Santa Claus making another round in October

Oct 10, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I think that President Ali has fallen in love with himself, his way of doing things. I am trying to figure out whether he is seeking to be on the receiving end of Guyanese belting out that Ray Charles classic, “I can’t stop loving you…”. He doesn’t only have the goodies to backup the love he is expecting to get, but now he even has the statistics to support what he puts out before Guyanese Old Age Pensioners. As December draws near, many hopeful Guyanese look to their President with longing, and beg, “Baby, baby, please let me have your number.” If that sounds like William Bell, it is.

Pensioners will take anything they get; one-offs, runoffs, handoffs, and push-offs. I go on trying to tell the President that things are this bad, but he has other priorities. Like how to make the Private Sector happy, and how to talk many of his people from ripping off the people, and how to hold the runaway Vice President in check, and from trampling on openness, truthfulness, and pleasantness.

What has become clear, and is now settled policy and practice, is that President Ali has found his sweet governance spot. It is going around to different places and different sections of people, and deliver grand announcements about handouts. The nation’s Head of State is now a regular philanthropist. But he is one with a distinctive difference. The money that President Ali doles out so cleverly is not cash- his own honest sweat, but the people’s money that he is finally find the time to give some of it back to them. Even a hard-eyed character like me could appreciate the symmetry in that leadership setup. But take it from me, I know a Ponzi scheme when I am near one. It is the nicest racket around- giving back to some of the people a little of their own money, and have them turn cartwheels in one’s honour. Of course, since it is Old Age Pensioners that are the people under discussion in this instance, that particular physical movement may prove to be a tad on the reckless side.

It is not, however, pushing things too far to envision (again) that His Excellency has more of these green rabbits with red ribbons in the big, Father Christmas bag he has on his shoulder. Green to represent cash, and red to remind one and all that it is the PPP Government that is handing out Christmas carols that sing one word: money. To be specific, the army and the police could start lining up, and just to keep everyone on an even keel during the holidays, the package will be tax-free. I hope that Pensioners will get more than that one-off, and that the thousands of Public Servants will come into their own at long last. It’s Christmas, isn’t it; so I can dream, can’t I? If the President was a regular John Doe (citizen) I would have said that he is one ‘sly mongoose’, but he is the President, though I am yet to come across the President since August 2020 at the National Cultural Centre.

The Private Sector doesn’t have to worry their silly little heads, for the share of the ‘bigshot’ members will not be shortened in any manner by all the give-outs to the poor and struggling in Guyana. In fact, I am convinced that the budget office is working day and night to come up with newer and slicker ways to make the Private Sector membership that counts feel good about themselves and their lavish investments in the PPP. They are in the best position, since they will benefit at least four times. One via more handsome tax giveaways; second, through huge contract awards; third, in the form of built-in cushions to cater for the 15% to the helpful people; and fourth, spending only 1 million for every 10 million contract dollars received on the project at hand, while pocketing the rest. This is why I should be running for office, so that I can sit back and collect more than pension handouts. That bit about running for office is shared to make the PPP and PNC come to a full stop and think twice, and knock themselves in the head three times. Is he really going to do that, and open the door to honest Government in this country? Whether serious or not, that must never be allowed to happen. The people might get ideas about good governance, and who knows where that will end. The gravy train will come to a halt, that is definite. They know.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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