Latest update January 24th, 2025 6:10 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

The golden gold industry

Sep 25, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I ran into a highly placed person who is also a top PPP second-tier PPP leader. He is quite known in Guyana, though he is not in the core leadership of the PPP. He said to me that there is a problem on his mind that he is reluctant to raise as a matter of priority within the PPP.
He did say that at the PPP’s congress last month, he had mentioned his vexation to three of the PPP policy-makers and they did concede that what he is talking about needs the exigent attention of the Government.
He suggested that I run a column on this predicament and I smiled when he intoned; “Freddie, after all Guyana is your country, so it is not a favour you are doing the government.” I agreed with his point, but I did warn him that if I wrote the column I would lay the blame on his party which has been in charge the past twenty-one years.
This gentleman told me that the past President, Mr. Jagdeo, the current President and the entire leadership of the PPP and Government have the statistics on gold declaration and they all know that more than seventy percent of gold taken from the earth of Guyana is not declared and Guyana loses tremendously.
He intoned; “Freddie I am telling you what I know, the figure is seventy percent.”   He went on to say that the average Guyanese would find unbelievable, the yearly amount Guyana loses in conspiratorial gold smuggling out of the country. He puts it at dozens of billions of dollars every year.
I liked his reasoning when he brought in the Trinidadian comparison. He described Trinidad as a first world country and according to him that country reached there because it has a golden industry which it took possession of and carefully watches over – oil. He looked at me and declared, “Freddie, we could be like Trinidad because we got what Trinidad has, but we are throwing it away.” He meant the gold industry.
Two things I could see clearly when he spoke; he has inside information on the vast amount of money Guyana loses to gold smuggling and he is frustrated that the party he belongs to does not care. I shifted the argument away from the gold industry and went into the direction of politics. I queried why a political party that literally is in control of the gold fields of Guyana and could use that money to make us become like Trinidad is not interested. He didn’t have an answer and I suggested one to him.
I looked him in the eyes and told him that we are getting poorer in Guyana; that we will not become like Trinidad in a million years and our misery will continue, because the PPP lacks the nationalist spirit that so permeates the poor Third World countries that have become developed states like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Trinidad etc.
I was bold enough to tell him that once President Burnham had come to the knowledge that such vast amounts of gold were illegally leaving Guyana, he would have thrown all the resources he had at his disposal to stop it. I made it clear that my statement on Burnham came from deep within my heart.
My advice to him is to use his position in the PPP leadership to get them to see that the gold industry is Guyana’s version of Trinidad’s oil reserves and we could make Guyana better by stopping those billions from leaving. I did say to him that I will play my part by doing the column and he must do his by campaigning for tighter governmental supervision. I even suggested that the Guyana Government could invent some ingenious way of forming a public company to invest in the gold industry, but such a venture must involve the major opposition parties.
He didn’t want to discuss corruption in the Guyana Government that interconnects with the gold industry. It was pellucid to me that he was not comfortable discussing the weakness and sins of the PPP. His mission was to get me to use my column to highlight a major concern of his – the money Guyana is losing to undeclared gold, particularly by foreign gold miners.
I did agree to this article, not only out of his persuasion, but also because I know what is happening in the gold industry, the media knows, the opposition parties know and the average Guyanese is well aware that their country is full of gold and it is being carted out of the country everyday without benefits coming their way.

 

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 20th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

West Indies U19 Women secure first win, advance to Super Six with victory over Malaysia

West Indies U19 Women secure first win, advance to Super Six with...

Jan 24, 2025

SportsMax – The West Indies U19 Women’s team clinched their first win of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, defeating hosts Malaysia by 53 runs to advance to the Super Six round. After a...
Read More
“We will have a similar approach”

“We will have a similar approach”

Jan 24, 2025

Sam, Fernandes outshine competition at GCF/Moo Milk National U12 chess tourney

Sam, Fernandes outshine competition at GCF/Moo...

Jan 24, 2025

Ramzan, Fraser pilot Demerara U15 to strong win over East Coast U17

Ramzan, Fraser pilot Demerara U15 to strong win...

Jan 24, 2025

Dave West Indian Imports gets Everest Cricket Club’s renovations off the mark

Dave West Indian Imports gets Everest Cricket...

Jan 24, 2025

Interim leadership agreed to dissolve GCF executive issues

Interim leadership agreed to dissolve GCF...

Jan 24, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]