The PPP’s promises will become even more irrational as we move closer to May 11
Dear Editor, For more than 16 years, Guyana has labored under the Jagdeo jinx. Between 1990 and 1995, growth rate in Guyana averaged some 7.3 percent. Carl Greenidge was the Minister of Finance in 1990-1992, while Dr. Asgar Ally Minister from 1992-1995. Since then, Guyana has never surpassed this average as the Jagdeo jinx prevailed. The first full year of Ally at the Finance Ministry saw a growth rate of 8.8 percent in 1993. Since assuming the Presidency in 1999, all we have been hearing from the cabal that surrounds Jagdeo is excuse after excuse. But clearly these little boys have not recognized the words of Henry Beecher who said “real men always find excuses for others, but never for themselves”. So here again in 2015, the PPP boys have presented a manifesto, and the promises are flowing thick and fast. The latest pitch from the PPP is that under their leadership they promise to “modernize Guyana together”? So what have they been doing since Dr. Asgar Ally left? Well, their poor leadership has given the Guyanese people an average growth rate of 2.7 percent between 1999 and 2014 vs. 7.3 percent under Greenidge and Ally. Is this how they plan to modernize Guyana with such pathetic growth rates? For Guyana to be modernized, we have to be growing at 8 percent and above; nothing less. Clearly the Jagdeo cabal does not know what they are doing and seem heavily distracted from the real work that has to been done. Since 1999 there has been a massive leak of financial resources from the Treasury. If it was not for the over US$300 million in annual remittance sent to the homeland by mainly overseas based Guyanese,, this nation would have crash landed years ago. What is clear today, is that as the PPP move closer to May 11, their promises will multiply and become even more irrational. Their manifesto is a clear example of their irrationality as they continue to foist old, unfinished and failed policy choices on the nation. Such deceptions and subterfuge are being used to generate political momentum but the people are tired of the half truths and untruths from the PPP. So what we have now is a damp squib from the PPP. The people do not believe they can achieve even a quarter of what they promised in this 2015 manifesto. They have a track record and it is a dismal one. But clearly insanity is alive and well in Freedom House, because they have the audacity to question the commitment of the APNU+AFC to fund and pay a 10 percent across the board wage increase for all classes below a certain wage rate (with policemen securing 20 percent), when they have increased it by more in the past and inflation was never materially compromised. Might I remind Mr. Jagdeo that it was he in May 1999 who told President Janet Jagan that he can only afford four percent increases in wages. But in September 1999, after the old lady ceded power to him, he accepted the ruling by the Armstrong Commission to pay the workers 58 percent wages increase over two years. In the years 1999, 2000 and 2001, the inflation rate in Guyana was 7.5 percent, 6.1 percent and 2.6 percent. What Jagdeo did not tell the nation was after granting the workers a five percent increase in wages in 2008, the inflation shot up by 8.1 percent. It was the IMF who said in one of their studies on Guyana that the major source of domestic inflationary pressures were “foreign inflows” Among external factors that affect inflation, the IMF thinks that the price we earn for our primary products can also have “a positive spillover effect” on domestic demand which can cause too much dollars chasing too few goods as happened in the boom days of gold. So in the final analysis, this 10 percent – pre-collective bargain payout that the APNU+AFC promises to dish out to the workers in their first 100 days will not significantly stimulate inflation, since we are in a period of low prices for our primary commodities. What this salary inject will do is put real dollars on the table of the poorest especially the policemen, nurses and teachers. Stop these falsehood Jagdeo. TICK TOCK. IT IS TIME! Sase Singh
