Dear Editor,
I have had cause to listen to the latest ‘Justice for All’ programme hosted by Jaipaul Sharma, and I am an avid reader of the ‘What the people say’ column in the Stabroek News. You can sense from the temperature of the people that they are tired of this insanity called the PPP government and the weak opposition emanating from the office of the Leader of the Opposition. History has always shown that the people know when to act. In 2006, the people could not act in their numbers because the AFC was too young, and in 2011 the AFC started their campaign too late. Valuable lessons were learnt from that 2011 campaign. The AFC have to actively illustrate to the people that they will not be an attachment to any of these politically and ideologically bankrupt political forces (PPP or PNC/APNU).
Now, make no mistake, the APNU is the PNC and the PNC is an ideologically bankrupt political force that does not have the moral credibility and the track record of being a solutions provider for Guyana. In all fairness to both the PPP and PNC, there were years of light from 1988-997, the golden decade. In that decade it was proven that Guyana could do great thing like starting to turn the economy around, creating much needed economic activities with the associated new jobs and attacking crime brutally. I want to go on the record and acknowledge the sterling work of Carl B Greenidge and Asgar Ally, under the leadership of HD Hoyte and CB Jagan respectively. They were instrumental in developing and continuing the Economic Recovery Programme that built the foundation for Guyana to grow out of its status as the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere in 1987.
But we must never forget that it was under the PNC that Guyana earned the title of the poorest nation in the Western hempishere thanks to that meglomanic called Burnham after starting our life in 1966 as the country with the 43rd highest GDP per capita. Today after 22 years of PPP rule, we have climbed a few ranks higher from poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, (ranked 130 in 1994) to 126th highest GDP per capita in 2013. It took us 20 years under the PPP rule and a decade under another modern-day meglomanic from 1999-2011 to climb above three economic basket cases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Now, do not get me wrong, I have had cause to read the comments of some in the PNC Corbin camp falsely peddling that I am advocating that the PPP is better than the PNC. It could not be further from the truth. For the record, the post-Jagan PPP Jagdeo/Ramotar regime is multiple times worse than the Burnham regime on most of the developmental benchmarks. Voting to keep the Jagdeo /Ramotar regime in place will be a political decision that will be socially and economically detrimental for the people. The facts will show it was under the Jagdeo/Ramotar administration that the people’s wealth was wasted and squandered in US dollars almost twenty times more than in Burnham days. Under the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime, corruption was more than ten times worse than in the PNC days. So staying with this PPP government is a definite no! Under the PPP more young men were cut down in their prime by a bullet owned by the state. So definitely the PPP today under this administration is much worse than the Burnham regime.
What I am strongly advocating is a third way that is not a government led by the PPP or the PNC/APNU, but a government of national unity led by a third group of leaders. However, this can only become a reality if the under-35 year olds get registered and make it their patriotic duty to vote but firmly reject the Cup and the Palm Tree.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh