Clarifying Dominic Gaskin’s ill-conceived misconceptions

Sep 05, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
In response to a letter from Dominic Gaskin, Treasurer and Executive Member of the AFC in the Kaieteur News dated August 28, 2013, we must say that we knew from the very beginning that the task that lies ahead to change Guyana meant breaking from the absurd tradition that all must follow the political leaders wherever they want to take us even if it meant drowning us in the Demerara River or the Atlantic Ocean.
It appears that Gaskin and others are stuck in that tradition, which in no small way has contributed to his dogmatic positions in forcing a financial imposition on the GPL consumers and the Guyanese taxpayers.  This type of “group think” approach is very dangerous for those who are struggling to feed, house and clothe themselves and their children.
Let us serve notice on Gaskin that his unyielding support for the unrighteous Amalia project and Sithe Global reveals unwillingness on his part to transform the nation in an informed manner, with human development being the core value.  This look more like Gaskin is on an ego trip to circle the wagons to ensure that Guyana secures hydro-power at any cost to the taxpayers without any informed analysis of the economic impact on those who will suffer most from this decision – mainly the poor and the working class.
Why is he so uncaring and unconcerned about the plight of the poor? We will do as the scripture says, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” that is, we will not sit idly by and let the likes of Gaskin do anymore harm to the poor and the working class in Guyana with their ill-conceived support for the flawed Amaila project. We say yes to hydro power, but at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers. The Berbice Bridge toll is a heavy financial burden imposed on the people by the uncaring Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal. Is this what Gaskin wants for the people with Amalia?
Mr. Gaskin’s noises reveal a mind that clearly does not understand the poverty issues in Guyana, much less the human development challenges facing the nation.  Yet he attempted to abrogate that authority to want to legislate and decide for the poor and the working class.  This is like the British “massa” saying you natives must work harder since he needed to buy some new furniture for his Lancashire mansion, but having no care for the natives’ economic well-being.
Well, we remind Gaskin that “massa” day done “lang time” and thus this disconnect between his impositions and what the working class gets, must be exposed.  He is lying to himself and to the nation since he cannot with any certainty tell the people what they will be paying for light bills in the first 12 years of Amaila, but he wants to knock the alternative view that this is a rotten deal for the working poor of Guyana. As he rightly said, he believes more in the IDB officials than the financial experts in Guyana.
In his support for Amalia Falls hydro power, Dominic Gaskin has ignored the fatal flaws of the project as identified by several accountants and financial analysts including Chris Ram, Ramon Gaskin, Sasenarine Singh, economists including Dr. Tarron Khemraj and the valuable contribution from one of Guyana’s and the Caribbean’s most recognized  economics professors, Dr. Clive Thomas. No one would want to deny the completion of the IDB due diligence report, but not at a cost of compromising the nation’s financial security for 20 years. This reminds us of the parable ‘’only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
Gaskin wrote that we have “deliberately misused the term interest rate to refer to what is actually a rate of return on investment or equity.” Even a financial dunce will recognize that the terminology was an oversight, but the principle is the same – financial outflow (cash leaving the pockets of the GPL consumers and being deposited into the New York Bank account of Sithe Global).
Whether this increase in light bills that GPL consumers will have to pay is interest or rate of return or management fees; the principle remains the same – cash outflow to fund the financial wants of Sithe Global to the tune of some G$130 billion.  Why this deliberate and reckless attempt by Mr. Gaskin to split hairs? Who is he fooling?
Further, Gaskin has chosen to personally attack Rose and Singh on whether there was a Bill or a Motion on the floor of Parliament, but again he is caught red-handed splitting hairs, since in whatever shape or form it comes, it is a legislative instrument  that was meant to increase the debt ceiling from G$1B to G$150B.  That is a contingent liability for every man, woman and child of over G$222,000 per person. It was revealed only this week that the capital cost of this corrupt deal will now surpass US$1 billion. In such a situation, it is not a matter if this contingent liability would have transformed into a debt; it is when.
So Mr. Gaskin can mentally live in his ivory tower totally disconnected from the plight of the poor and the working class in Guyana, but his false utterances will not deter us from defending the people’s right to have a prosperous life.
We leave the reading public to decide what they want – the Amaila Falls corrupt deal with the full and unconditional support of the Dominic Gaskins or a reformulated National Hydro Power Project as put forth by the financial and economic experts.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

 

 

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