PSC not taking political sides, only Guyana side
- returned Chairman Gouveia
By Priya Nauth
RETURNED Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman, Mr. Gerald Gouveia has exhorted the body to “always walk the road of reason.”

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Roraima Group of Companies issued the exhortation before he was unanimously re-elected at the 17th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Duke Lodge, in Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown, on Tuesday.

His audience included Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud and members of the Diplomatic Corps as well as re-elected PSC Vice-Chairman, Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, who is also current President of Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA).

Mr. Yog Mahadeo, Chief Financial Officer of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T, was elected Secretary and Mr. Chandradat Chintamani, Treasurer.

The latter is presently President of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

Mahadeo and Chintamani replaced Mr. Bal Persaud and Mr. Bert Sukhai, in their respective positions.

Gouveia pledged that the PSC will continue to work with all stakeholders, private and public, towards the development of this country.

“The PSC objective is to team up with the GCCI, the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), GM&SA and all of the private sector organisations to really bring one voice as we engage with Government,” he outlined.

Gouveia said: “The PSC and all private sector organisations we need to earn our place around the table.

“Not only with the Government but as we engage with the Opposition, as we engage with the security forces because we must always walk the road of reason,” he elaborated.

Gouveia said: “We are not going to take political sides. We are always going to take the side which we believe will be the side of Guyana and, to do that, we have to establish and earn the trust of all the parties involved.”

He said the Government, the Opposition parties and the security forces must know that “when they meet with us, our only concern is meeting with them in the national interest.”

Recalling the challenges over the years, Gouveia remarked that the PSC is a very unified and efficient organisation that “is not afraid to call for help and have been getting help from many sectors.”

He reminded that the PSC is one of the first organisations involved in the security sector reform consultations.

“As a result of that, we were very concerned when the security sector reform programme was not progressing with the same level of pace that we expected it to”.
CONCERN
“It is something of tremendous concern to the PSC because no private sector development can happen without a stable security infrastructure and atmosphere,” Gouveia said.

However, he said the end of the year meeting in 2008 was really refreshing as it was the first time that the country was at peace with “relative political peace and the crime was relatively under control.”

Gouveia also alluded to the role and importance of local government elections, stating: “We continue to meet constantly to look at these issues.”

Recognising that agriculture is a tremendously important industry and sector for Guyana’s future, he said, as a result, the PSC established a sub-committee, headed by Mr. Benny Sankar, one of the past PSC Chairmen.

“We started talking with the Minister of Agriculture about ways and means of the PSC encouraging and bringing to focus the possibilities in agriculture and the tremendous possibilities for agriculture as an economic tool for development,” Gouveia disclosed.

According to him: “As a result of that we took an example from Neal and Massy Group, which started a phenomenal experiment in the Mon Repos area and we took a private sector delegation to visit that farm.”

Gouveia said the PSC has discussed the prospect of major companies investing in agriculture as a new form of investment.

“We are getting very good responses from our members who are looking at agriculture as a very promising possibility for local investment,” he said, thanking Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and recognizing its work in assisting the PSC not only financially, but offering advice and guidance.

Gouveia revealed that the issue of income tax reform is a major concern of the PSC.

“We were concerned that the document was done without consultation with the private sector but, since then, we are being assured that the consultants will come back and a new round of consultation will start again with the private sector to ensure that the document is one that draws some kind of consensus,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a release, the PSC said, despite the challenges it has made progress towards having its input on behalf of Guyana’s private sector, to make a difference.

It said the PSC organisational structure was revised and a new strategic plan was formulated and it is now in a significantly improved position to affect the business climate in Guyana as a result of the creation of a National Competitiveness Council (NCC) for Guyana, on which it represents the interest of the private sector directly to President Bharrat Jagdeo himself.

The new executive plans to continue this valuable work and wishes to encourage all of its members to participate, the release said.

Government looking to Local Government elections by November
By Priya Nauth
HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon has said that Cabinet has noted the ongoing work of the Special Select Committee established to consider the bills dealing with the statutory framework of Local Government.

He was speaking at his post-Cabinet press briefing Wednesday at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

“The Local Government Elections 2009 will be held under a new statutory framework. This is a long standing commitment by the body politic,” he said.

He stated when Cabinet met last Tuesday, it noted the ongoing work of the parliamentary Special Select Committee.

