Have the past 18 years been anything more than a poorly put together comedy bit?

Dec 20, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Someone mentioned a few days ago that the Mark Benschop saga at Le Repentir Cemetery and the subsequent police action, at 10 pm outside his house was comical. Well dare I ask is that not the modus operandi of this government? Have the past 18 years been anything more than a poorly put together comedy bit?
How more comical does it get that the President of this country blames the CLICO meltdown on “bad investments” or the bankrupting of NIS as “bad investment”, this same comedy extends itself to the now ex CEO and political appointee on GuySuCo’s board Ms. Gita Singh Knight where the President claimed that she was somehow a valuable player in business and we should not blame the collapse of CLICO on Ms. Singh even though I will remind readers that she stood right next to that same President during the collapse of CLICO and boldly pronounced that CLICO Guyana was safe financially and nothing would bring it down.
Now we are al very aware that she was lying to the Guyanese public, but she must have felt quite comfortable doing this after all who else was by her side when all these shenanigans were taking place? None other than Mr. Bad Investment himself.
So when we see the comedy now taking place between GAWU and GuySuCo you have to just look and laugh because you know that they are just creating drama for the sake of creating drama. GAWU is well aware that GuySuCo is bankrupt and regardless of what the PPP or anyone else does this ‘elephant’ will suffer the same fate as many of the PPP experiments of the past 18 years and proceed straight to the Le Repentir Cemetery.
This government has no business acumen, zero and when the President and all the other delusional PPP comrades put up their hands and pretend they understand business and how to stimulate financial growth in Guyana this is another show ready for prime time at the Cultural Center.
This President seems to lose his memory conveniently when he makes claims about bad investments, he failed to justify to the people of this country financially or logically how giving US$68 million to a hotel would benefit the Guyanese taxpayer. He boldly predicted the World Cup would be such a major success and that also was yet another colossal failure financially. Where is the business sense in any of these deals? Now this same President is in a major war of words with one of the top legitimate entrepreneurs in this country battling about what do you ask?
Yes another comical idea build another hotel and give US$20 million to repeat the same sick excuse of a mistake of a so-called investment and again force the Guyanese taxpayer to bear the burden. How can this be just and fair governance?
This same President and his top health comrade are purchasing drugs through a company which is owned by a close associate of yes none other than Mr. Jagdeo himself. In the process of doing so they are breaking all the laws of the country.
Now speaking of business acumen again are we to believe that this particular company somehow has more buying power than the entire government of Guyana that they can negotiate better prices than if Mr. Ramsammy were to purchase pharmaceuticals directly from companies in India like Reddy Labs? Come on now this is no laughing matter for the Guyanese taxpayers who continue to fatten the Presidential posse.
The problem is that with all this comedy we the people are starting to get belly wuk, it is reminiscent of when Burnham had banned flour and a lot of people were getting sick with Beri Beri.
This is no different we are getting sick of Jadoeri. Burnham was very good at predicting the needs of this country and he knew we would need good platforms for the PPP and their comedy shows thus he built the Cultural Center and got a few TV stations on the air, the man must be given credit for his foresight.
How can a government that taxes its citizens at 16% VAT and has Corporate taxes at 45% claim that they are pro business? Is this another poor joke?
What this government is doing is making the tax system so intolerable that they are forcing citizens to become criminals, because one cannot live or climb out of poverty in such a system of high and unjust taxation and of course if you commit a crime then you have to beg the government for forgiveness and this is how the cycle of high dependency begins.
Of course the lives of the average Guyanese and the economic pressures of the day does not seem to be a problem for this government because after all the underground economy is flowing and doing quite well and many of the top “businessmen” (note editor I did not say entrepreneurs) are very tight with the PPP. Show me one top businessman doing extremely well in Guyana who has no relationship with the PPP.
What a shameless display of arrogance. After all these laughs, however, one must responsibly caution the PPP and Mr. Jagdeo that tears are going to flow and when that commences then we will see a different kind of dancing. To quote an old Guyanese saying “monkey seh cool breeze a blow he nah know fiah deh a he rass”.
Brandon Samaroo

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