Where is the self-respect in governance?

Oct 06, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As the saying goes, the more things change the more they remain the same. This is very true of the relationship between the poor and the working class and the PPP regime. Ever since Mr. Donald Ramotar took office, Guyanese have not been able to escape his monologue and prescription on how to heal their economic and social wounds brought on by the PPP regime’s bad policies.  These policies are not just simply bad any more, but they have become cancerous on their lives.  As Jagdeo said “ta-ta” to them last December, President Ramotar told the nation that changes are coming but ten moths after, the people are yet to see those changes. For example, the living standards of the poor and the working class have not improved; corruption remains rampant and salaries for the working class have not increased.
For many, especially the poor and the working class, things have gotten worse. Cost of living has gone through the roof, the electricity rates are one of the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the cost of transportation is subject to the excise taxes controlled by the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime.
Yet this unconscionable Jagdeo/Ramotar regime cannot grant the poor and the working class a decent living wage.  Instead, they are being given more promises while the princelings of the PPP build more and more “Taj Mahals” on prime ocean front properties at Pradoville and at Leonora.
As we approach a full year of President Ramotar’s administration, the poor and the working class continue to struggle to feed their children and there are more unemployed youths in the streets.
With all the borrowing and reckless spending the PPP has done under the Ramotar/Jagdeo regime, the poor and the working class remains poorer and more desperate with the biggest debt burden on their head while at the GuyExpo, Ministers of the Government have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on gigantic photograph of themselves. This is the same regime which has chosen to pirate/steal text books rather than do the honourable thing and purchased them for the students.
This shows that the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime has gotten their priorities all mixed up and the only reason this is allowed to happen is that the vast majority of Guyanese have chosen to vote race that has resulted in poor governance. And the majority of parliamentary opposition whom the people have elected to represent their interests has been asleep at the wheel.
That aside, there has been an absence of statesmanship and integrity in the way the PPP ran the affairs of the country, and after 20 years in power, the youths and the poor and the working class wait with bated breath as the icon of oppression decides their fate.
Nepotism, cronyism and corruption have become hallmark of this administration which in turn have made the poor and the working class worse off today as their economic well-being continue to deteriorate. This time they are in a more perilous situation as they become more indebted while the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime is bogged down in scandals after scandals.
Earlier, it was the mal-administration of NICIL followed by NCN corrupt practices, the Marriott Hotel debacle, and now is the insolvency of the NIS.
Rather than coming to grips with their corrupt practices and the mismanagement of the state funds, the masses in Guyana are told that they will have to tighten their belts but very soon they will have no waists left to tighten their belts as the impending bankruptcy of NIS come to the fore and as the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime continue to invest the taxpayers’ money on risky projects.
Why is it that the regime cannot “man-up” with the people whose business they transact? Is it that they believe that the people are not wise enough to understand all the PPP’s ‘Ponzi’ financial schemes behind the building of the Marriot Hotel and the Specialty Hospital and the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan airport.
The Marriot deal is a classic Ponzi scheme that will result in the taxpayers losing billions in the future. We hope that the opposition will pressure the government to delay this project until there is really a need for it. The regime continues to keep the public and the majority opposition in the dark.
It is clear that the country is in a storm with grave social, economic and political problems and the Jagdeo/ Ramotar regime has lost whatever little self-respect they may have left to rectify them.
It is that little shred of self-respect that the leaders of the opposition APNU and the AFC must grasp and use as a platform to end corruption, cronyism and nepotism and to begin the long climb to building a society in which the resources of the state will be distributed more equitably among the citizens.
The nation continues to watch with great disappointment and disillusionment the role corruption and nepotism have played in holding back development in Guyana. In other words, the calamity the country faces is largely a moral crisis and it is the absence of a sense of personal morality and accountability that are the causes for Guyana’s economic depression within the ranks of the working class.
When a Minister defends the right for no checks and balances within the Ministry he heads, and on top of that have his wife audits and certifies his work; then our society has reach a point of moral bankruptcy.
When a Minister defends his right to build Taj Mahals with multi-million dollar pool houses while not far away the mothers and children of Guyana live in an ecological cesspool such as Plastic City, we have a moral crisis on our hands that is likely to get worse.
And when one individual could earn a pension of $3 million per moth compared to the meagre $10,000 per month for our senior citizens, then we have a lopsided system in which the rich gets richer and the poor continues to suffer.
So as the poor and the powerless grind through their daily lives, their situation demands dynamic political leadership in the majority opposition to advocate strongly on their behalf and correct the wrongs.
We cannot leave such a sensible and important issue to the PPP; it is beyond their intellectual fortitude.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh.

 

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