$200,000 cash grant – upside down, mystery, criminality

Oct 16, 2024 News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

Kaieteur News – The $200,000 cash grant is official, straight from President Ali’s mouth.  How do any Guyanese, rich or poor, have a bad word to say about this sensational national leader?  The ecstasies that followed his announcement, and its smaller economic cousins, will take some time to ease down.  Talk about timing, and it was sweet as any Rohan Kanhai cover drive or a Roy Fredericks late cut.  It’s Xmas, and if Johnny Braff were alive, he would start singing that song from today, the middle of October.  Amid the ecstasy and effervescences generated by Excellency Ali’s list of holiday cheers, it is my difficult job to be Mr. Sandpaper.  What I have no choice but to say, since not a single other Guyanese has the gumption to do so in this time of Titanic excitement.

When I asserted at different times that Guyana is an upside-down country, the daggers were drawn in PPP quarters and the headhunters let loose.  When I insisted that the PPP Government (and entity) is a national criminal enterprise, people close to President Ali, the well titled Vice President Jagdeo, and Attorney General Nandlall saw it fit to go on a rampage and paint their political graffiti all over me.  I am still around, they are still hiding, with the leaders still up to their old evasive actions.  And when I articulated that the PPP has devastated Guyana through its wicked genie ways and its mysteries everybody thought that I had lost it.  What do all this have to do with Excellency Ali’s $200,000 holiday (and election) bonanza?  Plenty, as the ventilation and sanitation of sunlight will show.  Upside-down is first in the lineup.

It was Distinguished Professor of Economics, Dr. Clive Thomas, who first spoke and wrote about a million from the nation’s money pot for the people.  I have some reservations with that, as has been shared on the David Hinds Show, and on other programs.  Opposition people did not like my take, either.  Most of all, the PPP Government and leadership were almost pathologically bent against that million in the pockets of Guyanese families.  Every economic theory that could be found was given a spit bath, braided, and used to lash Professor Thomas’s million-dollar proposal: a kick where it hurts -in the rear wheel.

A kick with both feet on both rear cheeks.  Now, by my arithmetic, and after all the sound and distress, the PPP Government is on the same track that Clive Thomas so presciently put on the table.  For there is sure to be a second cash package, and because it is closer to elections, it would have to be richer than $200,000.  Then, depending on what secret PPP polls tell it, and where voter registration and a clean list end up, there may even be a third cash incentive to win minds when the ballot box is the only thing between Guyanese and the dreams and destiny that swirl in their heads.  In short, Professor Thomas made the right call, with the PPP now rushing to catch up after upending his early representations.  Upside-down or the PP leadership continuous mooning of the people for years, but now that election is on the horizon, senior leaders rush to pull up their pants and free up the purse strings.

Then, it was policy powerhouse Professor Jagdeo in the lead vocal role, who danced around banana peels.  His fear was of collapsing headfirst before the dreaded inflation stalker.  A healthy and not unreasonable fear it was, by my assessment.  Except that inflation was used as the shield and sword to do nothing to ease the price pains of Guyanese.  Shield to defend government’s do-nothing policy and sword to attack those who pleaded for help for the people.  Now, lo and behold for Ali told the tale: $200,000 per household.  Relief always looked all but inevitable, given the constant drumbeat about prices and elections approaching on winged feet.  The thought was $50,000, since $25,000 would be mocked and scorned.  When I factored in elections, $100,000 looked feasible, but with long odds.  But then came Excellency Ali, with a bank-busting $200,000 that just blew the naysayers and complainers away.  What happened to Jagdeo’s inflation anxieties?  Were Ali’s inflation distresses imaginary?  Were Dr. Singh’s inflation extrapolations all part of some clever political plot?  When $200,000 is compounded with Christmas prices, Guyanese are in for a torrid post their $200,000 receipt.  Suddenly, inflation anxiety, inflation disharmony, and inflation’s flighty lifespan are all of no leadership concern, no economic counter pressure.  This is part of the enduring mystery of PPP Guyana.

Money was tighter than a prostitute’s stocking (and just as short) when teachers had their hands out earlier this year.  Now $60 master banknotes (billion) can be dredged up out of nowhere for this $200,000 cash gift to Guyanese.  Conclusion: in normal times, leaders are a combination of Scrooge and Shylock: master misers.  In contrast, when elections loom, PPP political leaders are as freehanded as Bill Gates and the Ambani brothers.

Finally, when a distribution of nearly a quarter of a million dollars is announced, only a national criminal enterprise like the PPP Government could insist that it be in cash with envelopes to hold the stash.  Why cash?  Because cash powers corruption from crime to culture to a caveman’s ball.  Think of the top PPP predators and their cabals preparing to have a grand time.  This is no longer the mystery or the criminality of the PPP.  It is the beauty of the party.  There is a deep pool of $60 billion to pay out.  Cash for citizens.  If only 10% is siphoned off, it is still $6 fat billion.  If it’s 20%, there is still more cash for criminal comrades. I repeat a prior recommendation -let’s have elections every year, please.

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• David Hinds, Guyanese, PPP Government, Professor Jagdeo, Rohan Kanhai, Vice President Jagdeo

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