THE PPP’S 2011 MANIFESTO

Nov 13, 2011 News

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APNU Column…

A Brave New World?

The usual pictures of Bharrat Jagdeo are missing from the PPP/C 2011 Manifesto. Thank goodness, for he has cast a shadow over this country that no-one could have imagined possible in 1997.
In addition to the abuse of power by the Presidency and executive lawlessness, Guyanese face corruption, discrimination, growth without employment, capricious decision-making and inadequate levels of investment. The result has been chronic and growing income inequality along with public squalor alongside private affluence.
It is in this context that Donald Ramotar’s message in the PPP manifesto has to be judged. Mr Ramotar offers a blueprint that is ‘ambitious, realistic and transformative’. The case is based on the demonstrated capacity of the PPP over the last two decades.
Typically, comparisons are made with 28 years of PNC Government but different years are used for comparison and when 1992 is not convenient it is ignored or simply attributed to PPP policies.
The allegation that, “we inherited a bankrupt economy…” is restated in many forms. Actually, in October 1992 foreign exchange reserves stood at record levels having exceeded the agreed target in 1991. Real GDP grew by 6.1 per cent in 1991 and this improvement continued in 1992 and 1993 with GDP growing by 7.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively.
The agricultural sector, the mainstay of the Guyanese economy, grew at 16% and 28% in 1991 and 1992, respectively.
These are not the indicators of a bankrupt economy.
The Manifesto repeats the same ignorant use of GDP figures for which Mr Persaud was recently chastised by Mr Christopher Ram and Professor Thomas. It also falsely claimed that in the post-1992 period we have had uninterrupted positive growth. The PPP is praised for solving the external debt problem but the problem currently posed by a rapidly expanding domestic debt of US$88bn is not mentioned.
In this attempt to show how well the PPP has done, no reference is made to how Guyana has fared compared with the rest of the region. In this Manifesto, there is no explicit reference to foreign policy although the programme itself has implications for such policy. The same may be said of governance and economic decision-making. So, whereas the APNU’s Unity Charter and Manifesto give prominence to Constitutional Reform, protection of the Judiciary from the abuses about which Justices Jainarayan Singh and Doodnauth Singh so bitterly complained last year, the PPP/C Manifesto is mum in the mater.
The PPP’s philosophy and guiding principles promise to ensure the continuation of the ‘highest standards of accountability and integrity’  ….. ‘going forward ‘ (p5). Unlike the APNU, there is no intention to establish predictable rules governing investment or to implement laws on Government procurement, two of the most grievous areas of corruption and lack of accountability.
Eighteen years after Dr Jagan appointed an internal body chaired by Mrs Jagan to investigate such matters there have been endless scams, no report and practically no prosecutions of consequence.
Mr Ramotar singled out the following projects as key to his programme:
•    hydropower
•    the new fibre-optic cable
•    a deep water harbour
•    an all-weather road to Brazil and
•    a Bridge to Suriname
Every single one of these projects is associated with allegations of corrupt transactions and irregularities. Amaila promises to deliver the world’s most expensive power from a hydro facility.
APNU has reserved the right to review all the contracts associated with such projects and the last minute agreements being signed with reputable and other investors.
The figures on energy the figures are at variance with GPL’s published figures on generation, for example, and in spite of all the PPP’s achievements, more electricity is available per capita in the rest of the Caribbean than in Guyana.
In boasting (inaccurately) about low (30%) transmission losses, no reference is made to the fact that in the LAC region the comparable figure is 13.5%. There is no promise to fix the disgracefully inefficient GPL and its notorious practices such as discrimination in disconnections. Amaila will solve everything!
The programme
‘This Guyana will be a land of prosperity and opportunity’ (p5) but no new initiatives are proposed to ensure this. The intention is to continue with the Jagdeo mould, flawed as it is.
The authors make reference to nation-wide consultation which has informed the strategies it is proposing but the documents on which the strategies are based are in some cases, such as the National Development Strategy, already over 10 years old during which time they have not been implemented. The reason is simple the Poverty Reduction Strategy and National Competitiveness Strategies were fashioned merely to satisfy Donors.
