Dear Editor,
Kindly permit me to respond to Mr Eusi Kwayana’s letter in the KN of 27th October 2024 titled “Financial disbursement of oil money should be backed by legislation and debated in parliament by all sides.”
I just want to touch on one aspect of his letter. He wrote “I wonder whether it will be disloyal for government members to admit that the cash transfer disbursement plan first came from Dr. Clive Thomas of the WPA.” The fact of the matter is that Dr Thomas did advocate that oil money be given to Guyanese but he also advocated that the huge sum of US$5000 instead should be doled out to Guyanese. It is common knowledge that neither the WPA nor the PNC can manage money taking into consideration that the PNC government bankrupted Guyana (1964-1992)
Wasn’t this the same Dr Thomas who summarily fired 7000 predominantly Indo Guyanese sugar workers when he was in charge of GUYSUCO during the PNC-APNU-AFC (2015-2020) coalition? Where was Mr Kwayana…loyal as he is to his WPA comrade nowadays…to remind Guyanese that Dr Thomas of the WPA had done the hatchet job on the Guyanese working class? There were no sugar workers protest marches or rioting which took place after the mass firings. Compare the history of Linden where electricity is still being subsidized by the government and electricity is cheaper than the rest of Guyana. When the PPP/C government …with the acquiescence of the PNC in 2012… tried to correct that price anomaly and make thing equal for all Guyanese, there was rioting in Linden, bridges were blocked,traffic was stopped, buildings and vehicles were burned and the result was three Guyanese were killed. The PPP/C government appointed a commission of inquiry and paid compensation to the victims families.
That same PPP/C government failed to appoint a commission of inquiry when the Buxton Fineman gang massacred 12 defenseless sleeping Lusignan Guyanese on January 2008. No commission of inquiry was appointed. No compensation was paid out by the PPP/C government to Guyanese victims’ families.
Can anyone blame Mr Kwayana for being loyal to Dr Thomas? After all they are both WPA.leaders.
Respectfully
Sultan Mohamed