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FM
Former Member

Stop blocking development, put Guyana first

– finance minister urges opposition

The A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) are on a consorted campaign to derail progress and development in Guyana,

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh

Finance Minister
Dr Ashni Singh

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said in a recent interview.

“The APNU and the AFC have repeatedly demonstrated their ruthless attempt to stymie any developmental project that this government has attempted to undertake for cheap political mileage,” said the minister.

Minister Singh was at the time making reference to a recent article in the Kaieteur News in which leader of the main opposition David Granger called “all major projects flawed”.

Objection of programmes by the opposition have included the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project, One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) Programme, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion Project and the Marriott Hotel Project.

Real issues

“The AFC and the APNU are not interested in seeing this country move forward, or to bringing real issues of concern to the table, they are simply using these projects for cheap political gain while taking the lives of hardworking Guyanese for granted,” he noted.

“The livelihood of the farmer who wants to start a small-scale pasteurising plant is now jeopardised because the opposition killed the Amaila hydropower project,” Minister Singh said. “That farmer has now been denied his right to improve his, and his family’s economic livelihood, by the opposition.”

The minister stressed developed and developing countries around the world have undertaken projects that are aimed at bolstering investor confidence in the market place and to kick-start projects that will have positive residual effects on the country.

“APNU and AFC’s aversion to developmental projects have been wildly inconsistent, yet a look at other developing and developed countries from around the world indicates that the government of Guyana is not unique in investing in hotels, power stations or agricultural infrastructure,” explained the minister.

Countries in the region that have been cited for taking risk ininvesting monies into large scale projects with the intent to have a financial turn over in the long run includesTrinidad, Jamaica and Barbados.

In Trinidad, the government invested in the Hyatt Hotel, a 428-room hotel that opened its doors in 2008.

The Jamaican government invested in the Sandals Whitehouse All Inclusive Resort, of which it owns 67 per cent of the assets. It also invested in a project called Harmony Cove Development. That project was conceptualised in the early 2000 by that government for 2300 acres of beach front property that now includes 4500 hotel rooms, 500 residential units, nightclubs, golf courses, a marina and other entertainment facilities.

These developmental projects, Minister Singh argues resulted in encouraging private investment, created sustainable jobs, and created tax revenue to the benefit of the respective countries.

Private/public partnerships

Extra regionally, other developing countries such as, China, Malaysia and the Philippians have supported public/ private partnerships having seen the long term benefits it has on the development of their respective countries.

“Public/private partnerships enables government to share costs, risks and the responsibility of large scale projects with private investors,” explained Minister Singh. “These partnerships help us to meet the high demand for financing as a developing nation with limited financial resources.”

“If the opposition was so concerned about the configuration of these projects, they would have engaged us at any of the multiple forums facilitated by government to correct these so called ‘flawed’ projects,” Minister Singh concluded. “We have made numerous attempts to involve the joint opposition as we strive to be transparent and all inclusive. What more can we do that has not been done within the parameters of the law?”

Government has in the past released information stating the dates when closed door consultations were held with the opposition in their effort to involve all parties, but expressed concern that the joint opposition did not participate in any of them. This is in relation to the Amaila Hydro Power Project and the development of the Marriott Hotel Project.

“In addition to having an open discussion with the joint opposition, we presented time and again information — confidential information – to the joint opposition and then we read in some sections of the media that there is something sinister and clandestine at play,” Minister Singh said. “We have even seen sensitive, confidential information we provided to the opposition in the media!”

Cheap political points

The minister chided the joint opposition for not being a responsible parliamentary opposition. “The APNU and the AFC should not stymie development and modernisation for cheap political points and tactics,” he said.

Minister Singh, however, alluded to the multiple benefits large scale projects such as the Amaila Hydro Power Project, the Marriott and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion Project have, both long and short term benefits, including short term construction jobs and long term professional jobs.

“The best strategy for us as a developing country is to make long-term consistent investments over time, as we have been attempting to do,” noted Minister Singh. “If the opposition has a better strategy, why have they not presented these to the public?”

