Jagdeo: a leader of glaring contradictions

Jan 24, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – “We are not a rich country as yet…” The speaker was Vice President Jagdeo. We absorb that sentence, and the weight of those words from the Vice President, and see a leader of conspicuous contradictions. For here is the chief national policymaker saying one thing, and there is a litany of actions that put to shame his words.

“We are not a rich country as yet”, Jagdeo asserted, and we could roll with that position. But only partially, given the circumstances that have come to dominate the decisions and actions of his PPPC Government. Since we are not rich (as yet), then it is the essence of common sense that there is less spending. Considerably less would be the hallmark of prudent economics and sensible leadership. But it has not been so, with Guyana appearing to be competing to spend, at times, with Middle Eastern kings and princes. There is the barrage of expensive projects, some of which would not suffer from being put in the right order, and in their rightful place on the calendar, viz., a little later. But the opposite is what has happened in Guyana with spending at a blistering pace. This is part of the baffling contraction of the PPPC Government and the master economist, Jagdeo.

“We are not a rich country as yet”, as he said, but there is all of this borrowing to finance the spending covered above. The borrowing has not been the wisdom of a trickle, as in with an eye to restraint, but of binge proportions. To facilitate the extravagant borrowing sprees, the government had repeatedly moved to parliament to raise the debt ceiling. Of this one substance all Guyanese can be sure: lenders extend loans knowing full well that there is plenty of oil as rich collateral. In other words, the oil is being hocked and locked to reckless debt. So, since being rich is a prospect for the future, then we advise the Vice President that he should be borrowing in alignment with current financial status, which is not rich yet, but not far from poor, either.

“We are not a rich country as yet…”, said Jagdeo, and there is a beautiful political word that leaders relish using when talking about poverty among the people. ‘Pockets’ of poverty is what is favored by politicians, in that it minimizes the number of struggling citizens. The reality in Guyana is that the pockets of poverty are long and wide and deep. Jagdeo and others may like ‘pockets’ when forced to say something about poverty in Guyana, while what we see are the stark circumstances: small populations dotted about Guyana that grapple with impoverishment. Elimination of poverty is not an overnight development, but there should not be so much of it, and with so many political cronies reaping rich financial harvests. If ever there was a contradiction, this is it. “We are not a rich country as yet…”, according to Jagdeo, but the little comfort money in the Natural Resources Fund has been drawn down and withdrawn like a drunken sailor on shore leave, and bent on having a grand time. A country not rich as yet would be better off with less withdrawn from the nation’s rainy day Oil Fund, and more left in it for real contingencies, such as a prolonged slump in oil prices, or natural disaster. Prudent leadership dictates such a course of action. Saying what Jagdeo said about national richness, and then operating in this irresponsible manner is as sharp a contradiction as there can be.

“We are not a rich country as yet…” is where Jagdeo stands. The ugly contradiction is how he refuses to challenge (or work with) ExxonMobil to get more benefits for Guyana from the nation’s wealth now. Darren Woods is inspiring his shareholders with dazzling visions of richer returns now, and more rewards for them now. But in this poor man country, Guyana chief policymaker is selling maximizing oil revenues in the future. We agree that Guyana is not rich yet, but it is mandatory that Jagdeo lead the battle for more from ExxonMobil now. Of all the contradictions in Bharrat Jagdeo, this is the biggest one, the most blinding one.

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chief national policymaker, contradictions, Editorial, Jagdeo, Vice President

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