Our forests are been destroyed, time for a regime change

Dear Editor,
In any country, organization or institution that is performing poorly, the most important cause is almost always lack of leadership or incompetency or both.  History is replete with examples that in almost every country the role of political leadership in the process of economic development is very important.
Why do some countries achieve economic development and others like Guyana do not, thus remaining in a perpetual state of underdevelopment because of poor leadership or incompetency and we must add, corruption. In fact, we believe that Guyana is in a state of persistent poverty when compared to most of its CARICOM counterparts. This is why thousands of Guyanese have and continue to abandon Guyana for the Caribbean.
This leads to the question as to why Guyana is a failed state. The answer lies in the myopic approaches/policies taken by the political leadership as well as the massive corrupt practices that are taking place almost every day.
Political leadership has been observed to be a critical influence on the efficiency of institutions, economic behavior and investment incentives and it is these key ingredients that determine the economic success or failure of nations. For economic growth to be achieved, it is necessary to have effective political leadership which Guyana does not have at the moment.
Economic decisions are critical for determining the performance of an economy, but whether a country is poor or prosperous depends on political leadership. It can be argued that it is political leadership that determines what economic decisions are taken. However, this cannot be achieved with the current inept leadership that has pawned Guyana’s pristine forests to foreigners who are causing major destruction to the environment.
In Guyana, despite what the regime says, there has been very little economic success and the regime has to be blamed for its poor policies and lack of effective and good political leadership.
They have not created a policy framework that ensures the security of the people, private property, and an unbiased system in which the best qualified will be employed and a functioning market system in an atmosphere based on the equitable distribution of goods and services. But despite some outstanding individuals, the ruling oligarchy since the late 1990s has not produced good political leaders and this is not an historical accident or an act of God, rather it is the result of irresponsible and reckless behavior of the oligarchy to select any riff-raff person as their presidential candidate.
They select those who aspire to benefit from their political positions in the form of bribery or stealing. And the only reason why they have done this is because the party leaders believe that they can win an election by playing the race card and appealing to their supporters.
Guyana needs its brightest and best leaders to go into politics and public service. Politics need people with the attitude extolled by the late President John F Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Guyana does not need leaders whose only intention is to rape the treasury to fill their pockets and those of their relatives and friends.
These people must be weeded out of the political system and be prosecuted. Leadership change is urgently needed to weed out crime and corruption and to prevent the further destruction of our pristine forests.
This regime has ruined the coastland, raped the treasury, bankrupted the country and has now sold the forests in the interior. They will not stop until Guyana is completely ruined and the people become full-fledged paupers and beggars.
Guyana is in a crisis of political leadership. The current political leadership is pathetic and should be replaced immediately either by elections or by any other legal means necessary to save the country and its people from tyranny and the kletocrats .
They have sold or have taken the best ocean front lands for themselves, sold the state properties to their friends at below the market prices and now they have pawned our pristine hinterland forests to foreigners who have no respect for the environment. As we watched our forests being destroyed by foreigners, it is time for new political leadership. This cannot and should not be allowed to continue. Wake up people, time for action is now.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh