The next two years will determine if Guyana will survive

Aug 09, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Two revelations made the news last week. They both should not have happened after the immoral and illegal turmoil of ruthless power this country experienced under the presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. First was the assessment by the Ministry that the parking meter contract has unnerving, inherent flaws, and if left intact would result in the exploitation of Guyana.
No one could have imagined that after the Herculean stables of terrible governance under Mr. Jagdeo, this country would have a contract signed by a public body (in this case, City Hall) for a company to supply parking meters and the contract’s duration would be 49 years. The first thing that flew into your mind immediately is that this looked like the stupid thing the PPP Government would do. But it wasn’t the PPP Government; it was the new Georgetown Mayor elected after one year after Guyana had left the PPP’s mess behind.
One was forced to ask; will Guyana ever change. What did the newly elected Council learn from the horrors of bad governance under the PPP? It appears the answer was nothing. But in examining the other revelation, one is left in bewildering pessimism that Guyana may never change. It came out in Parliament that almost half a billion dollars of public money was spent on Durban Park and this figure excluded donations from private spheres. One can assume that the total amount may be near to a billion.
What have the men and women that came into power through the chorus of change in May 2015 learned from the mistakes of the PPP? As in the case of the City Council, the answer may be nothing. This structure that cost almost a billion dollars was to accommodate an event that would last for one day only – celebration of Guyana’s 50 years of Independence. To the average Guyanese who lived under the PPP, this looked like the kind of nonsense that Jagdeo and Ramotar would do.
Journalism has a line that has been in vogue since part two of the movie, “Jaws” was made. After they killed the monster shark in part one, it returned in part two, so the trailer of part two started with the line, “just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.” Such a line is powerfully applicable to the post 2015 administration. Just when you thought we had turned the corner and PPP style of governance was a thing of the past, came wasteful expenditures again.
The Durban Park project has another dimension to it. It was built by a company whose name and members the Minister of Public Works up to now refuses to disclose. The more one analyses the Durban Park project, the more the line in Jaw 2 becomes so vividly relevant to understanding an unchanging Guyana. How did this company come about? Initially the Government did not want to put central funds into the construction. So what it did? It formed the company to manage the donations from private spheres. It is this entity that the APNU-AFC Coalition is refusing to disclose.
Here is where Guyana gets frightening. This was the very type of deportment for which the PPP earned the scorn of Guyanese – secrecy. Now the secrecy continues and for inconsequential reasons. Why in such a harmless area as the receipt of donations to build Durban Park, the name of the management committee cannot be disclosed? What harm can come from identifying this entity and the people who sat on it?
We are not talking about sensitive partnership with foreign investors in sensitive areas of the economy. But even in this context, the APNU and AFC demanded transparency and openness from the PPP Government when President Jagdeo had entered into arrangements with foreign companies. When in opposition the APNU and AFC wanted information on foreign investments including name of contractors and investors. Yet for a simple public project like the construction of Durban Park, the Guyanese people cannot know the name of the group that was entrusted to receive donations for the construction of the structure.
If one wants to bury one’s head in the sand that is their right, but only a fool cannot see that these are early warning signs that good governance, transparency and openness in the exercise of power may not be on the horizon. The determination by the Coalition to keep this committee’s name secret is to date the most ominous Orwellian sign that this country may not survive. I give Guyana another 2 years for good governance. If it doesn’t come, Guyana will not survive.

5 thoughts on “The next two years will determine if Guyana will survive”

RLSG August 9, 2016 at 11:27 am

There is a saying in the US … ‘never trust a used car salesman’ and it applies to Guyanese politicians. They all seem to cannot help being dishonest. Freddie is right on point .. you cannot make this stuff up. I think that there is something in Guyanese politicians’ DNA that they do things a certain way. The people have been deceived and the mess continues to get worse everyday. It is exchange and not change. So here we go again !!
1. Maximus Sawh August 9, 2016 at 7:22 pm
  
  Dont agree with you. This coalition is doing an excellent job. Economically we are stronger than ever. Arches, poles, playgrounds and jump ups have done the job for Guyana. And since its no longer the governments onus to create employment Guyana will be very competitive in microeconomics. Everyone will be self employed. Do you see the crazy logic in that? Or do we need one Mr. Reason to decipher the coalition’s puzzling press statements once again?
george wiltshire August 9, 2016 at 12:32 pm

Granger sent that message when he refused to turn back the increase of the ministers. Yet some of the the people who built the park cannot be paid. So much has been said on that. But i am now beginning to loose faith in this bunch.
bl_666 August 9, 2016 at 3:47 pm

” What did the newly elected Council learn from the horrors of bad governance under the PPP? It appears the answer was nothing.”
Wrong! They learnt, maybe mastered, the abuse of absolute power, and never to acknowledge responsibility. In short they learnt “eye-pass”.
Muhammad Raoof August 9, 2016 at 6:36 pm

A whole two years Freddie? You must be related to Jobe. I’ve seen the writing on the wall a long time ago. For my country to survive, we need a new breed of politicians who are not steep in “Corruption, blessed with vision, not arrogance and conceit, not filled with fake pride, self-importance, egotism, pompousness, pomposity, imperiousness, power-drunk (see where I’m going),