The Jagdeo era: Facts and statistics do not lie

You can lie about facts and statistics but they in themselves do not lie. If the statistics in a bank say that over a five-year period the business made a billion dollars in profit, you can’t shout to the world that it was ten billion dollars. The bank’s annual statement and the central bank statistics will show it was a billion.
The fact is that the combined votes of the AFC and APNU in the 2011 general elections were more than the PPP. The PPP can lie about that fact but the fact will remain what it is.
Bharrat Jagdeo bowed out after twelve years in power. Just before he rode off, he arranged a circus called Day of Appreciation at his Coliseum, the Providence Stadium. Prominent names offered pyrotechnical panegyrics. The list included Sir Shridath Ramphal; Al Creighton of UG; an aging engineering professor, Clement Sankat from UWI who is a pro-Indian supporter of Basdeo Panday in Trinidad; and cricketer, Lennox Cush among others.
Long after the sun had settled on the circus, statistics and facts emerged to place Mr. Jagdeo as the least achiever among Caribbean head of governments.
Topping the shock list was that in 2012, the priceless lifeline for a majority of Guyanese, the National Insurance Scheme had operated with a deficit. After twelve years in power, under Mr. Jagdeo, the NIS is now in boiling water. Hot water peels off your skin.
Think of the analogy. Against this shocking fact, a lie emerged. Dr Roger Luncheon nicely announced that the NIS is healthy. Yes, you can lie about statistics but statistics do not lie. The annual general report of the NIS boldly stated it had a deficit last year.
Does the impending disaster in the NIS make Jagdeo a failure? How can the answer not be yes? Hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women depend on their NIS benefits. If those benefits dissolve, then there can only be mass misery.
How can a President that caused such a mess be considered a successful leader? On the shock list was more shocking items. GUYSUCO is in vast debts. Now here is where statistics cannot lie even if they want to. Guysuco has to publish its annual reports and if it lies about the statistics then the workers will say, “Thank you sir, for making a whopping profit this year, please pay us our increase.”
Since Guysuco does not have money to pay because it didn’t make a profit, it has to show the workers the books to convince them that money isn’t there. This is an amusingly strong case where a liar wants to lie but cannot because the statistics are stopping him from being dishonest. Guysuco’s failures were known to the Guyanese people before the Day of Appreciation at Mr. Jagdeo’s Coliseum at Providence. But Jagdeo still got his appreciation from Ramphal, Creighton, Sankat , Cush and others.
More statistics came out before and after the Day of Appreciation. The World Bank statistics in 2010 revealed that 84 percent of Guyanese with tertiary education migrate. In Jamaica in 2007, ninety percent of university graduates found jobs on the island (source; Sunday Gleaner, April 19, 2009 “Low-paying jobs for grads: UWI study shows modest earnings by degree holders,” by Gareth Manning).
The Manning article is interesting. It shows that most UWI graduates stay in Jamaica. There was no Day of Appreciation for PJ Patterson when he voluntarily retired as PM of Jamaica. But Manning’s graduates stay in Jamaica. Jagdeo’s cut loose from Guyana as soon as they collect their certificates.
Now for the biggest infamy on the shock list. Our current foreign debt is slowly climbing to what it was in 1992 when it was a drowning pool. According to Adam Harris, the KN editor, at this time (Feb 2013), it should be around US$2 billion. Now all of this (not all, but almost all because Jagdeo had twelve years; Cheddi Jagan had four years, Janet Jagan had two and De Donald only got one so far) was accumulated under the Champion of the Earth.
It would appear that Mr. Jagdeo is indeed a champion in that he is a real champion in borrowing money. Can we nickname him” Champion of the Debt?”
The West forgave the 1992 debt because it could have afforded to. Now, the very West is reeling in financial crises and will not be generous at all. So what was there to appreciate about the twelve years of the Jagdeo presidency? Statistics and facts do not lie. Mr. Jagdeo was a failure.

This tief man put Rohee there to fail and now that he has failed THE DONALD has to move him.

Chief, Is this 2013 or we are Back to The Future.

cHIEF can you speak up because I do not know you.