Production, distribution and purchase of electricity in Linden cannot be separated from the circumstances of the town and Region 10. Any decision pertaining to the increase in electricity charges should be dealt with in the context of the Guyana Constitution and the economic reality facing the people of Linden.
Production, distribution and purchase of electricity in Linden cannot be separated from the circumstances of the town and Region 10. Any decision pertaining to the increase in electricity charges should be dealt with in the context of the Guyana Constitution and the economic reality facing the people of Linden.
The President, ministers of government and parliamentarians have sworn to uphold the Constitution. Articles 13 and 38 A (1) of the Constitution specifically imposes the following responsibility on the government:
• “providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organization in the management and decision-making processes of the State, in particular on those areas of decision-making that directly affect their well-being”, and
• “To ensure that Guyana is a democratic State with a healthy economy, the State shall facilitate the engagement of citizens in activities designed to achieve their sustainable livelihoods”.
In the case of electricity charges to the people of Region 10 the government has honoured its Constitutional commitment in the breach. The government has not consulted with the RDC or the people of Linden.
The 1994 promise by the late President, Dr Cheddie Jagan, to make Linden an industrial estate has not materialized. Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on his first visit to Linden as President, made promised that he would make Linden and Region 10 the industrial corridor of Guyana. President Jagdeo failed to deliver.
The reality is that Linden has experienced the continuing loss of jobs and the failure to promote investment in Region 10 as a whole.
The much touted European Union-funded Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), established in 2002, also failed to meet its noble objectives. LEAP was supposed to have fostered entrepreneurship and enterprise for the economic development of Linden through the diversification the local economy away from the traditional bauxite dependency. As of today, the LEAP programme failed to achieve its original objectives.
The failure of LEAP was due to the excessive control of the Board by the Government and the misapplication of substantial amounts of money. Of the $2.2Bn allocated to the LEAP project more than $1.0Bn was expended on consultancies while half of the remaining amount was spent on projects for which the people of Linden had little say.
The establishment of a business incubator for nurturing fledging businesses; providing and facilitating new investments; and the rehabilitation of the economic infrastructure, were among the primary objectives of LEAP. However, a disproportionate amount of the funding was spent on areas not directly related to developing businesses within the community.
The fact is that LEAP failed as the intended mechanism for achieving the economic diversification and development of the Linden community.
Starting with President Jagan through to President Ramotar, the people of Linden and Region 10 have been promised the creation of jobs whenever there is a crisis or during an election campaign. These promises have never been honoured. There is the reinforced perception within the community that the undeclared policy of the government is to punish the people of Linden for refusing to vote PPP.
The consequence of the foregoing is that Region 10 and Linden are communities that have high levels of unemployment and poverty. As a consequence, the people of Linden lack the capacity to pay increase electricity bills.
Government’s attempt to increase the cost of electricity is clearly vindictive and does not take into consideration the economic reality of the people of Linden. It is unfortunate, that the government seem bent on taking away from the people of Linden the little that they have, rather than seeking to encourage investment and development in Linden to increase the capacity of the people to purchase goods and services. The cries for economic empowerment, by the people of Region 10, are still to be met with a positive response by government. The people of Region 10 desire an enabling environment that would facilitate the creation of employment. The government continues to fail the people of Linden and Region 10 as a whole.
The promise by President Ramotar, while on the campaign trail, to create thousands of jobs, is still to materialize and Region 10 still expects him to deliver. In addition, as President, he is expected to honour the Constitution and govern as President for all Guyana. Linden and Region 10 need jobs and more jobs!
In the absence of a viable programme to create jobs and the high levels of poverty prevailing in Linden, the government cannot now ask residents to pay increased rates for electricity which it should be evident that they cannot afford to pay. There is simply no available income to pay the increased cost for electricity.
Come 1st July 2012, the government must place on hold this unconscionable increase in the cost of electricity. Failure to put the increase on hold will be seen as yet another vindictive reaction for the choice Region 10 made on 28 November 2011.
The revelation in the 2012 Budget that Region 10, with a population of 41,112, will be awarded $221.825Mn in capital expenditure, while the PPP controlled Region 9, with a population of 19,387, will receive $263.600Mn in capital expenditure is indicative of the discrimination in the allocation of state resources. Region 10 should be given a Budget allocation that is in keeping with the dire infrastructural development needs confronting the Region.
The supply of electricity to Linden is not tied to the national grid. It is a stand-alone arrangement based on the generation of electricity within Linden. The media and society should not repeat a claim that is not true and which is deliberately crafted for propaganda purpose to divide the people of Region 10 from the rest of the country. This is in conflict with our national motto of ‘One People One Nation One Destiny.’ The Government’s claim that the decision to increase electricity tariff in Linden is to bring Linden on par with other parts of Guyana is not supported by the facts concerning electricity supply to Linden.
Historically, Linden was supplied from a cheap source of electricity from the steam power plant within the Alumina Plant complex. Against good advice the PPP government sold the power plant to one of its supporters. The supporter borrowed money from the local bank, subsequently left the country and abandoned the steam power plant to be vandalized and destroyed. The government then replaced the steam power plant with diesel generating units that provided electricity at a higher cost.
The Government needs to be reminded that electricity distribution at Linden has its genesis in agreements between the trade unions, the bauxite companies and the Linden Utilities Services Co-op Society (LUSCSL). The PPP Administration has destroyed this compact by excluding the representatives of the people, the local distributor and the people from being consulted and having a say in determining the viability, effectiveness and efficiency of the electricity supply system for Linden. This is a clear breach of the consultative process which is protected by the Constitution.
The truth is that it is the incompetence of the PPP government, their discrimination against Linden and their favouring of PPP cronies and supporters, that are responsible for the high cost of electricity and the consequential need for a large subsidy to pay for power in Linden. Why are the people of Linden being punished for the misdeeds of the PPP Administration? It is immoral and unconscionable for the Government to impose further economic burden on a community where unemployment is as high as 70 per cent.
The prolonged economic deprivation and systematic underdevelopment of Linden should be fixed before any increase in electricity tariffs can be considered.
All Guyana knows that the GPL is inefficient and its management is incompetent. The consequence is that the people of Guyana are paying a higher electricity cost than they should. The solution is not to bring the Linden grid into the national incompetence. Linden experiences an average of 20 percent line-losses, while the GPL system suffers line loss in excess of 40 percent. The government should be taking urgent and sustainable measures to restructure GPL to ensure that its operations are efficient so that there would be the reduction of the currently unreasonably high cost of electricity to the people of Guyana. Consumers in Georgetown and the coastland should not be forced to continue paying for the GPL’s inefficiencies.
The people of Guyana must recognize that the issue is not that of bringing Linden on par with the rest of the country. The real issue here is ending the incompetence and inefficiency of GPL and ensuring that there is the reduction in GPL electricity tariffs to Georgetown and the Coast.
Lindeners have never said they are not prepared to address the issue of cost effectiveness and conservation of electricity as the government propaganda would have the nation believe. The truth is that Lindeners were never given an opportunity to implement ideas and programmes to achieve conservation and cost effectiveness. When LUSCL – the distributors of electricity in Linden – approached the government for permission to import energy saving bulbs, the government refused to grant permission for such imports.
The Region 10 administration is left with no other alternative but to take the required political actions at the regional and national levels to correct the wrongs. Consequently, the leadership of Region 10 has mandated its two parliamentary representatives to prepare a requisite Motion, to be tabled in National Assembly, with the objective of enabling national discussion of the issues and agreeing sustainable solutions for correcting the imposed economic and social misery which has been visited on the people of Linden and Region 10.
It is worrying that the government is disposed to subsidize GuySuCo but is unwilling to do the same for the Bauxite communities. The economic wellbeing of the people of Linden and Region 10 must not be treated differently from the treatment of the sugar workers.
The Region is presently engaged in the preparation of an Indigenous Development Plan, through a consultative process with the people. Thus far, 57 (fifty seven) communities have been visited and 7(seven) more remain to be visited – five in the Berbice River, and two in the Demerara River.
The Plan will include business-driven initiatives in the agriculture, manufacturing and information technology sectors. This Plan will also include proposals for electricity reform that will address wastage and improved management of the distribution of electricity.
At the end of this process, the Plan will be submitted to the government and opposition parliamentarians, seeking their support in making for the implementation of this Regional Plan.
Consistent with our right to freedom of expression, freedom to exchange and the sharing of ideas and information, under Article 146 (1) of the Constitution, and upholding the 2008 decision of Justice Ian Chang in the Yearwood-Chapman case, the people of Linden will be taking steps to establish their own television station.
The work of the people has begun and will not cease, tire or let up, until they achieve the desired objective of a better life for the people of Region 10.
