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The PPP gets three house-lots

Oct 02, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is no end to the depravity of power in Guyana under the PPP. The degeneracy of the PPP is going to cause this country to explode. None of the friendly organizations that support the PPP has the decency to confront the PPP on the madness that has engulfed the party of the supposedly great one, Cheddi Jagan.
There is no reason in economics and business management for the Government of Guyana to give a political party three house lots. There are strict guidelines for obtaining a house lot. The distribution of house lots is fundamentally a poverty alleviation policy. Its basic motive is to allow families that cannot afford market rate prices to build a home.
There are four types of house-lot projects. The first is squatter regularization. This is a programme whereby squatters are allowed to keep the land on which they have erected a structure but the Ministry intervenes to stop the wild occupation of state lands and to oversee an orderly process.
In this case the land is already occupied but the squatters are placed in a register system, Sophia has been the main target of regularization. Secondly, there is the low income project. This allows families to purchase house lots at an affordable price usually from $80, 000 to $100,000.
The Ministry’s policy was to restrict purchase in this category to families that have children rather than parentless couples. That has been removed but I don’t know if it means anything since preference will be given to couples with children.
Thirdly, there is the middle income bracket. Each unit in this classification costs a million dollars. It is intended for white collar workers on the journey upwards.
Finally, there is the private housing developers’ scheme. This is a situation in which the state sells lands to developers and the agreement is that the houses would not be outside the prevailing market range.
But in the end the developers have to make a profit. Examples of this pattern would be Buddy Shivraj and Roger Khan on the East Bank and National Hardware in Eccles. In a previous article on house lots a few months back, I made the point that it was one of the nastiest policies a government in the history of this country could have embarked on.
In that article I looked at the ethnic basis. One race group exceeds the other by leaps and bounds in terms of acquisition. This is wrong and it is tragic.
There are rules governing house lot distribution of which one of them is well known to all Guyanese – you cannot own prior property. The Ministry makes a check to see if the applicant has property. This would disqualify the PPP automatically. The PPP owns Freedom House. It has a huge piece of real estate in Industrial Park at Ruimveldt that houses the Mirror newspaper. It has properties in many parts of Guyana, including New Amsterdam.
The PPP, by virtue of its wealth, should not apply for house lots.
Who paid for the West Indian cricketers to perform in two matches here two weeks ago? That was an expensive affair. The PPP had to pay those cricketers. It was not a state event.
How can a rich party with so much funds be allowed to have three house lots? What are the opposition parties going to do about it?
There are two routes of which only one is available to the opposition parties. They can apply for a piece of Guyana just as the PPP did in West Berbice.
It depends on where the lots are being distributed. The party can then build and rent the houses thus having a steady income.
Or they can use the construction for party purposes. The second avenue is to oppose political parties getting house lots as a matter of principles and therefore pledge to pass laws to retake those lots if they win the forthcoming elections.
A housing policy of a government to provide the poorer classes and middle income families with a roof under their head should never, I repeat never including giving lands way to political parties.
The question that has to be asked is whether the PPP hasn’t got more house lots before these three in West Berbice were discovered. There may be related question of an intriguing and distasteful nature.
Have there been divestments if which the PPP as a party acquired the assets but an unknown name is the front person.
A senior Caribbean journalist told me that the PPP doesn’t mind losing the next election. Why should it care? It already legally owns most of Guyana. You think the PNC was bad when it ruled. Look at the PPP in 2009.

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