“Cabinet recalled that the bills were tabled in parliament, an act consistent with the commitment of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration, and clearly with the expressed intention of giving them legal effect upon enactment,” he said.

He also observed, “The full complement of the Special Select Committee is now onboard and meeting, and that has been since the delaying tactics of the opposition were fully exposed.”

Dr. Luncheon said the anticipation about the work in parliament and its timely completion continues to be considered by Cabinet.

When asked if the government is concerned about a delay in the elections, he reminded that all of the players have publicly committed to Local Government Elections in 2009.

“I would not be the first to say that they are some whose expressions are patently false, and who have little intention of providing consistent support for holding Local Government Elections in 2009,” he stressed.

However, he stated, “I want to believe that at this point, the correlation of forces is sufficient even to take the detractors onboard, and take them along with us to a successful hosting of Local Government Elections in 2009.”

Pointing out that ‘he is not unaware’ of some tensions that have surfaced, he emphasised, “But the expectation is that this constitutional body and its members in place for elections, they would be able to resolve those issues and still pull off the 2009 Local Government Elections.”

Among the five pieces of legislation before the Special Select Committee are the Fiscal Transfer Bill; Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill; the Local Government Commission Bill; and the Local Government (Amendment) Bill.

The last Local Government Election was held in 1994, and the Task Force which was established, following dialogue between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the late Mr. Desmond Hoyte in 2001, to deal with matters connected to the Local Government Reform process, was terminated in April this year after failing to agree on key issues.

Government is expecting to have Local Government Elections by November 30 this year.

Capt. Alfred King is new PS at Culture, Youth and Sport
HEAD of the Presidential (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon has announced that a new Permanent Secretary has been appointed in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.

The new PS is Captain Alfred King, who is also the Head of the President’s Youth Award: Republic of Guyana (PYARG).

He replaced Colonel Keith Booker with effect from Wednesday last.

He joins the ranks of recently appointed Permanent Secretaries which include Mr. Colin Croal in the Ministry of Legal Affairs; Mr. Nigel Dharamlall in the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs; and Mr. Emil McGarrell who was transferred from the Amerindian Affairs Ministry to the Ministry of Housing and Water.

Col. Keith Booker has been the PS in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport for over a decade, and Cabinet decided his tour of duty would come to an end on June 30, the HPS said.

‘Here are your Heroes, Caribbean’ to be launched today
GUYANESE Writer and designer of the insignia for the Order of the Caribbean Community Award, Standhope Williams, will be launching his book about the life and work of the recipients of this honour today.

The book, titled ‘Here are your Heroes, Caribbean’, reflects on these Caribbean icons and offers an educational journey through the works and accomplishments of these individuals, and also serves as a permanent record.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday, Williams said he thought it appropriate to set the launch at this particular time when the CARICOM is hosting the 30th Meeting of the Heads of Caribbean Government, and the when honour is being bestowed on yet another influential and outstanding West Indian, former Jamaican Prime Minister, PJ Patterson.

“The title of the book is ‘ Here are your Heroes, Caribbean’, and it is a sort of response to Dave Martins song ‘Where are your heroes Caribbean’, which I grew up hearing, and in which he bemoaned the lack of us honouring our Caribbean heroes, so I thought that this would be an appropriate title for my book,” Williams said.

He said the book is his contribution to the regional integration movement and hopes to get it into schools and libraries, because a lot of young people do not know what the OCC award is about and those individuals on whom the award has been bestowed.

He noted that the order, which is granted every three to four years, has now been bestowed upon approximately two dozen iconic West Indians.

These awardees would have contributed significantly to the development of the region in every area of endeavour: Arts, Culture, Sports, Politics, International Relations.

The launching takes place at the National Library at 18:00hs. today, and all are invited.

Guyana’s oldest laid to rest
By Shirley Thomas
The life of Guyana’s oldest centenarian, Mathilda Lewis, who died on
Tuesday at age 113, was Wednesday celebrated with a Thanksgiving Service at the St. Andrew’s Kirk, in the city, during which she was remembered for her admirable qualities, and the congregation was admonished to emulate the example she set.

The congregation at the funeral at St. Andrew’s Kirk

Elder George Rutherford, who remembered her as being ‘a dear old soul in every sense of the word’, noted that she has been a person of high moral standards and especially blessed with health and long life.

He declared: “We are blessed as a Church, for having such a person as one of our members, and we trust that her life, sincerity of purpose, concern for humanity, and faith in God will inspire us all to lead better lives.”