Macro-economic stability
Guyana’s national statistics are a trap for the unwary. The PPP’s ‘re-basing’ of Guyana’s economic statistics may have helped spruce up the appearance of economic performance since 2006 but it has made meaningful comparisons pre-and post 2006 impossible.
As part of its macro-economic policy the PPP proposes to spend more on Government employees in future. It does spell out the basis and one is left to wonder whether it will do so on the same basis at which it arrived at the President’s own outrageous retirement package. In my comment on this year’s Budget, I made mention of the provision of 11% for emoluments for the Public Service.
The provision was made in the Budget and then we had the farce of negotiations with teachers and others for 3% and 5%. If 8% could be paid in November as has now been announced, it could have been paid in January. But a January payment would not have the same impact on the PPP/C’s electoral fortune as an immediate pre-election payout.
What has become of the remaining sum budgeted and approved by Parliament?
There is also a promise of more regulation and legislation. However, the lesson of CLICO was enforcement failure and abuse of power not the absence of legislation. There is also a promise to complete tax reforms, to re-invigorate Local Government and to hold LG elections before end of 2012!!!  (P 40). We shall not hold our breath over these promises.
There is a promise to build a more effective and responsive public administration with the aid of outsourcing. Outsourcing and e-Governance have so far been used to effectively disenfranchise some segments of the community and wage a war against perceived critics including some newspapers.
The suicide of 31-year-old Godwin Maxwell who faced nine charges in 2010 for holding an annual dance to commemorate the murder of three young Black villagers in Mahaicony demonstrates vividly the cost that many segments and individuals pay for the PPP abuse of these tools and state agencies such as the GRA.
Ramotar’s introduction, makes great play of ICT as ‘the enabler’ and of the provision of computers to (all or poor?) families but nothing allays the public’s fear that under this project Government will continue the illegal collection of information on the public and dissidents.
We live in a country where one Minster is already embroiled in a phone hacking and torture scandal, the Office of the President has been linked to payments to police officers and soldiers for tapping into phone calls and internet traffic, not to mention the soliciting of young boys for sex by an OP staff member.
In any case, development does not come from computer hardware and physical infrastructure alone. There are key requirements regarding the cost of internet services, the human resources and institutions.
For this initiative to make a meaningful contribution to household welfare there has to be an examination and analysis of household information needs, decision-making processes and activities.
Modernisation
The promise to modernize the productive sector is mostly about agriculture especially rice and sugar. Some of the discussion is confused in that under discussion of diversification of agriculture you will find, (P21) mining and quarrying, bauxite, gold and manganese.
Transparency is no more evident in the Manifesto than it has been in policy. It is silent on the agreements already signed with Canadian companies in particular and the impact assessments, if any, of hinterland communities and it points to no alternative policies for the development of bauxite given that the Chinese have indicated that they view alumina refining in Guyana as infeasible.
The photographs (p19) accompanying the discussion demonstrate the use of chainsaws in forestry, cane harvesting by hand, the washing of gold by hand etc and like the discussion little attention is paid to industry. Is this the PPP’s idea of modern methods and modern industry?
Education
Education policy has been characterized by putting in place infrastructure while undermining institutional and organizational structures and staff morale. The absurdity of the ‘No child left behind’ policy and excessive political control are felt when schools as far apart as Grove, QC and Berbice High School and, their PTAs find themselves at loggerheads with the Government.
No resolution is promised on these vexed questions of governance and political interference.
Conclusion
Is this, then, a Ramotar document with his distinctive stamp?  Well, yes and no!
It is a story of continuity of the bad and the worse – more Jagdeo – In keeping with Ramotar’s style, it is silent on how, if at all, the most burning issues of the day such as sweetheart deals, low investment, public squalor and private affluence will be tackled.
The proposed policies cannot therefore be expected to eliminate these ills except by accident.

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