A conspiracy of the private sector that APNU and AFC knew about in 2014

People say that politicians are not to be trusted. Politicians always submit to the wildest pangs of power. Politicians never stay with the promises they made. Looking back at history those beliefs about politicians are correct. But in Guyana, we must not be so harsh on politicians. The case of the APNU-AFC Government needs special mention.

It takes a lot of moral courage to be a Minister in 2015 in Guyana for the simple reason – you have to wine and dine with the Private Sector Commission. With what the business class went through in the Burnham period, one would have thought that the business community would have learnt its lessons – do not become servile creatures of an authoritarian government; it will devour you one day. After Hoyte came to power, the open economy thrived. Men and women invested billons of dollars and every conceivable type of entrepreneurship came on the scene.

In Guyana, after 1988 you found a business place dealing in anything you wanted. I remember a company began to manufacture paper clips and staples. The economy further opened up with Cheddi Jagan. Jagan remained anti-business due to his basic Marxist instincts, but when the Americans in 1991 made a deal with him, they insisted he pursue a capitalist economy. Jagan had to comply, but in subtle ways he stifled certain foreign investments.
The most depraved attack on a capitalist venture by President Cheddi Jagan was UNAMCO headed by Mr. Hamley Case. Jagan kept delaying the necessary documents for the firm’s forestry concessions and the machines on the wharves became inoperable. UNAMCO had to close and millions of American dollars were lost.

The case of UNAMCO needs documenting. It will show what a devious, anti-nationalist man Cheddi Jagan was. By the time Jagan died in 1997, Guyana had become a complete capitalist economy, but with its rise came the emergence of an authoritarian government under Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) became Jagdeo’s Pavlovian puppy dog. It supported the descent into power madness that Guyana once experienced. It was dÉjà vu. The business sector in any society will protect its interests by the avoidance of criticism of the political class. But in the case of Guyana we went down that road before. Guyana is a different polity. It has extreme complications, with ethnic formations jutting into every aspect of the exercise of power.

The PSC supported Jagdeo not only in his economic policy-making but in his marauding ways in general. The PSC was just as contemptuous of the Guyanese people as the PPP was when it was in government. Billions of NIS dollars were lost in reckless spending by Jagdeo and our private sector was quiet. This is the same private sector that has found its voice and tells the Granger Administration that it should not remove state money that is in the commercial banks.

By what physiological miracle have the so-called entrepreneurs in the Private Sector Commission found their vocal cords? They never opened their mouths when Jagdeo endangered the economy of Guyana; undermined the NIS, damaged the University of Guyana, eroded  ethnic stability, lacerated the rule of law and took Guyana down the precipice.

I never revealed something before that involved a conspiracy of certain businessmen known to be members of the Jagdeo protective bandwagon when Ramotar was President. The AFC got hold of the information and went public with it. APNU was embarrassed. It thought the AFC should not have done that because it would destroy the working relationship of the opposition parties. The AFC warned that three APNU Members of Parliament were approached to vote against the no-confidence motion. This columnist is aware of two.
This columnist knows certain APNU personnel know about this and the identity of the private sector figures that approached the APNU parliamentarians. These were businessmen who wanted to keep the PPP in power. To think that the Cabinet and other AFC and APNU officials who work in the state sector have to dine with these very merciless men devoid of any nationalist conscience. To think that ruling politicians have to sit round the table and have intimate discussions on Guyana’s future with the PSC. Just the thought of that makes me want to vomit.

I really do feel sorry for the leadership of both APNU and AFC that protocol demands that they have to be nice and accommodating to the PSC, the very PSC that if it had its way would have kept Ramotar in power.
What a country! God is dead. Gandhi is dead. Mandela is dead. And I’m not feeling too well myself.