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Jagdeo is rewriting the PPP’s economic blueprint

Apr 20, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Bharrat Jagdeo, it would appear, can no longer separate truth from fiction, sense from nonsense or reality from unreality. At a public meeting recently in Linden he erroneously, irresponsibly and meretriciously said: “They (APNU+AFC) plan to ban logging, they plan to ban the export of logs.” He said further “He (Granger) is being led by the nose by (Ronald) Bulkan and others were doing furniture until they became bankrupt … they want logs banned so they will get it cheaper for their furniture.” (INews, April 15, 2015). The said article also quoted comments made recently by APNU+AFC’s Presidential Candidate, David Granger who said: “We must ensure that we also at the same time discourage the export of raw materials … an APNU+AFC government will reward people who can manufacture rather than just cutting down and digging out.”
Jagdeo, in the quest of expediency is prepared to be reckless and even to distort his own track record. As President it was he who on December 22, 2000 at the opening of the Guyana Forestry Commission renovated Head Office Complex made the following statement: “For us to really utilize and get maximum benefit from this sector we cannot continue to look at it from the traditional and narrow perspective of timber extraction. We have to encourage non-timber use of the forestry resources.” He said further: “We have to move from the export of primary commodities –logs- to more value added forms of activities. In this regard, I am pleased that the Commission has restricted the export of some species and I think that they intend to extend that restriction to other species in the future.”
Today, fifteen years later, explicit in Jagdeo’s recent pronouncements is that we must no longer promote or pursue value-added processing in the forestry sector; exporting logs is just fine! Welcome Bai Shan Lin, I could add.
Some six years earlier and in 1994 and as Junior Finance Minister, Jagdeo was the recipient of a study requested by the Guyana Government and funded by the Carter Center which was then actively assisting the new administration.
The report of this study known as the ‘Molinos Report’ revealed, inter alia, that for every 1000 m3 of timber, if exported as logs, created approx. seven jobs but if processed and converted into architectural millwork, i.e. sawn, kiln dried and profiled, it would create one hundred and eleven jobs, a multiplier of sixteen!
Jagdeo today is obviously happy for seven jobs to be created and for one hundred and four to be exported. Guyana loses and the log exporters and others gain. This is the PPP’s plan: keep Guyanese poor and unemployed while they, their cronies and the cabal plunder our resources for their personal benefit.
Starting in the 1950’s with its founder the late Cheddi Jagan, the PPP never subscribed to primary processing as a long-term development strategy. Value-added processing was always the goal, whether it was in the bauxite, sugar, agriculture or forestry sector. Jagdeo, however, is rewriting the PPP’s economic blueprint. He is discarding Dr. Jagan’s core beliefs, much as he has tarnished and desecrated Dr. Jagan’s legacy of integrity and personal incorruptibility.
Jagdeo is a delusional thug who will soon be disabused of the fanciful notions that he has invented of himself. The many failed projects that he is responsible for including the near-destruction of the sugar industry and the worthless US$200 mln investment in the Skeldon Sugar Factory, the Fibre Optic Cable, Amaila Falls Access Road, Hope Canal, ECD and EBD 4-lane expansions, all of which started during his tenure will eventually be audited.
Permit me please, Editor to remark that every day that Bharrat Jagdeo remains the chief spokesperson of the PPP’s election campaign, represents a boon to the APNU+AFC. If the coalition had to pay Jagdeo to say what he has recently been saying, it would have been a good investment. That he is actually doing this on behalf of the PPP makes it incomparable. Keep it up Mr. Jagdeo.
Ronald Bulkan

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