It would be patriotic to ask the EU to withhold funds so the PPP cannot undermine political stability

Feb 01, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Dr. Ashni Singh has once again turned his quarrelsome sights on critics of the Government. Joining his colleagues, Messrs Ramotar and Rohee, in particular, he has cavailed against critics and branded all those who disagree with odious PPP policies and behavior unpatriotic.  On this occasion he seems specially incensed by the EU’s announcement that it has withheld E25.8mn because of Guyana’s failure to meet agreed performance criteria.
I suppose he sees this as an affront to his fabricated reputation as the architect of Guyana’s ever longest period of growth and its outperformance of the rest of the region. Title not really deserved.
It is worth noting that the EU provides funds for Guysuco and budgetary support to the Government of Guyana. Some part of that support goes not on investments in infrastructure or productive enterprises, but on politically driven activities, since all funds going to the Treasury are fungible.
According to the press,
“An investment in Guyana doesn’t redound to the benefit of one political party or another,” he said, adding that it generates jobs, incomes and services to all Guyanese,”
These false claims made in desperation do not help his case. The Treasury has been using taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to buy political support for the PPP since 2012, if not before. It has also been used to buy assets which are then transferred through sweetheart deals to friends of Mr. Jagdeo in particular, as well as PPP Ministers, relatives and associates.
The Kaieteur News has been running a series on the telecoms/ICT  sector where the award of TV and radio licences to this very group was the subject of a court case and decision. When partners such as the EU provide budgetary support to the Treasury, it releases the Government to use monies collected by the GGMC to lend on soft terms to a private individual ostensibly to build houses.
They may do this instead of putting the money in the Consolidated Fund.  The loan of GGMC resources is to take place perhaps 16 weeks before a general election.  It would be illegal in any law abiding state. It is normal PPP behavior in Guyana. The EU therefore has good cause. The bilaterals would do the same if they were not so pre-occupied with keeping the door to investment open to their nationals.
The claim that all Parties, perhaps meaning a wide range of citizens, benefit from such PPP behavior is palpably untrue. Funds from the budget to which EU and Norwegian support go for example have been used, for example, to purchase and provide PPP campaign T-shirts and vehicles for hinterland students who also receive a stipend for wearing the shirts and undertaking political work such as demonstrating outside the National Assembly against measures or positions taken by the majority in the House.
It cannot be of benefit to all Parties. On the contrary, it undermines the democratic process and turns the exercise of financial oversight and Parliamentary accountability into a farce. By the same token, NCN receives illegally transferred tax revenues to pay journalists specifically to abuse Opposition parliamentarians, shamelessly peddle PPP positions and to promote PPP and partisan propaganda. This phenomenon is odious and it cannot be unpatriotic for the other political Parties to oppose it. Indeed, given the circumstances it would be patriotic to ask the EU to withhold funds from Guyana so that the PPP cannot so blatantly undermine political stability and parliamentary democracy which it falsely claims to have restored in Guyana.
Funds are used for investment in businesses such as the so-called Marriot Hotel, which the Assembly had specifically said in 2012 should not receive taxpayers’ funds. The Assembly opposed the use of funds from the Treasury to finance work on the so called Speciality Hospital because it found that procedures breached procurement rules and sweetheart deals with favoured associates and relatives were causing unnecessarily construction costs.
The details are common knowledge. Even the Vice President of Fedders Lloyd, an Indian engineering firm, accused the Government of awarding a disputed contract for the hospital to Surendra Engineering because of special ties with Ministers. It had been awarded the Enmore packaging plant, the procurement of hydraulic pumps and other contracts. The Emore packaging plant like the Skeldon factory is running at a fraction of installed capacity, a fact which will probably render both unviable even in the long term.
To add insult to injury, although the complaint by the Indian firm, about the Government’s flouting of its own rules was dismissed by Dr Luncheon, the Government has had the gall to announce recently its shock and horror that the firm Surendra had perpetrated a fraud on Guyanese and its directors had absconded to India without meeting their contractual obligations to either the PPP regime or to B.K Tiwari, a private contractor.
This is the kind of behavior for which Dr Singh would like to have Guyanese support.
He obviously has a difficulty with the entries in the English dictionary.
The authoritative Stanford …..concludes that, patriotism can be defined as love of one’s country, identification with it, and special concern for its well-being and that of compatriots.
None of the policies and behavior described above suggest concern for or identification with the well-being of the poor or the general populace.
In fact the consequent waste of resources has resulted in the poor having to forego schoolbooks and medical services so that the PPP regime can work up projects to hand over money to its cronies.
Entities such as Guysuco making unnecessary losses, wasted money spent on the Marriot and fibre-optic cables for the benefit of a few  persons place an added burden on taxpayers, many of whom are already poor. Those taxpayers pay VAT which is raised on food consumed by the poor, including processed foods and meals served by restaurants. In the meantime the current and former President and his associates pay no taxes.
The accusation of cronyism and the cries from India of fraud in procurement are not enhancing the image of Guyana in the eyes of the world. They are an embarrassment. Those who lie at the root of such blemishes on the name of Guyana and or categorization as the second most corrupt country in the Americas, cannot be described as patriots by any stretch of the imagination.
Patriotism has only recently attracted the attention of those who study philosophy professionally. Previously, in the political science and current affairs arenas, the aphorism of Samuel Johnson, the famous English writer, wit and lexicographer held sway, namely, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Carl Greenidge

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