Wasn’t the President borrowing fresh loans while getting the PNC-incurred debt written off?

May 19, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Dr. Prem Misir describes the major points of my last letter as a chimera, but he is the one who needs a reality check.
In his letter, “Let history be the judge of this Government’s record, not some chimera,” (Kaieteur News, 18-05-09)), he merely continued where he left off in his first letter ranting and raving about how the PPP inherited a huge debt from the PNC Government and how President Bharrat Jagdeo did a magnificent job helping to significantly reduce that debt.

And because there was nothing new added, I wasn’t sure whether to respond, but I wanted to clear up something and make a closing argument, after which I will end my exchange with him in the letters column.
First, he keeps saying I stated President Bharrat Jagdeo made and broke promises and that I should specify what these are, but I checked my letter on file (“President can redeem his sagging legacy”) and there was no mention by me of promises made and broken by the President.

I, therefore, urge him to end his delusional ride. And on his effort to drag me into the PNC’s newspaper ad labeling the President as ‘selfish and shameless’, I already said my piece and so it’s time to move on.
Getting back to the core issue, Dr. Misir’s first letter was an attempted defence of the President’s legacy by adverting to his successful adherence to IMF/WB guidelines to reduce Guyana’s US$2.1B the PPP inherited from the PNC in 1992. I responded by making it clear that any party in Government or sitting President who also adhered to the guidelines could have turned in the same results.

Not satisfied, though, Dr. Misir came right back with more of the same: propaganda fodder about the President’s performance on the debt relief issue relative to the IMF and WB. I am beginning to get the impression the ‘President’s spinner’ would be better off being a spokesperson for both institutions.
Look, it is not like I am unaware of the debt reduction fight waged by the President, for even the Inter-American Development Bank, in one of its writings on President Jagdeo, said he made “debt relief a foremost priority of his administration.

He has been quite successful, getting US$800 million of debt written off by the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in addition to millions more from other industrial nations.
Mr. Jagdeo was lauded by IDB President Moreno for his strong leadership and negotiating skills in pursuing debt relief for Guyana and several other regional countries.”

This is straightforward stuff: Guyana borrowed money during the PNC era and did not repay in a timely manner so the creditors set up a system with rules and by simply playing by the rules, most of the debt was forgiven or written off during the PPP era. But debt relief is not the ‘be all and end all’ of Guyana’s economy, and after all that noise the PPP made over the debt inherited, I would have expected the PPP Government to come into power and borrow less by relying more on generating foreign income from exports via constructive exploitation of our natural resources.

The truth is, while the PNC debt was being written off, the Jagdeo Administration was borrowing fresh loans, and even though I don’t have a ball park figure of total fresh loans taken by the administration took as of April 30, the last ‘unofficial figure’ I read a few months back was in excess of US$750M. As it now stands, we are filling up one debt hole while digging another debt hole.

In this the 17th year of the PPP’s return to power, we should be talking about how we are doing constructively exploiting our country’s natural resources rather than being bogged down with the President’s performance dealing with the IMF/WB on debt relief, and continually blaming the PNC.
It’s almost like the PPP came back to power without a major economic plan, and so the President, who took over in 1999, was left to make debt relief his number one priority; but Guyana has the potential to do better than just focusing on debt relief.
On the WB’s Web site, this is what I read under ‘Country brief’ on Guyana: “With its natural resource endowments, proximity to North America, temperate climate and areas of natural beauty, Guyana has the potential for growth and investment in a range of sectors.”

These words readily caught my eyes: “natural resource endowments,” and “potential for growth and investment” and they reinforced my contention all along that Guyana has the resources and potential to do greater than it is doing right now focusing on debt relief and borrowing fresh loans, and that’s why it makes me rather angry when Guyanese have to contend not only with a visionless President, but caved-in supporters, like Dr. Misir, who brag about debt relief (even as his Government does its share of borrowing) and even as the economy underperforms and under achieves.

Three per cent economic growth in 2008 may be commendable, but that is negligible when Guyana has an economy with great potential and still has the second worst economic standing in the hemisphere.
Dr. Misir doesn’t get it that ordinary Guyanese want to know why is it that this remarkable performance by the Jagdeo Administration on debt relief is not translated into our fellow West Indians fleeing to Guyana as opposed to Guyanese fleeing to Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, and other small islands that don’t have a quarter of the natural resources we have?

This is why I say he needs a reality check, because data and stats make good fodder for political propaganda purposes, but they mean nothing to the ordinary man who knows that Guyana has the potential to make life better for everyone of its 700,000 inhabitants.
Meanwhile, under his sub-heading ‘Media Front’, Dr. Misir also continued his delusional fulminations about ‘increasing media freedom’ and ‘freedom of speech’ in Guyana that really did little to counter the several case references I made in my last letter about President Jagdeo’s autocratic style in dealing with the private media.

And while he continued his boast about free speech and free media in Guyana, I want readers to note that he steered clear of mentioning Government’s continued monopoly on radio.
It is also instructive to note that despite denying the President behaves like an autocrat, Dr. Misir was blindsided by the same President who ordered that the NCN Board (of which Dr. Misir is Chairman) to rescind the suspension letter issued to the NCN CEO for insubordination.
What sort of political system is Dr. Misir working with where a decision taken privately by Board members is embarrassingly overturned in public by the President?

Last year, when the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting decided not to take any action against CN Sharma, the President ignored the ACB and personally intervened and publicly suspended Sharma’s TV licence!
Why do we need Government appointed bodies and boards that can be politically manipulated or even rendered ineffective by a President unless the President has a propensity for autocracy?
I can only hope Dr. Misir’s does his own reality check and not wait for someone to give it to him in Guyana’s current political culture, or else he may be forced to wing it back to New York hurriedly and find a real job doing real work.
Emile Mervin

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