The minister concluded that the government has extended several invitations to the joint opposition to be included at the parliamentary level in developmental projects.

Those invitations have not been well received.  He further expressed his concern that if the joint opposition continues to obstruct and derail developmental projects, the Guyanese people will feel the blunt of such decisions.

 

source:Guyanatimes

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Corruption is what is blocking development. Lack of a safe environment is blocking development. A corrupted judicial system is blocking dev. Racial disunity is blocking development. The MOF is talking nonsense as usual.

FM

APNU/AFC is the biggest obstacle of Guyana's development, Guyana has little to no natural disaster, but it has an opposition with a "one" seat majority, but is blocking its path to development.

FM
Originally Posted by Conscience:

APNU/AFC is the biggest obstacle of Guyana's development, Guyana has little to no natural disaster, but it has an opposition with a "one" seat majority, but is blocking its path to development.

 

No way. Guys like the white powder captain are to blame.

FM

After the 2016 general elections (if not before) the joint opposition's "majority" would be a figment of one's imagination......the Guyanese populace will entrust the PPP/C with a majority in the National Assembly.

FM
Originally Posted by JB:

Corruption is what is blocking development. Lack of a safe environment is blocking development. A corrupted judicial system is blocking dev. Racial disunity is blocking development. The MOF is talking nonsense as usual.

How corruption can block progress when all major projects are going as planned except for Amaila Hydro Project that begs for a National consensus? As you may know the Hydo-Power will commence sooner than you think (without the opposition participation). The Marriott is a corruption project as per the opposition, but it is near completion. What the opposition is doing is delaying the process of development and hoping to block financing for these projects by crying corruption. I am still waiting for the opposition to bring the PPP to justice on drugs, thievery, and corruption charges. When you get the facts of what you preach let me know.

FM
Originally Posted by Cobra:
Originally Posted by JB:

Corruption is what is blocking development. Lack of a safe environment is blocking development. A corrupted judicial system is blocking dev. Racial disunity is blocking development. The MOF is talking nonsense as usual.

How corruption can block progress when all major projects are going as planned except for Amaila Hydro Project that begs for a National consensus? As you may know the Hydo-Power will commence sooner than you think (without the opposition participation). The Marriott is a corruption project as per the opposition, but it is near completion. What the opposition is doing is delaying the process of development and hoping to block financing for these projects by crying corruption. I am still waiting for the opposition to bring the PPP to justice on drugs, thievery, and corruption charges. When you get the facts of what you preach let me know.

 

The thieving and drug connections are well noted and documented. Note that the drug dealers are only prosecuted outside of Guyana. How is Mr Ed Ahmad doing? 

FM
Originally Posted by Cobra:

Please provide the findings by the joint opposition that will indict the PPP on drugs, thievery and corruption charges and don't waist my time further. 

 

How is the white powder pilot doing?

FM
Originally Posted by JB:
Originally Posted by Cobra:

Please provide the findings by the joint opposition that will indict the PPP on drugs, thievery and corruption charges and don't waist my time further. 

 

How is the white powder pilot doing?

So, you want to go down that road and play silly games? OK, I see!

FM
Originally Posted by Cobra:

Please provide the findings by the joint opposition that will indict the PPP on drugs, thievery and corruption charges and don't waist my time further. 

 

Correct.

 

To date the AFC has proven ZERO yes ZERO evidence that is admissible in a court of law to implicate the PPP for fraud. They post "dem boys seh" articles from toilet paper KN. This is the reason why the AFC imploded after the Snake Oil bottle got smashed. 

 

They are full of "dem boy she" nonsense. The AFC snake oil cannot sell anymore. Those who left AFC and joined the PNC are now trying to sell the same snake oil in a PNC bottle.

