Dear Editor,
With oil money coming, the political stakes could not be higher, as most of our citizens know and feel that they could be cheated of their God given rights to the opportunities and wealth of our Republic. Some of our “experts” decry the financial and technological arrangements which we have with ExxonMobil, finding fault and opposing this great investment – these malcontents should understand that over the next two years, ExxonMobil will invest over 35 Billion US dollars in worldwide oil exploration without a clear prospect of oil recovery and with the price of oil not yet $60 a barrel, the investments are not always profitable. We in Guyana, should be proud and excited that the largest company in the world is investing real money into our economy – this will eventually attract other good foreign investments and trade to our Republic in areas like agro-industry, mineral extraction, our water potential, our fishing potential, our forest potential and other new avenues to make up for lost time and lost opportunity. Foreign investment and trade along with the private sector as the engine of growth is the only way to boost our incomes, from rich to poor citizens, and to turn our country to a much better place to live. Any government we have has to facilitate this notion and keep government committed to filling its ranks with younger professionals dedicated to the modern world and new ideas while decentralizing power from the central government to our villages, towns and communities. That is why investments in education has to be a mission of utmost importance to any government, because young people are our future and our destiny; with wealth coming, adequate money has to be set aside for scholarships (based strictly on merit) for our brightest to go abroad to the best universities in the world and to return to take the mantle of leadership in our dear Republic.
Editor, we will be now preparing for new elections and the above observations should reflect the manifestos of each party- but this is not so with certain parties based on the record we can examine. The PPP/C only demitted power 3 years ago so it is pretty easy to show that the Gang of 8 who run that party are against the very concepts which I put forward above; under their aegis, there was no real foreign investment and trade and no intention of facilitating the economy so that the private sector could really become “the engine of growth” and more young people left these shores as no real investments in education was ever done. The free computer giveaway under Jagdeo was a farce, the shoddy “fixing” of schools was a joke, no buses to take our children to school, no hot meal for our schoolchildren and on and on, compounded by (as President Cheddi always said) “squandermania” as exhibited by such failures as the Skeldon sugar fiasco, Jagdeo’s brainchild. Our biggest industry, the sugar industry, where the workers support the PPP/C, took plenty blows when Jagdeo was in power and the sugar workers were treated with contempt while the industry went broke and became a drag on our economy- Jagdeo never brought innovations, market adjustments and better pay and conditions for our brothers and sisters in the sugar industry and himself and Komal Chand ( both members of the Gang of 8) conspired to have the workers’ union (GAWU) leadership be a part of the government which was really the employer- a real betrayal of the rights of the sugar workers who are really taken for granted every time elections are held
And in this period they have the nerve to celebrate the life of President Cheddi while doing the opposite of what he would have longed for. The voters of our Republic will reject the do-nothings who dominate the PPP today- the Gang of 8.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan
(Jr.)