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Mitwah

It is a serious shame when the President of a poor third world country acquires astonishing wealth in office

September 5, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters

Dear Editor,

The idiocies PPP acolytes utter are truly disgusting.

Minister of Labour Nanda Gopaul reportedly said during the recent corruption debates “What is wrong with a former president or a president seeking to ensure that he lives a comfortable life after his presidency? Especially because we have term limits, knowing full well that you are going to demit office, you must ensure that you look for your future. We must not go from a president to rags.”

Political office is not a bank or a gravy train. It is not there for anyone to get rich. If you don’t like the pay and the pension package as president do not run and better still, get out of politics.

Nanda Gopaul typifies the nonsensicality of the PPP. A president serves two terms maximum. That is eight years. Then he gets a pension for life. Why should a man who has destroyed a country earn an outlandish pension package after eight years of service?

In eight years, the president earns $96 million tax free. That is US $480,000 tax-free over eight years. However, Jagdeo was in power from August 11, 1999 to December 3, 2011, a period of 12 years 3 months. At $1 million per month, Jagdeo would have earned $147 million or US$735,000 tax-free during his tenure.

How could a man who likely earned this stupendous kind of income, tax-free, still want to suck this country dry? Even if this was not Jagdeo’s doing but that of his party, he never said no to this insanity. He never once uttered a single word deeming this pension package as an abomination in a country of extreme poverty that is just above calamitous Haiti in the Western Hemisphere.

Nanda Gopaul has some shamelessness to defend this absurd pension package given to a man who, if he earned $1 million per month, would have earned some $147 million of taxpayers’ money tax-free in salary as president for 12 years and 3 months.

Guyana has a GDP per capita of US $2869 at US $239.08 per month. It would take a Guyanese earning the per capita GDP of Guyana some 256 years to earn what Jagdeo would have earned in 12 years 3 months as president at $1 million per month.

This is not absurd and sickening enough for Nanda Gopaul and the PPP followers who attempt to defend the even more brazen assault on taxpayers of this nation with the Jagdeo pension package. By any measure, Jagdeo has gotten very rich sitting as president. He did not pay any taxes on his massive salary for 12 years. The PPP soup drinkers want to enrich him even more by giving him a preposterous pension package.

Bharrat Jagdeo essentially rose to riches just by sitting in the presidency and earning a tax-free salary from the people of Guyana. At 48 years, why is Jagdeo entitled to that ridiculous $3 million per month pension package? Why should the poor people of this country support a young man in the prime of his working life with contacts all over the world and good qualifications that enable him to earn a good living?

What kind of mentality is at play within the PPP to see it fit to pillage this country in this fashion with a pension package of this nature? Is it a perspective that sees Guyanese people as pliable and easily bullied? Or is it an outrageous sense of entitlement? Is it pure greed or plain disregard and disrespect to the sufferings of the majority of this nation? This pension package is no better than a leech sucking the blood of an innocent prey.

If Jagdeo is getting a pension of $3 million per month, he is getting US$180,000 per year compared to Barack Obama who will get $127,129 per year. Obama will pay taxes on his pension. Jagdeo will not. There is providing a pension for a president, and then there is this rape and pillage of the Guyanese people and nation. By no measure is Jagdeo entitled to this pension. Not in a country where old age pensioners receive an insulting $10,000 per month.

It is greed, plain and simple for any president of a backwater third world country that happens to be the second poorest in the western hemisphere to be rewarded in this rapacious fashion. Jagdeo will not go from president to rags, not with what he has earned, the pension he will receive and his lucrative job opportunities. It is the people of Guyana who will go from rags to even more rags with this kind of highway robbery in the presidential pension package passed by the PPP.

Jagdeo will go from President to Sultan with this package.The US president does not get such a pension package and he is the president of the most powerful nation on the planet. The arrogance of this package is a reflection of the mentality of those who passed it. This is all about bullyism, insolence, intimidation and entitlement

M. Maxwell

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MitwahSenior Member

Yugi22, I don't think you marched unto Parliament Hill in the dead of winter to support this kind of greed.

