Guyana no longer has a prestigious presidency
Dear Editor,
His Excellency President Donald Ramotar could see his first term become a train wreck based on his infantile political actions and his outrageous speeches especially on the budget cuts.
One only has to recognize this attitude of the President from his address to a group of Berbicians as they observe the 175th anniversary of the Arrival of the East Indians to Guyana. So if using his words, the majority opposition is so vindictive in their actions of cutting the budget, then why is he such a coward in tolerating this vindictiveness and is not calling a General Election? Is he afraid of defeat at the polls or that the Jagdeoites might push him aside and chose someone else to be their presidential candidate.
Further, Mr. Ramotar could have avoided all of this if he had negotiated in good faith with the opposition in those useless tripartite talks in which he refused to compromise. We had warned the opposition that this Stalinist PPP cabal will not yield anything to them and that they would use the tripartite talks as a propaganda stunt to show their supporters that they are engaging the opposition.
Since the death of Cheddi Jagan, Guyana did not have a decent president and as such, the people are getting tired of the poor leadership of the current and previous presidents who have lowered the standards of the presidency and have reduced it to a shell of what it was. Mr. Ramotar’s silly explanation of the radio licenses issued by Jagdeo, to his failure to investigate and report to the nation on the NCN corruption scandal and the GPL generator rental scandal proved that he is shaping up to become another PPP disaster as President, thus wrecking the country in the process.
Having said that, we believe that Mr. Ramotar predecessor is Guyana’s worst president so far.
This is the second Budget that the majority opposition has cut and there are clear signs that the majority opposition will cut even more come the 2014 Budget, but yet the Ramotar regime seems to have fizzled out to some sound bites to the dwindling flock here and there with no concrete economic strategy to create jobs for the youth whose unemployment rate is at an all time high of 45% and climbing.
They tried to bully the opposition and the people but it did not work, so now they are using propaganda, distortions and untruths, but this will not work either because the people are much smarter than to buy their stories.
The mature thing to do as the Head of State is to seriously address the 11 points raised by the majority opposition; rather than jumping all over the place like his shameless predecessor making repugnant and racist statements even at a Pundit funeral. This political yard fowl has no cerebral matter and no integrity.
In Guyanese parlance, one would say that “he was not brought up but was dragged up.” Nothing could render Ramotar a lame duck president quicker than his executive actions which support all the Ponzi schemes in Capital Projects signed in secrecy by the Jagdeo regime. He owes it to himself and the nation to at least understand what is really going on and he should cease and desist from operating like a political sheep with minimal mental faculty to discriminate what is good and what is not good for Guyana. Simply put, he would do much better if he abandons Jagdeo and be his own man.
Even if the President really doesn’t know anything about any issue, his position should not blindly follow his predecessor who is so despised by the majority in Guyana and in the Diaspora.
The PPP did not win a majority in the 2011 general elections because of the inept executive actions of Jagdeo, the incompetence of Robert Persaud as the party campaign director and a very poor “hand picked” presidential candidate in Ramotar. The nation cannot reverse two of these three failings, but surely the President can rehabilitate himself by acting mature and responsible by engaging the majority opposition and finding common ground for the greater good of the nation. Is he wise enough to do this! You be the judge! Based on his actions with the no confidence vote against the unimpressive Rohee, we do not think so.
This communist form of attack politics practiced by the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal has no place in modern societies such as Guyana where people should feel free to agree to disagree but should always work together to find common ground for progress. Are we to believe that President Ramotar is against the AFC proposal of a 10% wage increase for all classes of workers or an increase in the old age pension from $10,000 to $15,000 per month?
Even if the Minister of Finance advised against these AFC proposals, could Mr. Ramotar as president become the bigger man and do the right thing for the poor and the working class who are at their wits end to make ends meet. Such proposals from our calculation will only cost the Treasury about G$900 million in addition to what the Minister has already put aside for the annual year end PPP tradition of handing the workings the meager 5% increase.
Who would have looked magnanimous and endear the workers, the AFC or His Excellency?
The ease with which President Ramotar and his cabal gave Jagdeo such a huge pension package of $3 million per month and abandoned his duties to the people of Guyana defies all logics as he continues to engage in all these public banter of naked political opportunism. The President should redouble his efforts to heal the nation and not be Jagdeo squared.
He should empower the institutions of State to function, penalize the corrupt animals in his administration, design public policies that enhance the economic and social well-being of the people and protect the masses from the political turmoil that is the new norm in Guyana today under the anti-poor and anti-working class PPP regime. Gosh man, when will he get it!
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