Ms. Lewis’ remains being borne out of the Church, with Reverend Massiah ahead of the pall bearers.

Meanwhile, Officiating Minister, Reverend Maureen Massiah, alluded to Ms. Lewis as an ‘awe-inspiring example of someone totally in step with God, trusting him absolutely, and living a moral and Christ-like life. She credited the centenarian’s deep and abiding faith in God, and noted that it must have played an important part in her peace and longevity.

Among those gathered to pay their last respects were Dr. Gladstone Mitchell; Ms. Eileen Cox of the Guyana Consumers’ Association; officers and members of the Salvation Army; members and friends from St. Andrews Kirk; members of the Senior Citizens’ Association of Georgetown and others.
Ms. Lewis was born on May 16, 1896 and died on June 30, 2009.

Africanized bees terrorise Kaieteur Park family
By Vanessa Narine
Up to Wednesday, the Mundini family of five, from 193 Kaieteur Park, was coping with the aftermath of an invasion by a hive of Africanized bees which caused the family to exit their home hurriedly last Saturday.

Mr. Adair Mundini, right, with relatives on the roof removing honey combs from the hive.

“We ran out of the house when we saw the bees, and we were all stung, my wife and I, my son and my daughter”, Mr. Adair Mundini said.

According to an expert source, under usual circumstances, if some one is stung, the result is discomfort for the human but death for the bee.

While Mundini confirmed his family’s discomfort, he added that the family’s German shepherd was stung multiple times and had died.

Mundini explained that after Saturday’s incident, he called a general emergency number and was directed to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Bee Unit.

“When I called the ministry, they sent someone with a chemical spray to kill the bees,” Mundini said.

Cross section of the nest under the roof of the home.

Mundini said, “He sprayed the ceiling and then locked the room and told us not to open it until Monday, which was when he would return.”

However, before the ministry representative returned, Mundini, assisted by relative, made his way to the roof and got rid of the honeycombs that were there.

According to a passerby, who dealt with bees, the colour of the honeycomb indicated that the hive may have been there for almost a year.

Africanized Bees were, around 1956, imported from Africa to Brazil in an effort to improve bee-keeping in the tropics.

The bees were well suited to conditions in Brazil, and they began colonizing South America, hybridizing with European honey bees (hence the name “Africanized” bees) and eventually displacing the European bees.

The bees spread northward at a rate of 186 to 310 miles per year, and today every country in South and Central America has established populations.

Some of the honeycombs removed from the roof..

In the event of an encounter with the Africanized bees, experts advise persons to:

* run away as fast as possible; get into a building or vehicle if you can;

* try to cover your face and head as you run;

* call the Ministry of Agriculture’s Bee Unit on 592-226-8714;

* start removing stingers from your skin once you are away from the bees; you can remove them by scraping, pulling, or using sticky tape;

* stop to remove stingers only when you are safely away from the attacking bees.

* not jump into water; and

* not panic.

Mystery illness attacks 13-yr-old at
Moruka
By Vanessa Narine
The eager wait for a return to normalcy in Region One’s (Barima/ Waini) North West district has been interrupted once more as another girl, 13-year-old Sabrina Rahaman, fell victim to the mystery illness plaguing the community.

She was attacked at her home in Kwabanna, approximately 20 miles from Moruka, after she went home ahead of the school break.

The teenager was one of the first affected in October 2008 when the illness returned after being experienced three years ago.

After then it receded and was not seen again until February last.

For this year, since February, the mystery illness has been causing distress and has been affecting, more specifically, the female students of Santa Rosa Secondary School.

When the attacks started, only the girls in the dormitories of the Santa Rosa Secondary School were affected; but that changed in February when the girls at the school began falling victims to the attacks also.

To date, more than 67 of them from both the dormitories and the school, between the ages of 13 and 18, have been afflicted by the medically undiagnosed complaint.

Analyses done by health personnel were unsuccessful in ascertaining the cause of the affliction which showed no obvious genetic or other links nor resulted in long term physical consequences.

However, its origin remains a source of controversy as opinions differ on whether the illness is spiritual or psychological, as in a case of mass hysteria.

According to the girl’s mother, Mrs. Jean Rahaman, who is also the dorm mother of the Santa Rosa Secondary School’s dormitories, the mystery illness can only be described as something within the paranormal realm.

