Anti-business posturing by the PPP is destroying Guyana’s fragile economy

Dec 09, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Upon the passage of the political baton from Jagdeo to Ramotar two years ago, several members of the legitimate business class thought that they will finally be allowed to conduct business with little government interference, paying their fair share of taxes and thus contribute to Guyana’s economic growth and the well being of the masses.
However, they quickly realize that the playing field is not level for all to have a fair shot at success. But when President Ramotar announced that he will form a committee headed by reputable businessman, Clifford Reis to review the tax regime and opportunities for tax reforms, these business persons felt inspired and convinced that he is supporting the business community.
They believed that the days are over when businessmen like Yesu Persaud were publicly abused and rebuked by the corrupt political class.
They were wrong, since all of the pro-business announcement by President Ramotar was just another smoke screen and propaganda as the PPP regime remained resolute in its anti-business posturing.
Only members of the business community who are part of the Jagdeo circle and are tied to the PPP at the hip are allowed to conduct business in a fashion that resembles a dictatorial oligarchy.
These so-called PPP businessmen are allowed certain privileges and are given the green light to do whatever they want, including free electricity, free land, huge tax exemptions, concessions from paying VAT and duty free exceptions. Some are even offered interest free loans from the government and are given huge contracts like the $3.5 billion contract given to purchase drugs for the public hospitals.
This beneficiary, who has and continues to have full access to the state resources, has become so rich and powerful that he is issuing directives to the Office of the President, something Dr. Luncheon finds very distasteful and resents.
Furthermore, the PPP circle is truly insane since they have done nothing to address the corporate tax rates to the manufacturing sector, the high rate of VAT chargeable to the people, mainly to the housewives of Guyana, many of them are single mothers, and the PAYE rate for the workers.
The uncaring PPP circle continues to play a very dangerous game with the lives of the people, especially the poor and the working class who can barely afford to feed their children and put a roof over their heads.
Instead, they have done everything possible to accommodate their rich friends and relatives, including giving them radio, television and cellular phone frequencies for a pittance and all sorts of incentives that are not afforded to those who are not friends. The PPP circle is bent on denying the poor masses their basic right to work and to live a decent and affordable life.
I want them to know that the people have had enough of these PPP con-men with their con-plans and their con-games, and their time to exit the scene is fast approaching. I call on all Guyanese to be alert, aware and militant, because the time will come when they will have to take a stand against this corrupt and inept PPP regime and use any and every legal means necessary to get rid of them, including voting them out of office.
Under this regime, everything that could go wrong went wrong and this range from corruption, crime, murders to the poorest health care and educational system to floods, blackouts, garbage pile-up in the city, unclean water supply, horrible streets/roads, and to a corrupt and unprofessional police force. Everything this regime touches has turned sour and what did not turn sour became rotten.
How can a President live with himself when fifteen mothers and babies are dying each year during child birth in Guyana in this modern era? Any leader with a conscience with take steps to make sure that no mother dies from child birth again.
This is the sign of a good, decent and caring leader, which does not exist in the PPP. How can a president having three square meals per day and a solid roof over his head, go to bed and knowing that thousands of single mothers and children are starving and do not have anywhere proper to sleep?
How can a president be happy and govern a country in which the vast majority of youths do not have a job or know where their next meal is coming from? How can a president tell the international community that Guyana is developing when mothers and new born babies are dying at childbirth, when the country’s public hospitals cannot even save the life of a fly and when the country’s only university has collapsed?
In the simplest terms, I am telling the people of Guyana that the PPP does not care about their well-being; and they do not care if the people live or die. They only care about the well-being of themselves, their family and rich friends.
But let them know as Bob Marley clearly stated “we are going to chase those crazy baldhead out of the town.” Now is the time for the people to listen to Bob Marley and rise up against this corrupt, uncaring and anti-working class PPP regime.
Name supplied

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