Gaskin to form political party; says country in state of crisis

Feb 01, 2018 News

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Chartered Accountant and political commentator, Ramon Gaskin believes that the time has come for the creation of new political organizations to defend the people of Guyana and to guard against corruption in its multiple forms. Gaskin recently opined that this is necessary since the nation has found itself in a state of crisis.
Gaskin is of the opinion that the current political leaders have proven to be unfit to continue to rule Guyana, protect its resources and to serve its people. As such, he announced on Tuesday that he will form his own political party. He is currently toying with the name “Guyana First.”
The political commentator said that in the past few years, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC) were assisted by small opportunist parties to gain and hold power.
He said the result of 60 years of misrule by both parties is a crisis in the society, characterized by low economic growth, low wages, high unemployment, huge budget deficits, massive domestic and external debt, rampant poverty and inequality, together with inadequate housing and infrastructure, disgraceful public health services and poor educational results at all levels, including an unacceptable dropout rate.
Gaskin said, “This crisis is compounded by unrelenting migration, uncontrollable crime and domestic violence, and continuing corruption at all levels of society. In the face of all of this, the State-owned sugar company is being disposed of with thousands of workers sent home, uncertain when they will receive their full severance benefits.”
He continued, “Misguided economic policies and poor management have caused a serious decline in the number of decent jobs available, forcing our young graduates and professionals to choose migration. The Government’s response has been to keep expanding the security services, Militia, Cadet Corps and similar institutions, plus sending thousands into the regular public service, vacancy or no vacancy. We have seen this before with results that were not pretty.”
Gaskin added, “While all of this is taking place, in the midst of pervasive disappointment and helplessness, the Government is preparing for Mash, but waiting for oil. The announcement of the discovery of large commercial quantities of Oil by Esso Exploration (a subsidiary of ExxonMobil) and their partners CNOOC/Nexen Petroleum and Hess Exploration has come 18 years after ESSO was secretly granted a prospecting licence and a production sharing agreement by former President Janet Jagan in 1999.”
Gaskin opined that in 2016, while the coalition Government secretly replaced the 1999 agreement, only recently did these agreements become available for analysis. He stated that Guyana’s economy will definitely undergo major transformation as a new third world oil-producing country.
He asserted that ExxonMobil and other oil companies are already working feverishly with the politicians of all stripes to extract the wealth of Guyana, to exploit its resources, and to impoverish the people. He opined that sadly, such has been the history of Guyana since chattel slavery, indentured labour and the present system of ‘wage slavery’.
“This model of development has been pursued in the main for all the years since independence, except for a brief period when Burnham unsuccessfully attempted radical change. After Hoyte reversed Burnham’s policies, dismantled the state sector and opened up the country to foreign exploitation (with the help of World Bank / structural programme), the plunder of Guyanese resources resumed starting with Barama, Omai, etc.”
Gaskin continued, “The PPP even under Jagan, Jagdeo and Hinds aggressively continued this anti-national model by selling out the country to Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc., RUSAL, BaiShanLin, Vaitarna and others. While they ruled over Guyana and its suffering citizens, both the PNC and the PPP, in their various incarnations and makeovers, clearly demonstrated a predisposition to turn over the natural resources of Guyana to foreign companies to exploit the country and pauperize its people.”
The political commentator added, “Now comes the big one, ExxonMobil followed by Anadarko, Tullow and others. Some of the evidence is already available in the secret 1999 Janet Jagan deal and the secret 2016 Raphael Trotman deal. These agreements reek of corruption, illegality, incompetence and selling out the patrimony of Guyana.”
Gaskin said that the case is clear. He reiterated that the political parties of Guyana have proven to be unfit to continue to rule Guyana. He insisted that the time is now for a new breed of political organizations.

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