FM

Mitwah:

The joint opposition should do the right thing and pass the 2013 budget without question. Political exchange is a sign of a healthy democracy. Any cut from the budget will endure greater suffering to the nation. This is a test to see if Guyana stands first in the opposition eyes. In time of national consensus and domestic budget, the country must stand as one. The people will judge their elected leaders by what they delivered and not by false promises. There is nothing personal to discourage what is good for the entire nation.

FM
Originally Posted by Cobra:

Please provide the findings by the joint opposition that will indict the PPP on drugs, thievery and corruption charges and don't waist my time further. 

Cocaine, money laundering and politics in Guyana

May 31, 2013 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon 

 Here is the most graphic fact that no international expert on drug trafficking can ignore about Guyana. Not one, I repeat, not one of the super-rich traffickers has been charged much less pass through a court trial. Not one, I repeat not even one of the most conspicuous money-launderers has even been charged, much less face a court hearing.

Contrast this lack of action on the drug front with the following facts. Dozens of persons are either on remand or in jail for incest; dozens of persons are either on remand or in jail for domestic abuse. Citizens in this country get hauled before the courts for all kinds of criminal violations, but the washers of money and the cocaine owners remain untouched. Is there an explanation? Yes, and it is a simple one.

People in Guyana get prosecuted for a silly, unimportant thing like cross-dressing but somehow the law misses out on the drug lords and the washing machine owners who launder money. Even the importation of squibs gets more police attention. Last year Christmas, KN sports journalist Rawle Welch and I were in Charlestown heading toward KN offices when we saw a huge commotion in the street. A semi-homeless guy had sold squibs to an undercover policeman.

So why are the washers of money and the cocaine traders untouchable? Because politics is the intersection. The drug lords have powerful political connections, and the police are fully conscious that the untouchables must not be touched. It looks like the Americans are finally awakened from sleeping in that large edifice on Young Street opposite the seawall.

The American reticence on drug trafficking in Guyana has caused widespread consternation among political observers. How could the Americans be so blind to the political angles? It had to be the sea breeze that has induced sleep over the past ten years.
The American Ambassador told the media that even if Guyana is given an extension to comply with money-laundering operations by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force at their meeting in Nicaragua, there still may be sanctions against Guyana, because there has been no successful prosecution of money launderers. The Ambassador must be saying to himself; “God, not even one.”

One of the most barefaced aspects of governmental inaction against the cocaine business in this country is the acceptance by the political authorities and the police of targeting the couriers rather than the bosses. The couriers plead guilty and out of fear for their lives, they endure their four-year incarceration. Research would show many of these messengers are ordinary folks without any kind of wealth.

This columnist and another media colleague did an investigation into the assets of some of these messengers. One of the persons we looked at was the employee of Mr. Gerry Gouveia. After he was charged, Mr. Gouveia set up a committee to investigate how his employee managed to avoid detection by his company’s mechanism. A lawyer told me that Mr. Gouveia was being flippant and funny when he chose a very young lawyer with no experience to head the inquiry.

The attorney told me the young man was chosen because of his name only – James Bond.
I was laughing my head off. I did a column on the issue after Mr. Gouveia’s employee was arrested and the committee of Bond and a funny gentleman named Roshan Khan was set up. And though I wrote that the composition of the committee was unusual, it never occurred to me that Gouveia may have indeed been cynical in that he chose Bond because he is named after the world’s most admired and successful secret agents.

My research showed that almost ninety-nine percent of the couriers are poor guys trying to make a buck or two. One of them said that he had financial problems in the home. There has been no effort to provide “safe houses” for these small fishes, so the sharks can be netted. So you take your jail, while your super-rich boss stays in the trade, and continues to do his laundry business all over Guyana.
And of course, certain politicians visit the laundries often, but if you examine the parcels they are leaving with they contain paper not clothes.

A few months ago, I published a KN column captioned. “The American Embassy in Guyana is not doing its work.” Has it finally come to the reality that the Government of Guyana is not going to move against the drug traffickers and money launderers because these two venalities intersect with power and politics in a confluence of staggering illegal wealth, where the mansions and swimming pools make you think Guyana is a post-modern industrialized global giant?

