Holding the office of Chief Public Servant has been an exploitative venture for Jagdeo

Jul 03, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In President Jagdeo’s Independence Address to the nation he said serving the people has been the greatest honour of his life.
When this statement is weighed against the President’s mismanagement of the society and the personal benefits he has accrued and will continue to accrue from holding such office, it would reveal that he has used the office to enrich himself unknown to previous Presidents and probably even beyond his wildest imaginations.
This Head-of State has created a plantation society, placing himself firmly in the group of the haves, while creating and ensuring an increasing number of have-nots.
President Jagdeo is again on a world tour. Unlike Heads-of- State who recognise the office they hold is one of privilege and in service to the people and would account to them the reason(s) for overseas trips and benefits to the nation, this President continues to withhold information in contempt of the citizens.
This contempt also includes heavy cost to the already over-burdened taxpaying public.  Additionally to funding the overseas trips, the President receives US$5,000 out-of-pocket allowance for each trip, which he does not have to account for.
This is unprecedented. In the past, Presidents were legally obligated to account for monies received for overseas trip, but Jagdeo has put himself above the law.
On the other hand, the rank and file worker is being asked to uphold the law and account for every cent of the public’s money entrusted to him/her.
His act clearly indicates that the laws are not for him and his prime objective is to enrich himself at the expense of the citizens.
If one were to count the amount of overseas trips, times the amount of US$5,000 Jagdeo receives, it exposes the ugly underbelly of what he means when he says serving the people has been the greatest honour of his life.
As he gets unscrupulously rich off us, he runs a society where unemployment and food prices are skyrocketing; forced migration remains unabated; real wages/salaries are declining; young people are being denied employment opportunities inspite of their potentials, zeal and stake in the country; the narco-economy has merged with the formal economy; escalating executive lawlessness, crime, poverty, discrimination and ethnic conflicts; and disregard for constitutional rights.
Other evident failures are seen in the avoidance/minimization of flooding and the effects of disinvestment in proper drainage and irrigation to eliminate/minimise loss of lives and properties, and illnesses.
The absence of effective and efficient preventative management gives the government the opportunity to turn up after each flood or disaster under the guise that they are concerned about the tragic state affected communities find themselves. In fact, it continues to be an ugly game of playing politics with people’s lives because disaster after disaster people are kept at the same level of deprivation and on many occasions, taken further down the economic ladder.
Further, it masked an inhumane policy to keep the populace at a deprived economic status, to create a sense of dependency for the President to walk in doling out our money to us as though it is his.
The parliamentary majority maintains their silence to these atrocities and abuses, and uses their numerical strength to approve more overspending and mismanagement.
For their complicity they are rewarded contracts and employment for their friends and family, large tracks of state land, and other acts of misdeeds and impropriety.
The draconian 16 percent VAT and 33.3 percent PAYE continue to reduce disposal income of the ordinary workers as the President, Ministers and other officials enjoy tax-free income.
It is a case where the ordinary workers bear the greatest responsibility for financing the economy while these officials run free. More burden is the President’s retirement benefit package.
In summary, for every US$5,000 President Jagdeo takes from workers, while in office, with the minimum wage at $35,000.00, he has denied a potential worker 2 ½ years employment, a current worker an opportunity to a make a livable wage/salary, or a retired worker better pension or social services.
And when he goes into retirement he will collect a monthly pension of 1 million dollars for the rest of his life, among other amenities. With life expectancy around 66 years and the President at age 47, the workers are saddled with this Cadillac pension for the next 19 years.
There can be no greatest honour robbing the public, such behaviour falls in the category of ruthlessness. Holding the office of Chief Public Servant has been an exploitative venture for Jagdeo who has accorded himself windfalls on the workers’ backs, and in the process created a society of lawlessness, disorder, inequity and underdevelopment.
Lincoln Lewis

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