Opening day cuss down at the PPP Congress

Aug 04, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The PPP Congress has commenced at a time of grave crisis in Guyana where corruption is at an all time high and Guyanese from all works of life are struggling to put food on the table. The domestic policies of the rudderless minority president’s administration have landed Guyana into a morass. They have not created jobs or provide any relief for the needy. As a result, there has been a steady deterioration in living standards for those at the bottom of the economic ladder especially those in the working class. Youth unemployment is increasing rapidly with growing frustration, crime and delinquency and there is no end in sight. Insecurity and distrust have also increased among the elderly and those in authority are incapable of restoring  confidence to a bewildered and despondent nation.
This is in sharp contrast to the promises made by the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal when they took office from the Jagans in 1999. The Guyanese people have been betrayed by the post Jagan PPP leadership especially by Jagdeo who supported his economic baron friends and oppressed the poor and the working class with his annual 5% wage increase in light of double digit inflation.
In its 2011 election manifesto, the PPP, led by Donald Ramotar  and closely controlled by his predecessor, declared:
“Independence though emotionally satisfying, is not an end in itself. To be worthwhile, it must be an instrument for building a cohesive nation, liberating the people from the economic yoke imposed by the foreigner and establishing a prosperous, self-reliant and free society. Some other Guyanese are militant and noisy in their demand for independence from Britain, but consciously would immediately pawn Guyana, the moment after independence, to some other foreign power. Such persons are colonial charlatans or at best infants, the witting or unwitting tools and agents of new masters. Theirs is the concept of a new servitude not independence.”
Yet today more Guyanese are suffering than ever before in the history of independent Guyana. All of the PPP so called transformative projects are designed to create contracts and jobs for their relatives and friends while the poor and the working class—the base of support on which the PPP was founded—continues to be left out in the cold.
All of their public policies are dictated by a bunch of economic barons to better serve the interests of their personal pockets.  The year 1966 may have brought us independence from the British but today we are totally economically dependent on a new band of PPP overlords and political princes. This PPP oligarchy that has replaced the  British colonial masters is the worst group of people Guyana has ever had. They are greedy, selfish, uncaring and have ignored the plight of the poor.
Unfortunately, after more than a decade of PPP dictatorial rule, more and more people are realizing that Guyana is retrogressing instead of progressing, that things were never so bad for those at the bottom of the economic ladder, not even comparable to the dark days of the Burnham regime. Yet, at the PPP Congress, the minority president and his cabal will tell the delegates that Guyana is progressing which is far from the truth because there exists constant power black outs, inadequate supply of potable water, huge pot holes on the roads, UG and the educational sector are on the brink of collapse and there is an increase in maternal deaths at the public hospitals.  In addition, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is getting wider every day and crimes have escalated all over the country. No one except the ruling elite is spared from the criminals. Just as we have predicted in previous letters, instead of addressing these issues, the minority president and his sycophants at the opening of the Congress have cussed down their former comrades Moses Nagamootoo, Ralph Ramkarran and the private media with the CHIEF CUSS BIRD at the head table. Both Nagamootoo and Ramkarran have bolted from the PPP because of corruption which is sanctioned and supported by the party. Those who do not believe us, just make a visit to the two Pradovilles and at Lenora and look at those palaces that are owned by the cabal.
Most of the delegates  and supporters of the PPP are aware of the mess the country is in currently, but they are afraid to speak out because of fear of being victimized by the overlords and the political princes in the party. Because of the fear of speaking out, we have concluded that nothing will change at the Congress except for the fact that some of the delegates and supporters will quietly migrate to the AFC or just become inactive out of frustration as their economic fortune disintegrates while those of the economic barons increases thus moving them from millionaires to billionaires.
That is why the majority opposition in the Parliament must protect what little is left in the Treasury by demanding full accountability and transparency on all the projects that have billions in slush funds to facilitate a payday for the overlords and their political princes.  We demand a complete set of bills of quantity for the Amelia Falls Hydro Project to expose these culprits.  That is what the AFC has demanded and we call on the delegates of the Congress to join with the AFC and demand accountability and transparency of governance from their leaders.
We hope the delegates will overpower their leaders and their robber barons friends in an effort to save Guyana from further debt and destruction. What ever the outcome is from the Congress, the handwriting is on the wall. It will not be long before the people remove the puppets and their economic barons in the PPP from the political scene.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh.

 

 

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