The president’s speech on elections should be taken with a grain of salt
December 8, 2014 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters
Dear Editor,
If the President’s statement is to be taken seriously then there will be Regional and General elections early next year at the latest. But no one, including the opposition, should take the President and the PPP cabal at their word because of too many broken and empty promises in the past.
The PPP will lose the election because contrary to what the PPP cabal believes, the election will not be a battle between politics and economics or the PPP against the AFC/APNU or a grand coalition. It will be a battle for the PPP to convince its own supporters to vote for the party because they believe that the President and his cabal have abandoned them for their rich friends.
It will be a battle over a number of depraved and shameful acts committed by the PPP cabal and gut-wrenching issues affecting the people, such as endless corruption, high crime rates, gigantic floods, a decaying and stinking Georgetown, lack of jobs for the youths and those who want to work, rule by decree, reckless squandering of the taxpayers’ money, the Marriott Hotel fiasco, the giving away of the airwaves to friends and relatives of the PPP by Jagdeo, and the PPP’s refusal to establish the Procurement Commission and the Integrity Commission among others. Other bread and butter issues affecting the poor and the working class include the PPP regime’s refusal to lower VAT by two percent, reduce the toll on the Berbice Bridge from $2200 to $1000 for cars and mini buses and free for motor cycles, increase old age pensions from $13,000 to $20,000 and salaries/wages by 15 percent for civil servants, teachers, nurses, police, army and GUYSUCO workers.
Since Jagdeo assumed power in 1999, Guyana has moved backwards with the marginalization of a certain ethnic group, increased poverty, massive corrupt practices and over 400 extra-judicial murders. His ineffective and warped management skills, coupled with nepotism, which placed a large number unqualified and inexperienced PPP operatives in senior government positions, have ruined the country.
His refusal to compromise with the opposition and govern in the interest of all the people, and not only in the interest of his rich friends, have turned Guyana into a failed state. Not only did he fail the people, but he also lied to them for eight years that he was married when he was not. The mistreatment of the former First Lady by the Earth’s Champion from Unity Village was disgraceful and sickening to say the least.
It is against this backdrop that the PPP regime has shown total disrespect for the people and contempt for the constitution. What makes the situation more treacherous is that the Jagdeo/Ramotar dictatorial and immoral regime has failed miserably to effectively impress the people, including their hard-core supporters, who have lost total confidence in the way they govern the country and will no doubt vote them out of office.
The PPP is in serious trouble because the majority of their supporters did not receive the handouts, monetary assistance and special favors that were promised to them during the last election by Ramotar. Other promises that were not fulfilled by the PPP include the giving of financial help to small farmers, improving the welfare of the poor and the working class, improve the health and educational sectors, repair the pot holes on the roads, improve water supplies, end power blackouts, reduce crime and corruption, and provide an across the board increase in salaries/wages and old age pensions.
It is no secret that the PPP had used a substantial amount of the state resources to buy votes in the last election and they intend to do so again because they have and continue to be confronted by an angry constituent who believe that they do not have the people and the country’s interest at heart.
The PPP regime is now in desperate mode as it seeks to convince its supporters that they are the better managers of the country’s perennially battered and anemic economy.
But its majority was shattered in 2011 and this has brought into sharp focus that the PPP has become an expendable party mainly because of out of control corruption, its unpopular decisions and dictatorial rule.
What will be at stake in the 2015 election is not just the disgraceful record of the PPP, but the poor governance of both Jagdeo and Ramotar which has caused Guyana to become the most corrupt country in the Caribbean and the second poorest country in the region after Haiti. They have brought shame to the country and have embarrassed every Guyanese at home and abroad. The Jagdeo-Ramotar duo has also caused Guyana to descend to its lowest level since the founding of the nation. The people will no longer continue to take the bitter medicine dished out to them by the uncaring and dictatorial Jagdeo/Ramotar PPP regime.
The low level in which the country is now, another term of the PPP dictatorial and corrupt rule would be deadly in more ways than one in that it would lead to massive starvation, very high unemployment, endless corrupt practices, a higher crime rate and perhaps a revolution.
The potent question that Guyanese must ask is, can the spiteful and deceitful PPP regime do anything different given the fact that corruption and crookedness are growing leaps and bounds by the day and they have not charged anyone so far. And Ramotar has refused to sanction the two senior officials at NCN who were caught in the act of embezzling the state funds. One of then deposited over $3 million of the state funds into his personal bank account.
Can the PPP regime abandon its dictatorial rule? No! Because history has shown that dictators only change for the worst, not for the better. But with an increasingly disenchanted populace the PPP could suddenly find itself so debilitated at the next election that it could be reduced to a shell of itself.
We are convinced that the next general election will be the most important since independence, when the so-called invincible cabal will be put out to pasture. So we are hoping that the President will honor his words and call elections early next year as he promised.
But knowing how desperate and untrustworthy the president is and how wicked and bane the PPP cabal has become, the people, especially the opposition should not hold their breath because in the past, the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime has not matched words with action. They are deceitful and cannot be trusted.