Is the President making contingency plans for his retirement?

Jul 18, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,

I write to commend Mr. Emile Mervin on an excellent letter that raises some very troubling questions (“The govt.’s role in the revived Marriott hotel project demands sound business explanations”, Kaieteur News of July 15).

In a previous letter, I wrote that tourism in Guyana is at best budding, and at worst, nonexistent. For instance, in 2005 (the last year I can find comparative figures), Guyana was rated 112 in the world with an annual International Tourism Receipts of US$37 million, compared to Trinidad & Tobago: US$661 million; Barbados: US$905 million; and Cuba: US$1.92 billion, despite all the travel restrictions imposed by the US Government.

The Guyana Tourism Receipts recorded a steady annual decline from US$115 million in 1997, to US$37 million in 2005, with nothing to indicate an improvement to date. International tourism receipts are expenditures by international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport. These receipts should also include any other prepayment made for goods or services received in Guyana (source: World Development Indicators database).

Guyana simply do not have the level of tourism to justify the massive expenditure associated with the construction of the proposed Georgetown Marriott Hotel & Casino. I’m sure that the managements of Pegasus Hotel and Princess Hotel & Casino are not happy with their hotels’ current occupancy rate; and so one has to wonder, “What’s all the rush Mr. President?”

Let me reiterate the following: before the Guyana Tourist Board can attract a steady flow of visitors to our shores, the following must be realised:

The Authorities must significantly reduce crime such as murder, purse and jewellery snatching, and rape.

Clean up and beautify Georgetown by the frequent removal of garbage, unblock the drains to allow the free flow of flood waters, manicure the grassy embankments, relocate street vendors and demolish all those derelict buildings that are haven for thieves.

Retrain the Guyana Police in public relations; prevent them from stopping and searching vehicles without probable cause, for this alone will lead to a flurry of law suits by US tourists for violation of their civil rights; and

remove those intimidating gun-slinging black-clothes police with machine guns, from walking in heavily populated shopping areas reminiscent of a police state.Significantly reduce corruption and the common practice of bribery, and improve the main roads with proper markings, street lights and signs; construct a new road from the airport to Georgetown; and impound cows and horses roaming the streets at the risk of causing death or serious vehicular injury to the very tourist we’re trying to encourage.

It only takes one report of a tourist being raped, murdered, or robbed for tour operators worldwide to redirect their clients to other tourist destinations. Anyone doubting this should ask the Barbados Tourist Board for advice. And so it comes back to Mr. Emile Mervin’s unanswered question, “Why is the government insistent on investing taxpayers’ money in a project that is not guaranteed to deliver positive returns in a bleak tourism market?”

Although only President Jagdeo actually knows this, I will attempt to do so in lieu of his willingness to provide this answer: There are two possible reasons that require this Marriott project to be expedited. Is it possible that:

For some unknown reason, the President is hell bent on putting both Pegasus and Princess Hotel & Casino out of business?

The President has a ton of money that he has accumulated over the years in power, and that he may be the ‘private investor’ that nobody seems to know about?

In a country without a reliable tourism market, where the locals are not allowed to gamble at the sole casino at Princess Hotel, and if they were, very few could afford to do so; why the rush to build a second casino?

Apart from related illicit financial activity in the commercial real estate sector, is the President aware that one of the easiest ways of laundering money is through casinos?

With President Jagdeo unlikely to be given a third term, and with possibility of the PPP/C being thrown out of office next year, is the President making contingency plans for his retirement? Could this be another reason he sees the need to sue Kaieteur News? I wonder.

Harry Gill