This raping of the treasury is tantamount to treachery against the people
Dear Editor,
Leon Trotsky reminded us that the “depth and strength of human character are defined by its moral reserves”. Reading Dr. Singh’s statement in the Chronicle of Lies, one is flummoxed by this deceitful attempt to distort the truth by someone who ought to know better. Is this the core skill-set of Ministers these days; master blenders of the juiciest of untruths and misrepresentations?
While the Minister would want to submit himself to measuring the debt in US Dollar terms, he cannot disregard the right of the Guyanese people to know the Guyana dollar amount of the National Debt. After all, the people of Guyana do not earn US Dollar salaries, save and except for the fat cats in the regime.
The Minister’s statement on the debt issue just confirmed that the PPP is running cake shop operations at the Ministry of Finance which closely resembles “financial gangsterism”. It was the Greek philosopher Sophocles who said it is better to “fail with honour than succeed with fraud”. Today, the honour within the halls of the Ministry of Finance has been vanquished and has yielded to perpetual negative notoriety. What a shame to professional accounting officers all over the world!
Was it an act of insurrection if the people are informed of the debt figure in Guyana dollars? If the Minister disputes these Guyana dollar figures, all he has to do is present an alternative number for scrutiny. There is no need to dive into the gutter. Attacking Nagamootoo will not save the nation from the disgraceful burden and shame that we all have to carry as a people, since no organization of repute, be it the IMF or the World Bank, or even the ordinary man, can trust the integrity of the figures coming out of the Ministry of Finance.
To date Ashni Singh has not disputed the fact that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal was responsible for the borrowing of G$93 billion more in debt than the PNC left us in 1992. This revelation by Mr. Nagamootoo has forever buried the myth that the PNC borrowed more than the PPP.
And we have not even considered all those pipeline debt that were lined up hurriedly before Jagdeo vacated office! When all of this is considered, the Minister has been rendered into King Richard who stated “and thus I clothe my naked villany”. The wolf pack has been exposed!
Why “run-up” on public TV and try to defend the indefensible. It is a national shame and disgrace that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal have failed the people and most importantly, destroyed the visions of Cheddi Jagan, who was committed to a lean and clean administration.
What legacy is now left; just a handful of political billionaires, compliments of the taxpayers and a people in financial ruins.
Accompanying this letter, in table form, is a more comprehensive picture of the debt situation, compliments of the National Budget and the Bank of Guyana Quarterly Bulletin. (See table below)
Why 2007? That was the year when Guyana had the lowest debt position under the PPP. The year 2007 exposes how much this cabal has borrowed over the last five years; G$202 billion at an average of G$40 billion per year.
If one is to look at 2012 vs. 1992 then the debt per each child born in Guyana went up to $543,440 in March 2012. This means that as soon as a doctor cuts the umbilical cord, the Jagdeo /Ramotar /Singh group metaphorically turns up with an IOU certificate in the name of that child for $543,440. For those in the working class, this is more than one year’s wages.
But there is a method to all this borrowing and madness – Milk and Honey for the financial gangsters in Guyana.
We call on the AFC and Civil Society to engage in a campaign of mass education of the people on the issue in every village, dam and street. Walter Rodney did this in 1979 and ‘Fat Boy’ buckled then. It is time for the new Fat Boy’s in Freedom House to buckle under people’s power. This raping of the treasury is tantamount to treachery against the people.
Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
