They don’t even know who they’re selling out Guyana to!

Apr 14, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
There is incompetence and then there is gross incompetence. The PPP government manifests the latter in all its horrific glory.
This is no longer an issue of bad decision-making or bad governance or even bad leadership, because you have all of those amidst brilliant minds and comprehensive decision-making, although not for any sustained basis. This is really an issue of intellectual backwardness or as many Guyanese would say, prolific dunce-ness within the PPP.
While many in the upper echelons of power may make decisions based on how they can personally benefit, I strongly believe the majority of decisions are made in a haphazard and unstudied manner, because the mental capacity of those atop the heap is simply not good enough to conduct the kind of deep analysis when making decisions to weigh pros and cons and to make a proper decision.
I’m going to say what many in this country, including their own supporters think; the PPP hierarchy and those controlling the power strings are plain and simple mostly dunces when it comes to applying intellect to ensure Guyana gains maximum value from any deal.
Now, not all decisions are poor but the large majority of decisions are. The problem gets bigger considering the large sums of taxpayers’ money being spent or huge sums borrowed in taxpayers’ name, which will have to be repaid by us, our children and grandchildren. These guys simply cannot make good decisions because they are not intellectually open-minded and detail-oriented in that sense. When you add the selfish need by some to corrupt the process, it further weakens the decision-making process, as the need by some to fill their pockets undermines the quality of the decision-making.
There are a few brainiacs in the PPP, but they are far and between or are largely established outside of Guyana. The PNC/APNU has the same problem. They are a pack of mental midgets, too, who will do the same thing as the PPP if elected. They proved that to Guyana for 28 years.
An example of where such substandard intelligence was displayed by the PPP was regarding the sale of the government’s shares in GT&T. I have already examined the stupidity at play in selling an asset which brought in a guaranteed $500 million every year from a company that enjoys a monopoly and which would still be pack leader if the telecoms industry is liberalised.
Further, who in their right mind sells a vital revenue-earning asset when a country is seeking oil and if it finds oil, the asset price and value will escalate due to economic improvement? Only the mental midgets in the PPP. Furthermore, the buyers get to pay US$5million of the purchase price with the sale revenues from GT&T over two years. So really, the PPP sold the shares for US$25 million, not US$30 million.
Where the duncified behaviour gets downright despicable is when the names of the buyers of the GT&T shares were revealed. The US and Britain expressed concern about these companies being linked to the People’s Liberation Army and alleged that they were spying for China.
Let me do some thinking for the mindless sieves who are making decisions for this country. If these companies are engaging in subterfuge, how does their purchase of a local company owned by a US parent company play out? Will we see a titanic struggle between shareholders of a vital corporation because of underlying mistrust by both significant shareholders? Will these companies insist they have a right as a shareholder to sell equipment and services to GT&T, which refuses? What implications does that have for Guyana and for smaller shareholders? If Guyana liberalises its telecoms industry, aren’t these companies accused of spying by the US and Britain going to have the ability to bid for new contracts by virtue of their involvement in the telecoms industry in Guyana, an advantage handed to them by the totally reckless PPP? Will these companies be spying on the Guyanese public? Look, the Americans and British may just be paranoid, but there is no justification for the PPP to sell these money-making GT&T shares even if these Chinese companies are as clean as a whistle.
Did the PPP ever look at whether this sale of nationally important shares is a proper decision in light of China’s cozy relationship with Chavez’s Venezuela, which recently moved large numbers of troops to our border and has reopened its claim to two-thirds of Guyana? Do these carnival thinkers ever really think of the full extent of the consequences of their actions? Do they know how to analyse and to reason with the paramountcy of the nation at the heart of that analysis? The irony is that the Chinese have already analysed all of these scenarios and know with a great degree of certainty the outcomes while the banana republicans play in the mud.
M. Maxwell

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