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The economy is not providing the good life

Jun 27, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The ordinary citizen is far smarter than most governments think. The ordinary citizen does not expect governments to do miracles; they expect them to honour their promises, keep their word and more importantly, be fair. That is all people expect of their government.
The APNU+AFC coalition has found itself on the back foot and retreating in the face of criticisms that it has not kept all of its elections promises; that it has failed to improve the lives of citizens, reduce high youth employment, ensure a safer society and find all the money which it said was being stolen from the public treasury.
The government has been unimaginative in its policies and lackadaisical in its work. Development, at best, has limped along, and some would say that growth is slowing. APNU+AFC, which was critical of the former administration over deals which that administration made, now stands accused of having a more dubious record, including signing away the future of Guyanese in its deal with ExxonMobil.
How does the government respond to its questionable track record? Well, it does what all governments are good at. It makes excuses, blames the previous government, and finds a scapegoat for its inability to fulfill its promises.
When the APNU+AFC coalition was in the opposition, it could not feign ignorance of the true state of affairs of the country. It knew what it was getting into and it made promises of the good life to people. It rallied the youth vote on the basis that employment was poor, and it promised to turn things around for the young people.
They sold the idea to the people that if they removed the PPPC, things would improve overnight, because the PPPC was stealing so much. They are yet to demonstrate where the money which was stolen has gone, who stole it, and how it can be recovered. The coalition, instead of following the money, is creating disingenuous charges against members of the former administration.
The sugar industry has become the scapegoat. It is said that sugar is draining the economy. But APNU+AFC has bailed out the sugar industry in sums which are many times that which the PPPC provided during the 2011-2015 term. So where did all this money go? The PPPC has called for an audit of the billions which the APNU+AFC administration says it spent on the sugar industry. The government has not committed to this.
The government downsized the sugar industry, sending home more than 5,000 employees. It says that it cannot sustain the operations, which is costing the government billions of dollars each year. The lands of the company are now up for privatization.
Instead it is now looking to borrow billions, backed by an iron-clad government guarantee, to help restart some of the very factories which it closed, and to put the company in a better shape for privatization. So, instead of continuing to support the company for a short period until it can breakeven, the government opts to borrow billions to make the assets of the company attractive for those who will eventually buy it.
The economy is not providing the good life. A few weeks ago, a major bank put up for sale some palatial properties which it has acquired through foreclosure. The owners obviously could not pay. This is an ominous development. People are losing their property because of the slowdown in business activity.
At every stage, the government’s excuses are being rebuffed. The maneuver is to try to blame the people for having unrealistic expectations. The chorus line now is that the government needs to manage expectations. These expectations, however, were not magically pulled out of bag by the people. They were created by the government. It is the very APNU+AFC coalition which promised betterment. Instead, the only booming business at this time is dog food.

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