An absence of transformational and decisive leadership

Dec 04, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
Since assuming office a year ago, President Ramotar has squandered the opportunity to start afresh and lead this nation to prosperity. But his drifting leadership style has established a lasting political legacy which began with his immediate predecessor.
He has not demonstrated an appetite or taken any firm decision to fight corruption and illegal trafficking of drugs, reduce crime, and of course, set the nation on a course of sustained economic stability and robust growth.
The government pledges to continue spending billions on public works projects but much of that will end clandestinely into the pockets of the unrighteous and greedy among us.
So far this year, many projects have been paid for multiple times over the real value by the taxpayers.
All the countries that have successfully completed transformational projects have had to attack corruption frontally, whether the corrupt ones are pro-government, party members or not.
The PPP continues to make the cardinal mistake of thinking that the more it spends, the more money will trickle down to the poor and the working class, but they are so wrong.
Over the past five years or so, Guyana’s economy developed by less than an average of five per cent a year yet the administration has borrowed heavily, mostly from the Chinese, to fund the construction of several shady projects, all of which were signed secretly during the Jagdeo regime.
If one is to observe all of the projects – Marriott Hotel, Amaila Falls, ICT Cable, Hope Canal, One Laptop Per Family, the Skeldon Sugar Factory, CJIA expansion etc., they have all faced funding crises, low support from the people, lack of trust and transparency issues, and long delays in implementation. It is clear for all to see that the international donors and financing community, and even the local private sector, do not trust the government and are very skeptical in working with them. The PPP has spawned a bureaucracy comprised of their relatives and friends that is inefficient and, in perception and fact, extremely corrupt from top to bottom. These failures are further manifested in Guyana’s poor educational, health and security sectors, a socially, economically and politically dysfunctional system, and the abuse of power and contempt for the people and the rule of law. But no matter what it does, the PPP knows that it can count on the race card to bail it out of all the mess. All it has to do it try to drive fear into its constituents and provide some of them with projects and hence jobs.
Mr. Ramotar’s chance for personal redemption and to gain the trust and confidence of the people rests on the convergence of two factors: He must forcefully tackle corruption and crime forthwith and implement a sustainable economic programme that will create jobs for the youths and all those who want to work, as well as improve the welfare of the poor and the working class.
Both factors are significant to pulling Guyana from the brink of economic and social disaster. It is beyond debate that such programmes are urgently needed. The government must begin to attack these problems by lowering VAT and the toll on the Berbice River Bridge, increase pensions for the elderly from $10,000 to $15,000 per month, and provide a 10 percent wage/salary increase across the board for civil/public servants.
This is a start that may provide some political support for the minority regime and may translate into some semblance of trust for Mr. Ramotar. No one in the PPP Government is better endowed for this task than Mr. Ramotar. But does he have the will for it?
We have said it before and will say it again, we do not believe that Mr. Ramotar will summon enough courage to ‘bell the cat’ in a way that will lead to the reduction of corruption and crime. Guyana needs decisive and transformational leadership. The most decisive actions by the regime so far have been to do nothing about corruption and protect a questionable few from the laws of the land.
Decisive and transformational leadership is something that the PPP does not possess. The cabal is all about power and self-enrichment; not about the welfare of the people or the country.
Just take a look at the mess in Georgetown, the nation’s capital, the high unemployment, the power blackouts and constant floods. How sad!
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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