The PPP and the USA: Guyanese must judge their politicians harshly

Sep 26, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I think most scholars from outside the United States who study American sociology would tell you that the American landscape as we know it from 19th right up to the last decade in the 20th century has changed in the 21st century to the extent that the term “The American Dream” is gone, maybe forever.
It is outside the scope of this column to delve into such a complex topic but official statistics that come from various top class institutions have shown that income inequalities are increasing beyond belief the past thirty years (source BBC Online, September 10, 2013).
In other words, a huge percentage of Americans have not seen and maybe will not see “The American Dream.” In other words, the working and middle classes may become poorer.
It is this changing landscape that caused Mitt Romney to lose to Barack Obama. Obama’s victory was not as large as when he first became President but Romney and the Republicans were living in a changing US that they didn’t want to believe had changed. Romney’s presidential ambition was over when he was secretly taped telling an audience that the other half of US wants to be given a free ride.
The other half did need help because America is now an economy that has a huge working class and a vast middle class. These are people who want the State to be involved in the distribution of wealth as what obtains in other capitalist countries, perhaps in all capitalist countries including all of the rich capitalist states. The voters judged Romney harshly. It was that other half that did not vote for him and that caused his defeat.
If there is anything you can bet on and collect a handsome reward, it is that the next presidential election will see all the candidates fighting madly to win the votes of that other half because all of them would know by now that the US has substantial classes of people that are nowhere near being financially comfortable and they want to elect a government that behaves towards them the way other governments in capitalist societies do.
We come now to Guyana. If Guyanese were to vote the way Americans do, then the PPP would have been out of office a long time. In the last election in 2011, the PPP paraded a number of Mitt Romneys (Mr. Romney is worth net US$200 M – source, NY Times, Feb 1, 2012) for the country to see. The PPP was not afraid. While the election was going on, the PPP Mitt Romneys were building mansions in Pradoville 2.
Take the talk about raising university fees. The PPP is a political party whose constitution describes it as a Marxist-Leninist party. Little Barbados has two parties that alternate in government and not one of its leaders in the past or at the moment ever embrace communism much less boldly state that their party is Marxist-Leninist.
Barbados is viewed as a capitalist sea of stability in the CARICOM family. PPP supporters need to know and understand how deceitful their party is. Yes, little capitalist Barbados send their citizens to UWI freely. Yes, university education is free in Barbados.
University education is expensive in Guyana and even the Ministry of Finance loan has teeth. First your guarantor cannot be over fifty-five. Secondly, you are bonded so you cannot leave Guyana until you repay. And thirdly, there is a quota so if you miss out then either you do not attend UG or pay for your tuition.
How about the country that Karl Marx was born in; the man the PPP idolizes for being the founder of communism. In Germany, university education is free and you are free to leave Germany after you graduate.
Do you know how much a trainee nurse with the Ministry of Health gets? Mark Benschop and I were eating at a restaurant near to the training school in East Street about two years ago, and a few of them walked in. They told us that they are full time trainees and they get $25,000 per month. This is how a Marxist/Leninist party treats the poorer classes in Guyana.
Finally, the vendors. I have seen this government chase market vendors in Parika in a manner reminiscent of the mistreatment of Africans in apartheid South Africa. I have seen the Ministry of Works evict poor vendors from selling on the large parapets on Vlissengen Road. But now big businesses are getting state land to be used as parking facilities for their customers.
People like Mitt Romney are in power in Guyana.

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The PPP and the USA: Guyanese must judge their politicians harshly

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