Are we destined for that eventuality?

Feb 21, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

All Guyanese with a logical unbiased mind should have no difficulty concurring with a Peeping Tom article, “Standing up for Guyana”. The Peeper correctly asserted that Guyana’s PSA with Exxon “represents the worst oil deal ever” and after 5 years to prepare for first oil, the last draft of our local content policy arrived a few days ago, inhibited with confidentiality clause. By this time the foreign companies had already bagged the major contracts to supply the riggers offshore.
The Peeper said that the supporters of the Coalition knew that their government signed a lopsided contract and they did poorly in preparing to manage the little chip cheese they signed for, but they (the Coalition supporters) “are not going to be critical of the agreement because they feel that it will cause their government to lose popularity and it does not matter whether they have to eat salt and rice or get ‘white mouth’, most would rather starve than see their government out of power.” I have been thinking the exact thing a long time ago. In my opinion the Peeper nailed the quintessential undoing, or the dogmatism in the psyche of “most” of the Coalition supporters to the center of the “bull’s eye” in the above mentioned statement. I am wondering if this is an inherent mentality. Are we destined for that eventuality?
There is a general concept that people hate the idea of paying taxes. High taxation impacts negatively on the possibilities of a “good life” because it leaves less disposable income in the pockets of the taxed. The Coalition, having promised to reduce taxes, had been extracting 80 to 90 billion more per year than status quo, in taxes from a shrinking economy. This time, the Coalition did not promise any tax cut in their campaign, having lost the credentials to do so. In this regard the grandstanding of the Coalition’s supporters seems to suggest that it does not matter if they have no life- but suffice it to say that the few in the government circle remain in power and have all the good life for themselves. This is incomprehensible from a human perspective!
Politically speaking! I cannot think of any country where people don’t gravitate towards and support a political entity that promises the lowering of taxes, the Coalition rode into power on that same white horse (promise reduction of taxes) – that is what I thought then but my perception has now changed.
Has there been a display of honesty and integrity from the ranks of the Coalition? One can only imagine the consternation that would have ensued from this said crop of supporters had a PPP president fail to declare their assets to the integrity commission.
Was there accountability and transparency in governance over the last 5 years? The auditor general report reflects the opposite. The grandstanding of the Coalition supporters is difficult to rationalize.

Rudolph Singh

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