Dear Editor,
Speaker Raphael Trotman’s exhortation for reason and dialogue to prevail, while I might not agree completely with the specifics, is hard to argue with; we need a situation in which people who are interested in moving this country forward cam come together to chart the course out of this present quagmire. That said, I cannot agree with Mr Trotman’s opinion that, failing dialogue, opposition resistance to a potential PPP basket of budgetary goodies in itself would be enough to convince the citizens that the opposition is obstructing government goodwill. The poor and working class people in Guyana have fundamental issues with the way this society is functioning under the PPP, issues that no electioneering budget can erase.
The PPP have been both fortunate and successful in their stewardship of macroeconomic growth – fortunate in that they have never had to face in government the sort of crippling global economic crisis as that resulting from the energy shocks of 1973 and1979, and successful in that they have encouraged and cultivated a rabid exploitation of our natural resources within the official economy, one that is buoyed by an underground economy, particularly the narco-trade, which the party has deliberately not confronted. (In contrast, they have not only failed to sustain or transform traditional agricultural industries but have not successfully green-housed a single new commodity or service industry after 22 years in government.)
Add to that a predatory tax system, from the prohibitive duties on automobile imports to the burdensome VAT, and what you have is a great deal of money accruing at the top but with very little trickling down as a deliberate policy of keeping people poor and the PPP rich. We have examples all around: sub-par services at the Georgetown Public Hospital versus Jagdeo and other officials flying out to first world countries for minor or optional medical services and procedures; a declining public education system while ministers of government enrol their children in expensive local private schools and overseas universities; proper drainage and the pumping out of water in waterfront Pradoville 2 while areas further inland flood due to poor drainage and irrigation systems.
And now most recently, we have the usual public service salary increase imposition that marginally benefits the lower workers while it actually further enriches the PPP’s super-salaried. For example, the teacher making $45,000 a month gets an eight per cent increase of $3,600, for a total of $48,600. Gail Teixeira, the PPP’s hatchet woman, makes about $1,000,000 a month – her five per cent increase would amount to $50,000, more than that teacher’s entire monthly salary. We can also add to that the fact that she enjoys a parliamentary salary of $180,000 a month, one she currently collects despite her government having prorogued Parliament indefinitely.
People are suffering, including the government’s traditional supporters. The results of the elections in 2011 were proof that despite a strong incumbency, voters were not prepared to give the PPP a chance at absolute power. Today, the situation is much worse. In communities across Guyana the core problems are the same to all but the elite. Electricity bills remain high even as the blackouts increase without explanation; water services remain poor and relatively expensive; infrastructure is poorly developed and maintained to the detriment of ordinary people; crime is spiralling out of control even as Clement Rohee appears to spend more time as PPP General Secretary than he does as Minister of Home Affairs; we have an increasingly rogue police force despite the efforts of a few good officers; and we are faced with glaring evidence that our national assets, both tangible and intangible, are being pawned to shady companies, or under opaque arrangements, from the giveaway of the electromagnetic spectrum to the virtual giveaway of state lands, forests and mineral wealth.
What I would argue is that the political opposition has been sub-optimal when it comes to creating a message that both captures this situation as well as clearly defining the steps it will take to directly counter the damage that the PPP has done to this country and its people. The oppressive elitist reality exists – what is needed is the rhetoric of resistance to it.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
