In some recent research, I came across a newspapers article that listed an impressive list of very prominent Guyanese, who have the distinction of having their roots in Buxton. Buxton in the past has been a village widely acclaimed for its cultural and sporting accomplishments. It was a village that took pride in itself.

But there is a comparative handful of deviants, who through their intimidating tactics have exerted a level of fear and hence control over that area, causing the entire village to be tainted with a bad name.

Within the past few months, prominent citizens of that community have confirmed that there are sections of the community that harbour criminals. The evidence has clearly revealed that within the borders of Buxton many criminals have been executed. Travelling on the railway embankment road through the vicinity of Buxton is now view as life-threatening by many Guyanese. The mere thought of entering into Buxton by non-Buxtonians unfortunately sends shudders of fear. And why should this be? It belongs to Guyana just any other part of the country.

In fact, the records have shown that the PPP/C Government has over the past ten years invested a considerable amount if money through various programmes and projects into the Buxton area as well as other area. I believe the total amount quoted by Mr. Oscar Clarke in the letter to the ‘Stabroek News’ is in the vicinity of $227M. Today, even in the face of rampant hostility by some sections of Buxton, the Government continues to carry out work within the area. One recent significant development is the construction of the Buxton/Friendship Primary School. Additionally, Buxton was identified as one of the villages, which benefited from the attention of the Depressed Communities Needs Committee.

I have read the proposal that Mr. Hoyte spoke about which calls for the investment of $250M dollars to bring about socio-economic transformation. On paper it looks great. Intrinsically, it will develop and rehabilitate one village. Interestingly enough, this was one the objectives of the said Depressed Communities Needs Committee which emerged from the dialogue process. In fact, $15M was set aside to be spent in the village carrying out works identified by the members of the Committee as being urgent in order to improve the way of life within the village.

However, I must state that in my opinion Mr. Hoyte has not addressed the most important issue that is foremost on the minds of every Guyanese including law-abiding citizens, who live in Buxton.

What about the criminal elements in Buxton? Are they to be ignored? Is it logical for him to deny their presence, while the rest of the country has a very strong perception of this being a reality? Why is the PNC Reform not addressing this?