Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday defended his criticisms of President David Granger’s governance, saying they were meant to hold him accountable.
“President Granger enjoys my respect as a Guyanese as would every other Guyanese,” Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday, while adding that all must respect Granger as the country’s president.
However, Jagdeo said Granger is an executive president, who chairs the Cabinet and is responsible for government’s policies, as opposed to a ceremonial president who does not have to account to the electorate for policies and is shielded from criticisms.
“I would be abdicating my responsibility as Leader of the Opposition if I did not raise these issues,” he added.
Jagdeo’s comments were in response to comments made by Granger in a Q&A published in the quarterly Guyana Review, a supplement of the Stabroek News, where the head of state said he does not see the kind of cordiality he extends to Jagdeo reciprocated.
Of the cordiality Granger has extended, Jagdeo said, “I have always attended—even late invitations, even when he did not follow the prescribed process—I have attended all the meetings he has invited me to, because of the respect of the office he holds.”
Granger also said he believes former presidents need to be more prudent in their remarks. Jagdeo, a former president, pointed out that when the late former president Desmond Hoyte became Leader of the Opposition, “He was critical and even worse than critical.” He noted that Hoyte led protests after he lost the elections in 1992. “I urge the president to pay attention to that issue too,” he said.
Jagdeo further said the president plays politics, too, “while claiming the moral high ground when we criticise him.”
While Granger has not avoided talking to the PPP on contentious issues, Jagdeo said, “It is not just the discussion that matters. It is what he has done to those issues that were brought to his attention. If he has done nothing about them although they are affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our people all across Guyana, then we have to be critical of him.”
He cited examples of the issues that he claimed were brought to the president, publicly and privately by not just the PPP/C and he said not much was done about them.
Among the examples Jagdeo cited were “the burden of taxation” placed on people through the imposition of VAT on a number of commodities, including food items, agricultural machinery and equipment, water, and electricity, among other items.
Some $60 billion will be collected in taxes this year compared with when Granger took office, Jagdeo said.
“Clearly the President is responsible for taxation policy. We have argued that a lot of these taxes are on the productive sector and on ordinary people,” he said.
He has pointed out to Granger, he said, where wasteful spending takes place and where government could save $5 billion a year that could address teachers’ concerns and pay the severance for sugar workers. “What has he done about it?” Jagdeo asked.
As the opposition, Jagdeo said, the PPP/C has pointed out that unsustainable levels of borrowing will harm the country in the future. “They have recently borrowed $30 billion for GuySuCo. I told the president this is not necessary because you are not using the money now. It is too costly,” Jagdeo said, adding, “He did absolutely nothing about it.”
The $30 billion is now an issue between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Special Purpose Unit and Granger, he said, “does not intervene.”
“So bringing these to the attention of the president is not personally disparaging him. The matters we bring to his attention is for him to account for his policies,” he said.
