Dr. Luncheon’s role is to lend legitimacy to these money-raking schemes

Dear Editor,
I write to, among other things, register my objection to the use of the word ‘government’ in the local press to describe the source of the dense, intellectually stultifying utterances of Dr. Roger Luncheon whenever he finds occasion to present himself before the public.  Dr. Roger Luncheon’s remarks represent those of himself and the PPP.  The PPP, for its part, is not a government. It has shown that it not a government at all, but in fact, has transformed itself into puppets to the now publicly acknowledged cabal of politicians and businessmen intent on enriching themselves through the corrupt and deceitful practices with which we are now so familiar.
Dr. Luncheon’s role in the PPP is to lend an air of legitimacy to these money-raking schemes while projecting the appearance that there is a government in place with the peoples’ interests and welfare at heart.  The PPP has shown that it has little real interest in our general welfare.  It has trampled underfoot public servants’ rights by callously disregarding their opinions for better welfare by unilaterally issuing the wholly inadequate 5% increase in public sector wages.  It has issued house lots to poor people, in many cases, sending them to locations so far away from their places of employment that these people are now poorer with their new homes, because higher transportation costs and reduce family time.  And it is not a case where these people can find jobs any closer to their homes, since there are no businesses any closer to their homes.
Recently, the party declared that Guyana has enjoyed 5% growth and, I imagine, patted itself on the back.  I would like to give the PPP the opportunity to respond to the following questions: How many employable bright Guyanese continue to leave our shores every year in search for a life that PPP have been unable to provide for them?  How many jobs has it created during the two decades or so since it has been in power?  After this enormous lapse in time, how many large new companies do we see through the length and breadth of our country?  How many sugar workers have been displaced through woeful mismanagement and misdirection at GUYSUCO? Why has the unemployment issue not been addressed more clinically by first producing statistics on employment in all of our ten regions?
The answer to the last question is that it would tell the plain, painful truth, that a large percentage of our employable Guyanese men and women are either unemployed or under-employed.
The PPP have done absolutely nothing to radically address these sore, latent issues, which are a major cause of crime, from robbery and murder, to the nasty spates of domestic violence that permeates our society.  Make no mistake about it, large sections of Guyanese society live under intense stress caused by an inability to provide enough for their homes.
The Opposition, which constitutes the majority representation of the people, recently informed the public that the PPP has blatantly ignored it in the preparation of the 2014 budget. This apparently with the obvious intent of pushing through those fat, soup-distributing projects which give kickbacks years down the line to its servants, friends and associates.  Of course, this budget will probably be cast as another record-breaking (back-breaking for the man in the street) budget, designed to bring prosperity to all and sundry.  The majority Opposition is therefore encouraged to be prepared to pare the budget of those familiar money-grabbing projects intent on siphoning off our resources to fatten the PPP’s friends and associates.
To our brothers and sisters who vote for the PPP, or who consider themselves PPP, I urge that they see for themselves what they and their children have suffered as a result of the PPP’s dalliances and its busted projects. All of which, as I have said before, enrich only the few closely aligned and working for the so-called pet companies and businesses.  The party is a most anti-democratic organization, a political machinery whose object is not to govern for the benefit of all, but to maintain power by brainwashing their supporters and whoever else would listen to their propaganda while fattening themselves.
The PPP’s supporters must understand one thing:  all of us, regardless of which party we support, want the same things.  These are the ability to provide for ourselves and our families comfortably, and also that our neighbors and friends can provide for themselves. We all want a government that is not intent on enriching itself through wasteful, corrupt projects with kickbacks; a government that recognizes our needs and mobilizes resources to address those needs. We want a government that is democratic, one that recognizes that there is strength in diversity, one which allows freedom of the press, one that is not intent on brainwashing us with foolishness.  These are what we want. These are what make us all Guyanese.
I sincerely urge that we can free our minds of the cacophony of nonsense the PPP preaches to detract us from the real day-to-day issues and problems we face, which they haven’t, and most likely will, never address.  Because they are too busy enriching themselves.
The sooner we get these buffoons out of our lives the better.
Craig Sylvester