How credible are these figures Mr. Sanders is throwing around?

Jun 20, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Having read Ronald Sanders’ articles, “The Politics of Leadership: Guyana and its Presidency” and “The Politics of Leadership: Part 2 of Guyana and its Presidency”, serious questions are being raised and are deserving of answers.
Mr. Sanders said “the new President will also inherit from Bharrat Jagdeo’s stewardship a country whose economic situation and social services are better than they have been for three decades.” And “An economic basket case for 25 years since 1976, Guyana has moved from being a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HPIC) with little or no economic growth to steady growth today. In 2009, Guyana recorded 3.3 per cent growth; public debt fell from 93.1 percent of GDP as of end – 2006 to 56.8 percent of GDP in 2009.” How credible are these figures Mr. Sanders is throwing around?
The Caribbean renowned economist Dr. Clive Thomas is on record speaking to the issue of claimed ‘economic growth’ which President Jagdeo boasted of at Babu John last March. Professor Clive Thomas is quoted in Demerara Waves of March 8 saying that “separate studies done by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and economists at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Guyana (UG) show that the underground economy makes up 50 percent of Guyana’s economy.”
He goes on to say that “I didn’t believe he gave any factual evidence; to the contrary the studies we have done show that the drug-sector of the economy which I consider to be the phantom economy or parallel economy dedicated to part of the illicit trade, those I think represent approximately 50 percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).”
Guyana is a nation of laws and no law-abiding person should find comfort in flaunting a nation’s illegitimate economic gain. Rather it should be a civic responsibility of every law-abiding person to delineate and condemn it, then analyse growth using legitimate acquired economic indices.
Only so this country can get back to a nation being respected as one that pursues economic growth legitimately.
Organisations and individuals who believe in and support law and order must expose the falsification being thrown out for public consumption which will inevitability be used as a source of future reference to perpetuate more myths to prop up and give legitimacy to the criminal narco-economy managed by President Jagdeo.
Less we forget, in our society whenever Sanders speaks or writes his words carry weight.
Thus since we are dealing with the nation’s economic wellbeing, then in the interest of the nation, Sanders is not above being fact checked and corrected.
The same applies to his writing about the PNC’s legacy and the influencing of his first article based on an un-authored circulated email which was used to produce a ‘serious’ piece.
If public figures are not necessarily pre-disposed to seek authenticity or are making genuine mistakes then in the interest of Guyana, people must not be timid in playing their role to hold them accountable.
Name and Address Withheld

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