My words to the President on our first exchange

Apr 15, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Let me repeat three things for those who love to criticise me. One – I have no formal, legal, financial and employment relation with the government. Two – Since Dr. Irfaan Ali became President, I have seen no behavioural traits that are different from other democratically elected leaders worldwide to want to not support him.
Dr. Ali, unless he goes in a direction that is authoritarian, has my support and I write these words unapologetically. Who vex, vex. I don’t care. I am not into pro-government and anti-government politics. Three – I believe a country needs opposition parties and genuine civil society organisations to monitor state behaviour. It is extremely unwise for the citizenry to live in a country where there are no voices and pens to watch over state conduct.
Having written that, I would like to repeat my words to President Ali on my first exchange with him. I advised that government must ensure that the things that matter most to the ordinary folks are delivered. I describe the simple things people should receive that are a given in a modern country.
I am not going to detail everything I said in this context but I made the point that for these simple things citizens should not go through a lifetime of hassles. The President listened attentively, agreed with me and assured me that this is what he wants his presidency to achieve.
He told me he agreed with my column of the onerous process the commercial banks put small customers through. I suspect that either he encountered those problems before he became a public figure or he has relatives and friends that suffered the same fate.
I cannot blame the President or the Minister of Home Affairs for the things I see the police do. I cannot blame the Minister of Finance for things I know that happen at the GRA, NIS and other places. But what I would advise the President, his ministers and his public sector heads to do, is to act on the complaints of citizens immediately when these things are brought to their attention. People can do without the hassle. They are just unnecessary.
Yesterday, my wife rang me. I was in the National Park. She said when I come home to put something substantial on our GWI account because we have not had water bills for more than three months now. She said she heard that GWI is on a disconnection exercise.
No set of words in recent years pierced my psyche as those words from my wife. This is in April 2022. Please read my column of Monday, December 17, 2018, titled: “Horrible incidents in this country that should sicken you.” That article was about not receiving the water bill for three consecutive months.
I stated in that column that when I went to GWI, they simply told me that I owed $27,000. There was no explanation. We had to pay $27, 000 for three months when our reading pattern over the long years was $3000 monthly.
Raymond Persaud is an engineer that is employed by Gerry Gouveia at the Ogle Airport. He lives next to the head-office of the AFC. Mr. Persaud asked me to highlight his plight. He has not received his monthly water bill for four months now. Then yesterday, the disconnection entered his yard. He explained to them he has not been receiving bills and he doesn’t know what his reading is. He immediately asked his uncle to go to GWI to ascertain his bill. They asked him to come back because they were pressed at that moment.
Why should life be like this in the 21st century over inconsequential services that should be automatic? But that is not the only question? Why should this happen to citizens when only three years ago it was happening at GWI? When is this lack of modern life in Guyana going to end?
Why should a busy engineer have his water supply disconnected through no fault of his? Why should I pay water rate when I do not know the reading? And this is what I did yesterday. I am absolutely sure that after paying yesterday, we now have a credit standing with GWI.
Life has immense complications. All citizens understand this. When you invest a billion dollars in agriculture there will be complications in relation to many dimensions of the transaction. But why should the acquisition of a birth certificate, driver’s licence, passport, police clearance, compliance, etc., be a lifetime hassle? I repeat now for the third time, my landlines are not working and I don’t have the mental energy to endure the hassles with GTT to get them fixed.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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