis’ argument that the government is discriminating against Afro-Guyanese.

It is absurd because the PPP bailed out bauxite and stopped the bleeding just like it is helping those industries along to financial independence.

I think he should come clean about all the workers who were allegedly retrenched and fired under the Jagdeo presidency. The unions and workers know it had nothing to do with Linden, race and politics. The PPP did all that was possible to keep the industry alive including retooling and re-educating the workers in other areas.

Lewis must be honest and accept the fact that PNC killed the vibrancy of the sector through failed policies, bad financial deals and poor management. The unions are to be blamed because they knew it all the years and did nothing to stop the haemorrhaging of those industries.

PPP/C is still supporting the bauxite industry today and people of Linden have access to jobs, and everything that the people in Region Six have access to as far as PPP/C Government is concerned.

Finally, Lewis tried to pin the tail on the wrong donkey. He shot his political shots but missed the target. He swung but failed to hit the runs home. I think the fact that the junior has to school the elder is telling and damming.

Lewis could crawl under the rock and hang his head in shame and not bother to come out to tell us rubbish ever again.

There is a popular saying that “memories do not live as people do” and an old saying that “twist and re-twisting the truth will not change the truth.” If there is anything he must learn from this, it is never to underestimate the value of history, reading and research.

Now, I’m ready for the PNC trolls…

Yours respectfully,
Hon. Anand Persaud, M.P
Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development