 

http://saveguyana.wordpress.co...-politics-in-guyana/

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Cobra:

Mitwah:

The joint opposition should do the right thing and pass the 2013 budget without question. Political exchange is a sign of a healthy democracy. Any cut from the budget will endure greater suffering to the nation. This is a test to see if Guyana stands first in the opposition eyes. In time of national consensus and domestic budget, the country must stand as one. The people will judge their elected leaders by what they delivered and not by false promises. There is nothing personal to discourage what is good for the entire nation.

The Kleptocrats are having their way with the taxpayers’ money

September 3, 2013 | By | Filed Under Letters 

Dear Editor,
All decent minded Guyanese tend to look down on those PPP bicycle riders who in a matter of a few years after becoming ministers and permanent secretaries in the government have built beach front Taj Mahals and Palaces for hundreds of millions of dollars.
One would have expected that they would have some shame or guilt  but that is not the case because they are a shameless group of people. They have also taken over the country’s airwaves for themselves, imposed one of the highest tolls in the world on the Berbice Bridge, ‘bruck-up’ the sugar industry with the white elephant Skeldon sugar factory, and  allowed foreign contractors to discriminate against Guyanese workers. As if these were not enough, their latest and biggest hoax is the flawed Amalia Falls Hydro Project, given unconditional support by some political quacks to deceive Guyanese once again. Had it not been for APNU, they were going to sell the country’s hydro power to Sithe Global for G$130 billion and still ask the taxpayers to pay the other G$300 billion.
As if bleeding Guyana dry is not enough, they continue to violate the people’s human rights by restricting and controlling what they do and say, impose higher electricity bills and taxes on them thus forcing the masses into perpetual poverty
All of this is happening as the PPP leaders live in luxury; which cannot be explained. These people have and continue to send their children to private schools and to Universities in North America. One former unmarried and childless official boasted that his chandelier in his beach front palace is worth more than G$10 million; an amount that can easily build a comfortable house for a family of four. But they are only interested in  themselves and not in helping the poor and the working class.
In Guyana, the income gap between the rich and poor continues to soar to new heights as these individuals rule with strong doses of hopelessness and despair injected into the tired population.
The kleptocrats have created a system where they can extract huge shares of the country’s wealth for themselves, no matter its impact on the people. They believe that the country belongs to them and they are therefore entitled to its resources, both financial and natural. It is sad to say that their actions have deprived thousands of Guyanese, especially the poor and the working class an opportunity for a better life. Today, many Guyanese have made the streets their homes, some, mostly women have turned to prostitution, and others, especially the youths have turned to crimes to eke out a living and the kleptocrats have turned high way robbery.
When the economic pie of a nation and society is not shared fairly, economic growth stagnates, poverty rises, unemployment increases and crimes escalate and that is exactly why Guyana continues to struggle to grow at a rate to lift all the people up to a higher and better standard of living.
Guyanese deserve the opportunity to look forward to a better and prosperous life but once this Ramotar/Jagdeo cabal is in charge the chance of this happening is zero to nil. It is time for the people to take to the streets and boot this corrupt, uncaring and anti-poor and anti—working class regime out of office, and we proudly say by any, every and all legal means necessary. We call on the opposition, especially APNU to lead the way.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh.

Mitwah

The Guyanese populace are no fools  are seeing the true colors of the joint opposition, the AFC/APNU sinister motives are for everyone to see, the Guyanese populace would not hesitate to vote the AFC/APNU into the political wilderness at the earliest opportunity....

FM

The PPP confuses putting money in their pockets with putting Guyana first.

 

They think corruption means putting guyana first. They also think that supporting corruption takes precedence over anything else.

FM

If you guys are bored with all the editorials coming off KN, you must know why Carl Greenidge spoke his mind and said that APNU need vote getter's and not academics and newspaper writers to write nonsense daily. It adds to the bell ringers who feeds on these editorials and act it out like a stage play. This is how they go about measuring success in the politics. 

FM

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