9/6/127:21 AM

Former Member

What alyuh expect in that political latrine ?

9/6/1211:30 AM

seignetSenior Member

Bullies share no shame in the DNA makeup.

9/6/1211:37 AM

Former Member

Yes, it's a shame what Burnham did to Guyana, a "poorer" third world country then for 28 years. Granger and Ramjattan are paving the road to that era.

9/6/124:00 PM

MitwahSenior Member

Cheddi Jagan did not own anything when he came to power in the 1950s. He owned just a home and probably modest savings when he became President in 1992. He arrived in the office of the presidency with nothing. He took nothing as his pay was laughable compared to what Jagdeo paid himself. He left with nothing and he asked for nothing.

9/6/124:27 PM

Former Member

That was Jagan's personal choice to live and die a poor man. While he carries a good name, poverty in every sense is wrong for Guyana. President Jagdeo reform Guyana and killed Jagan outdated policy to live and die poor. He reform the PPP to what it is today to build and continue to build. Jagdeo put Guyana back on the world map. Jagdeo is an internationally acclaimed president and he deserve to live decent. Stop peeking into the man's pocket. He earned every penny that filled the oppositions eye. Jagdeo deserves more than what he has at present. He should get a fifty room mansion.

9/6/124:44 PM

Former Member

which part of the world this fool live in,i guess a snake is always a snake

9/6/125:13 PM

Former Member

Who told you that I am a topic for discussion? Get with the frigging program and get off my ******* case.

9/6/125:20 PM

cainTired old hippie

Originally Posted by Cobra:

Jagdeo put Guyana back on the world map.

I remember when Wiki Leaks made mention of this....something about drugs.

He should get a fifty room mansion.

Fifty years in the pen is more like it.

9/6/125:23 PM

Mr.TI pity the fool

Originally Posted by Cobra:

Who told you that I am a topic for discussion? Get with the frigging program and get off my ******* case.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. So shut up and take it like an antiman.

9/6/125:25 PM

Former Member

Is that all you have to show you can talk me down? Try again.

9/6/125:28 PM

Mr.TI pity the fool

One does not need a hammer to squash a latrine fly.

9/6/125:39 PM

Former Member

You just wasting your time on nonsense.

9/6/125:40 PM

Mr.TI pity the fool

You are right. You are nonsense and not worth wasting time on.

9/6/125:45 PM

Former Member

Listen to this Burnham age prick who has no self respect coming here and labeling me about nonsense. All his posts contains antiman sentiments and I wonder why. I guess it makes sense to him to mention that word every time. Perhaps the kind of society one lives in that make them so colorful about their expression. I pity the fool.

9/6/127:34 PM

MitwahSenior Member

To those who are not happy with Jagdeo sucking the nation coffers write to your respective Members of Parliament, Prime Ministers and Presidents.

If Jagdeo is getting a pension of $3 million per month, he is getting US$180,000 per year compared to Barack Obama who will get $127,129 per year.

Obama will pay taxes on his pension. Jagdeo will not.

There is providing a pension for a president, and then there is this rape and pillage of the Guyanese people and nation. By no measure is Jagdeo entitled to this pension. Not in a country where old age pensioners receive an insulting $10,000 per month.

9/6/127:50 PM

Former Member

His pension is actually 1million per month which is 60K us per year. The AFC boys did some voodoo math and priced in all the potential expenses he could claim if he wanted. Such as drivers, domestics, travel expense, security guard and vehicle allowance. Hardly any of which Jagdeo has taken advantage of to date. In fact the AFC will not tell you that these ancillary benefits were available to all presidents and was voted into parliament to formalize what was common practice. What the aFC should work on is repealing the pension plan in court but they will not because if ever they get into power their president will want soup too. hahahahaha

9/6/129:18 PM

Former Member

Moses Nagamootoo voted for the Jagdeo pension plan, and spinelessly claimed afterwards that he had to vote for it because he was required as a PPP MP which is utter nonsense.