“The attack was serious as it lasted for four hours and her dreams are strange,” the elder Rahaman said.

The woman explained that preceding the attack, the teen complained of a headache and “bad feelings” and on her way to her bedroom she fell.

“He aunt rushed to her when she fell down but when she reached to her Sabrina’s eyes were turned up and she was unconscious,” the girl’s mother said.

Mrs. Rahaman explained that a day before Sabrina was taken to the local clinic and the health worker, Mrs. Elaine Thomas, told her the only problem was that her blood pressure was a little below normal.

“We don’t know what happened but we will be taking her to another doctor in Georgetown to get another opinion,” she said.

The mother pointed out too that the girl was tormented by weird dreams centered on a male figure that seemingly wanted to hurt her.

“Sabrina told me that she was having bad dreams where a man was telling her that he was glad that he found where she was living and he was going to stay with her,” the girl’s mother said.

Since the family is of the opinion that the illness is spiritual, Mrs. Rahaman stated that she reverted to prayers and old traditional Amerindian ways to deal with the illness.

The mother said, “We are with the Full Gospel Church so we prayed for her and she seems to be doing fine.”

She added that her daughter is weak and pale.

The elder Rahaman noted that since October 2008, Sabrina has been attacked 16 times and was unable to sit the National Third Form examinations last week.

Roraima Airways aircraft runs off airstrip
A RORAIMA Airways aircraft yesterday morning ran off an airstrip in the Iwokrama area with six passengers and the pilot on board.

Contacted yesterday, Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Group of Companies, Captain Gerry Gouveia, said that the incident, which occurred at Fair View in the vicinity of Kurupukari Crossing, Essequibo River, was very minor and no one was injured.

However, the nose (landing) gear of the aircraft was damaged.

Inspectors from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority were dispatched to the scene to examine the extent of the damage shortly after the incident, this newspaper was told.

Norton claims rigging of PNC elections
- Seems to be general trend
By Parvati Persaud-Edwards
THE tendency of the People’s National Congress (PNC) to rig elections has its genesis in the 1968 elections, when the blueprint for rigging of elections in Guyana was formulated by LFS Burnham, with the complicity and support of the United States.

The skeletons came out of the closet when US State documents of the period were declassified, as exposed in excerpted quotes from Dr. Odeen Ishmael’s “How the American Government Helped Burnham to Rig the 1968 Elections” as follows:

“In an introduction to declassified US state documents (Foreign relations, 1964 – 1968, Volume XXXII, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Guyana) the historian of the US State Department wrote that the Special Group/303 Committee of the National Security Committee approved $2.08 million for covert action programmes between 1962 and 1968 in Guyana. A good proportion of this covert funding was given to the PNC and the UF in 1963 and 1964 when they were trying their best to overthrow the PPP government.”

“Delmar Carlson, the US Ambassador to Guyana, reported in a telegram to state Department on July 15, 1966 that “Burnham has confided to close colleagues that he intends to remain in power indefinitely – if at all possible by constitutional means. However, if necessary, he is prepared to employ unorthodox methods to achieve his aims.”

“A footnote to a memorandum prepared by the 303 Committee on 17th March 1967 quoted in part: “Since we believe that there is a good likelihood that Jagan can be elected in Guyana unless the entire non-East Indian electorate is mobilized against him, we also believe that campaign support must be provided to Peter D’Aguiar, the head of the United Force, and Burnham’s coalition partner.”

“Another memorandum, prepared on 12 June 1968 by Thomas H. Karamessines, Deputy CIA Director for Plans, for Walt W. Rostow, Special Asst to President Johnson, (Source: Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Document E.O. 12958, Sec NIJ 94.268 – 12 June 1968). The document, titled ‘Plans of Guyana Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, leader of the People’s National Congress (PNC), to rig the elections scheduled for late 1968 or early 1969’, showed US government complicity in this arrangement……”

A final progress report on “Support to Anti-Jagan political parties in Guyana”, prepared for the 303 Committee on 21 November 1968 by the US State Department, stated, inter alia: “……….the problems facing Burnham stemming from his having padded the registration lists in the United Kingdom excessively in an attempt to win an outright majority….”

The foregoing quotes merely refer to the events preceding the 1968 elections, but history records that every general election, subsequent to that, was massively rigged under the PNC watch.

