Donald Ramotar has to go to war with the Jagdeoites at some point to fix the PPP

Apr 10, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Guyanese must be incredibly strong and tough people to take this kind of kicking and slapping and still turning the other cheek.
Kaieteur News, as is customary and in what seems like a daily thing, found the PPP government sold its shares in GT&T to a secret Chinese investor for US$30 million. It is corruption when a government tries to secretly sell its holdings in one of the largest local companies without fully informing the public. It is reprehensible.
However, beyond the secrecy and the hide and seek, there is a bigger problem afoot here. It comes down to what Kaieteur News has used as its mantra when it exposes this PPP stench of corruption on a daily basis; value for money and proper decision-making.
The deal is really US$25 million, not US$30 million, because the US$5 million which the buyers will have to pay will be paid by GT&T at US $2.5 million per year over 2 years. At US$2.5 million per year in dividends, the PPP government would have collected US $25 million in 10 years at a return on investment of 10% per annum, which is very good returns for an established industry such as telecommunications. If that US $2.5 million yearly dividend is reinvested yearly in another venture and earns 10% somewhere else, the investor will acquire at least 200% return on their investment. Now, the Chinese investors will obtain that benefit.
The government’s worry about liberalization of the telecom sector is a joke of an excuse. GT&T has a monopoly and will be difficult to dislodge. The PPP played an integral role in preserving that monopoly. What is probably the biggest insult in this fiasco and the most telling insight into the intellectual shallowness of this PPP government and its lack of strategic brainpower, a sense of patriotism and respect for our national patrimony, is the decision to hound the investors to return to the table after they initially said no.
It is not only that these narrow-minded thinkers pursued these investors, it is the fact that they decided to relinquish a guaranteed 10% return on an investment after handing out thousands of laptops in the One Laptop Per Family program. How dimwitted could these guys sitting in Cabinet be to think that after handing out laptops to thousands of families in this country with one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the hemisphere, the people of this country will not eventually want the internet and that GT&T’s virtual monopoly will not be a boon to its stock?
What kind of mental mass index is really operating in the PPP government that they cannot see the need to wait until the search for oil is complete before they sell this entire country away for a bag of rocks? Which government in its right mind publicly states that it is enthusiastic about finding oil, yet devalues the assets it holds on behalf of the people, to sell it away for next to nothing to give a foreign investor the chance to get a healthy return?
It is simple; if you find oil, the value of GT&T shares will skyrocket within the next decade. Look at the telecoms industry in every major oil country after discovery of oil. Why not wait until you know if oil is found or not before making a dumb deal?
Why make yourself a complete fool by giving away the birthright of this country because you lack the acumen and intelligence to see things in their proper perspective? Why not create a public company and publicly sell the shares to the Guyanese people who will benefit from any future rise in GT&T’s fortunes. There are many Guyanese, yes Guyanese, who could collectively purchase these shares. This kind of absurdity when it comes to making decisions involving the people’s money has to stop.
When you add backward decision-making to corrupt conduct, you get a constant flow of sewage. This is the problem with the PPP, and not just this deal, but every single deal. These men can’t see beyond their own noses. They don’t think beyond the short term. They can’t see a future because they have absolutely no clue what a future looks like.
President Ramotar cannot right the ship because while personally decent, he appears incapable of thinking big picture and is trapped in party paramountcy. He is unsure and still finding his footing and his overt reliance on the sidewinders around him will continue to strangle him. This country will continue to stumble from crisis to idiocy until something or someone truly trustworthy emerges on the scene.
I believe Donald Ramotar has to go to war with the Jagdeoites at some point to fix the PPP. In the meantime, the people of Guyana have to wake up to this reckless decision-making that is taking money from their pockets.
M. Maxwell

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