PPP’s Congress will not take Guyana out of its state of chaos

Aug 01, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Guyanese who have been following the political, social and economic developments over the past ten years have finally concluded that the PPP has been incapable of providing insightful explanations on the ongoing political turmoil that has engulfed the country—and the  party’s Congress, that starts tomorrow, will not be able to take Guyana out of its state of chaos.
Our analysis is based on two essential hypotheses. The first is that Guyana will never have a good PPP government until and unless there are solid laws in place to ensure viable and sustainable structures that would guarantee good, transparent and accountable governance. The repeated failures of this regime to deliver such governance are primarily the fault of the cabal and their wealthy friends who have complete control of the state apparatus and resources. The failures are more properly understood as failures in terms of greed, selfishness and corrupt practices as practiced by the aforementioned.
The second hypothesis is that we have been witnessing and continue to witness the collapse of the socio-political and financial institutions such as the public hospitals where maternal deaths take place without proper explanation and the malfunctioning of educational institutions including UG and the technical colleges.
The recent resignation of the Director of the UG Campus in Berbice clearly shows that the institution is in a terrible state of decay and the relevant authorities are incapable of solving the problem.
We have often argued that the core of the problem is that over the course of the 21 years of PPP rule, there has been disorder after disorder such as the bankruptcy of CLICO, no Procurement Commission to reduce corruption, the lack of openness with respect to NICIL, no anti-crime legislation, the sneaky way radio and TV licences were granted to PPP friends and relatives by Jagdeo, and the PPP approval of a number of illogical and in many cases secret contracts such as the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, construction of a new airport, and the Specialty Hospital, to name a few. And to add insult to injury, the granting of a contract to a contractor who was not required to hire locals to work on the Marriott Hotel.
This collapse did not begin yesterday. It began the moment Jagdeo assumed power in 1999 and became increasing apparent over the past decade as the wealthy easily gained access to the state resources in return for kick-backs. His tyrannical rule, which the PPP regime has downplayed, pushed Guyana further into a state of chaos.  Simply put, the collapse can be attributed to bad governance, which includes corruption, incompetency and poor public policies at the highest level.
The problem is we have moved from one President to another, desperately trying to find some solution which would halt the disarray. But after 20 months in office, the new minority President has proven to be more incompetent than his predecessor. He has a visionless economic agenda that contributes very little to human development but has spread poverty in the urban centres and villages, thus plunging the country further into the abyss.
Now, faced with a majority opposition, it is clear that we have reached a stalemate in governance known as gridlock and the minority PPP regime has emphatically stated  that it will not compromise and there is nothing the people who are held hostage can do other than to consume the insults hurled at the opposition by the cabal. This is one of the classic failures of the PPP, which is more interested in helping economic barons and oppressing those in need.
In a State filled with chaos, any semblance of order, rationality and intellectualism is gone and Guyanese are now entirely subjected to the forces of irrationality, mental instability, indiscipline and reckless adventurism.
We would like to remind the public that this is what has been happening in Guyana under the current and recent past regime, where no one has been arrested and charged for corruption. Instead of dealing with the scourge of corruption, the PPP cabal has put the onus on the people to prove to them where corruption has occurred. Many vagabonds have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar and yet the President has refused to discipline them. Why?
Never in all Guyana’s politics, have we seen a government so full of inanity, viciousness, gutter- rhetoric, propaganda and seething animosity as this uncaring and anti-working class PPP regime.
If the people do not act urgently, the ominous portent of this vile regime will devour them and thus place Guyana deeper into a state of chaos.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

 

 

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