Enriching their friends at the expense of the little man

Jun 21, 2012 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Someone once told me that corruption was worse than prostitution; because the latter endangers the morals of an individual, but the former endangers the morals of an entire nation.
The lengths to which the current ruling clique have gone to enrich themselves and their friends is simply mind-boggling in size and scope.
The audacity of some of the main players goes way beyond mere eye-pass. For the last few weeks I have been monitoring the local print media and what I found, while not surprising, made me angry.
For the last few weeks the Guyana Times, a newspaper with questionable ties to past senior administration officials and one with a miniscule circulation at best, has received a disproportionate amount of government advertisement.
In addition to that, the PPP party organ, the Mirror, a newspaper that many people may be surprised to know still exists, and one which by all accounts is given away, receives millions of taxpayer dollars in government ads.
Yes it is true that the government of Guyana has the right to advertise with any entity, but let us not forget that the government is answerable to the people.
The money that the government spends is not the PPP/C’s money, that money is the people’s money, yours and mine. Most of us work hard for our money and we demand value for our money.
We would not want to entrust our hard earned cash to someone who would waste it or buy a beer for $1000 dollars when that beer retails for $100.
If we had to advertise we would not want to advertise in a paper with a poor or non-existent circulation, but instead we want to give our message the best possible opportunity to achieve the greatest visibility. We would not waste our money advertising in papers that people don’t read.
Last Sunday in the weekend edition of the PPP Mirror there were 15 pages of government ads. Three of those pages were full-page ads. The Guyana Times had several pages of government ads. In fact the breakdown of advertisement per inches of newsprint in last Sunday’s newspapers was as follows; Mirror 641 column inches; Guyana Times 166 column inches; Stabroek News 139 column inches and Kaieteur News 55 column inches.
The numbers show a clear pattern of favouring the Mirror and Guyana Times and the bias must be seen for what it is, a corrupt practice to enrich the party and their friends.
I would have no quarrel with these people if they were spending their own money, but this is our money. The practice of this government of using our money to enrich themselves and their friends must stop. NICIL has our money, yet they don’t want to tell us what is in, essentially, our bank book. But they spend from it like a sailor on shore leave. This must end.
There are so many glaring examples of the government wasting our hard-earned cash and we the people not getting value for our money, while the friends and associates of the ruling Cabal get rich with our money.
This pattern of institutionalized corruption must end and the PPP must stop hiding behind its walls of incompetence and face the nation with the truth.
It is my hope that the third branch of government, the judiciary, is paying keen attention and building a strong case against the wrong-doers. For every day it becomes clearer that the PPP as a government lacks the political will and is not interested in putting an end to the status quo.
That corruption in Guyana has become so all-pervasive that none is exempt, may not be farfetched. My only hope is that there are still a few good men and women left to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done.
Mark Archer

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Enriching their friends at the expense of the little man

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