“To my utter shame and regret I voted for it, because I was required to do so as a PPP MP.”

9/7/126:51 AM

MitwahSenior Member

In eight years, the Bharat earns $96 million tax free. That is US $480,000 tax-free over eight years.

However, Jagdeo was in power from August 11, 1999 to December 3, 2011, a period of 12 years 3 months. At $1 million per month, Jagdeo would have earned $147 million or US$735,000 tax-free during his tenure.

How could a man who likely earned this stupendous kind of income, tax-free, still want to suck this country dry?

Even if this was not Jagdeo’s doing but that of his party, he never said no to this insanity.

9/7/128:08 AM

Former Member

Originally Posted by Mitwah:

In eight years, the Bharat earns $96 million tax free. That is US $480,000 tax-free over eight years.

How could a man who likely earned this stupendous kind of income, tax-free, still want to suck this country dry?

Even if this was not Jagdeo’s doing but that of his party, he never said no to this insanity.

Again, the proper way to undo this wrong is through legislation and not relying on the conscience of the president. But I doubt that the Ramjattan, Nagamotoo and Granger crew will do anything since their pockets will be affected too if there is a overhaul of the pension plan for politicians.

9/7/1210:50 AM

MitwahSenior Member

Originally Posted by BGurd_See:

Again, the proper way to undo this wrong is through legislation and not relying on the conscience of the president.

Thank you!

9/7/1211:06 AM

MitwahSenior Member

I wonder what is his net worth today?

6/9/219:48 AM

Former Member

@Mitwah posted:

Minister of Labour Nanda Gopaul reportedly said during the recent corruption debates “What is wrong with a former president or a president seeking to ensure that he lives a comfortable life after his presidency? Especially because we have term limits, knowing full well that you are going to demit office, you must ensure that you look for your future. We must not go from a president to rags.”

This exposes their mentality, of which they are unashamed because they are soooooooo pathologically CRIMINAL that they see NOTHING wrong with statements like this. A land of sickness, suffering, and poverty for over FIFTY FIVE YEARS of independence, and a former president's pension is MORE than that of a former US PRESIDENT - Barack Obama's.

Think about that. Maximum TEEFING! And their slave supporters, Richmond Hill drunks who eke out a living wukking at local college celebrate them. What a bunch of sick people!

6/10/218:53 AM

Former Member

@Former Member posted:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
In eight years, the Bharat earns $96 million tax free. That is US $480,000 tax-free over eight years.
However, Jagdeo was in power from August 11, 1999 to December 3, 2011, a period of 12 years 3 months. At $1 million per month, Jagdeo would have earned $147 million or US$735,000 tax-free during his tenure.
How could a man who likely earned this stupendous kind of income, tax-free, still want to suck this country dry?
Even if this was not Jagdeo’s doing but that of his party, he never said no to this insanity.
Again, the proper way to undo this wrong is through legislation and not relying on the conscience of the president. But I doubt that the Ramjattan, Nagamotoo and Granger crew will do anything since their pockets will be affected too if there is a overhaul of the pension plan for politicians.

Iz whuh wrang wid yu, eh? Jag had tuh bee bak becawz uv de ile! De graytist appurtunitee fur teefin noan tuh dee maan! Ar enny maan, fuh dat.matta!

6/11/215:04 AM

PrashadSenior Member

Hamilton Greene and Moses are getting 90 thousand American dollars equivalent each every year in pension.

6/11/217:47 AM

MitwahSenior Member

@Prashad posted:
Hamilton Greene and Moses are getting 90 thousand American dollars equivalent each every year in pension.

They are living proof that "Determination" pays. Can you use someone like Hamilton Greene or Moses in Prashadistan?

6/11/218:11 AM

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It is a serious shame when the President of a poor third world country acquires astonishing wealth in office

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