Registration of non-existing overseas voters, of teenaged supporters of the PNC, when the voting age was 21, of people long dead, of people as yet unborn, the unclassified US State documents, detail all the methods used by the PNC, in complicity with the US, to place that party and keep it in power, and the PPP out. This also included unleashing violence to make the country ungovernable under a PPP administration. (Recall the infamous X-13 Plan).

A memorandum from William Tyler, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian affairs, to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, even went so far as to detail a plan, complicit with the Venezuelan government, to specially train 100 men to kidnap Cheddi and Janet Jagan and take them to Venezuela.

These are the historic lengths that the PNC went to install and keep itself in power in this country, which soon plunged to the bottom of the world’s development charts as a result.

For this Party, the end always justified the means, and ethics never mattered. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

First Team Alexander cried rigging, now Norton has done so. But these are not national elections, where outsiders are involved in any way. These incidents have occurred within the bastion of the PNC – Congress Place, and the victims and the alleged fraudsters all belong to the Party accused of rigging every election in Guyana since 1968, until the Carter Centre interceded in 1992, when the country’s exchequer and international goodwill had already been bankrupted, while every sector in Guyana had been completely devastated.

Party executive Aubrey Norton said that the PNC’s Georgetown District Chairmanship elections, conducted on 28th June, when the Georgetown District of the PNC held its District Conference, were fraudulent.

Norton, who lost the chairmanship of the Georgetown District to Party co-chair, Volda Lawrence, through a vote 96 to 220, alleged that there were blatant cases of padding of the voters’ lists. According to Norton, there was a turnout of less than 300 delegates to the conference, yet the tally of votes reflected that more than 300 persons voted.

According to reports, chaos reigned at Congress Place because of accusations that some persons had received several ballot papers, while others were receiving none.

Norton complained about the Brickdam Group, which he claimed Lawrence to have said had one hundred members, when he was convinced that it has only an approximate thirty.

During the last Congress Vincent Alexander and a team of party stalwarts had launched a challenge to the PNC leadership, which had been defeated.

Then, as now, there were allegations of massive rigging of the electoral processes at Congress Place.

The fallout was expulsion of several members, with Alexander and others resigning from the party.

Previously Raphael Trotman, under similar circumstances, resigned from the PNC and, in partnership with Khemraj Ramjattan – formerly of the People’s Progressive Party, formed the Alliance For Change (AFC), which drew votes from many disgruntled members of the PNC during the last general elections.

Disillusioned members of the PNC are gravitating to the AFC, and with the looming leadership challenge by Burnham’s son-in-law, Richard Van-West Charles, the fractured PNC may very well find itself contesting the 2011 General Elections under several factions.

“Wha’ guh around come around” is a popular Guyanese saying. Burnham engineered the split in the People’s Progressive Party decades ago, and this led to a nation divided unto itself.

Today, while the PPP of Cheddi Jagan retains its organizational strength, the PNC that Burnham formed, splitting the masses and derailing the momentum of the freedom movement of the Guyanese people through Machiavellian mechanisms and methodologies, is self-destructing.
Could one call this divine retribution?

OAS seeks unconditional restoration of Zelaya in Honduras
By Wendella Davidson
The Secretary General of the Organisation of the American States, Mr Miguel Insulza, is heading to the crisis-torn Honduras today, as the organisation seeks the unconditional restoration of the country ousted leader, President Manuel Zelaya.

But according to the OAS chief who yesterday briefed local, regional an international journalists on the organization’s next move in relation to Honduras, at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, the OAS is not going there to negotiate but to press for Zelaya’s restoration.

Prior to speaking with the media, Insulza had also briefed Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community as they met in caucus to prepare for their 30th conference which officially opened last evening.

According to him, the message is clear and unanimously approved that the OAS condemns the military coup, noting that there are other ways in which any internal problems could have been solved; that the organisation will not recognise the interim government headed by Roberto Micheletti; that the OAS will do everything possible to have Zelaya returned and bring the situation in Honduras back to normalcy.

The OAS chief noted too, that as a result of the situation in that country, the caretaker government has until tomorrow to have Zelaya restored or face suspension, adding that the latter can have disastrous consequences for that country, including the blocking of access to international financial aid.

The Honduran administration has so far resisted any moves to have Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup last Sunday in a dispute over presidential term limits, be returned as the country’s rightful leader.

With the OAS chief at the news conference yesterday was OAS Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin.