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Post-independence mega projects proved costly to the nation

Jun 15, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor
Independence Day has come and gone; so, after 56 years of dumping British Colonial rule the most salient question remains: Is Guyana and its people better off today? The answer is NO. After centuries of European colonial rule, post-Independence Guyana has failed in its quest for truly becoming a democratic and politically stable nation. Guyana’s Independence saw the establishment of 28 years of PNC dictatorial rule and Party Paramountcy and the abolition of colonial institutions including the highest Court in the land -The Privy Council.
Some say that the Sam Hinds six months sojourn as president was a sham and Jagdeo’s12-year rule has emanated vindictiveness and spitefulness against his alleged opponents and the marginalization of the second largest ethnic group in the country. His autocratic rule has led to highly questionable financial ventures including the $US 220 million Skeldon Sugar factory which has become a white elephant, the US$ 45 million ill-fated Amelia Falls Hydro Project and the US$ 45 million Fiber Optic cable from Brazil which never materialized. The same can be said of the Yarrowkabra Glass Factory, the Mazaruni Hydro and the Power Barge purchase under the PNC.
These investments should have yielded huge benefits to the taxpayers, but instead, they have cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Many believed that the amount of money spent on the projects embarked by both the PNC and the PPP should have transformed Guyana and move it from third world state status to first world nation status. The public is of the opinion that these botched projects could not have occurred under colonial rule. Today, Guyana is not only the third poorest country in the hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua, but it has also become a fourth world country and is drifting towards a fifth world status.
It must be remembered that at the time of Independence, Guyana had the highest per capita income in the Caribbean and in terms of real wages, Guyanese had more actual spending power than today. Their actual purchasing power has diminished to such low level that many cannot feed their children or send them to school. Guyanese are much poorer today than they were many years ago, due largely to the rampant corruption by public officials and the vindictive and arrogant behaviour of the leaders of the two major political parties.
Guyana’s horrible oil contract clearly illustrates this point as the best analysis of such colossal failures is being done by the private media, which is considered the fourth estate and which the government hates. It is said that Kaieteur News is perhaps the most hated newspaper by governments, past and present because its publisher Glenn Lall has been doing an excellent job in exposing the government give away of the nation’s mineral resources, especially its oil possessions. We are asking the nation to support Mr. Lall in the struggle for a better oil contract and for a better Guyana. His struggle for a better Guyana is everyone’s struggle, and we have no doubt that he will succeed. So, instead of forging a new post-independence order that will lead to the control our resources, today’s crop of political leaders weak and selfish and they are not only filling their pockets, but they are also padding the pockets of the oil conglomerates at the expense of our children and grandchildren.

Regards
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine

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