Dear Editor,
I thank Dr Henry B. Jeffrey for his letter, ‘The public debt began its rise in the colonial era and became unsustainable in the Burnham era,’ (SN May 27), which he said was occasioned by the ongoing exchanges in the letter columns on debt relief. I read it thoroughly and am satisfied that his presentation of ‘facts and figures’ dating as far back as the early fifties was not an attempt at political spin but an effort to help put in perspective the birth and growth of foreign debt and the circumstances that necessitated initiatives at debt relief for Guyana.
But although his aim was to show Guyana’s foreign debt has its genesis in the colonial era, most Guyanese, with even a modicum of interest in this debt relief issue, already had a general idea of the dramatic rise in Guyana’s foreign debt under the PNC regime that reached US$746.6M by 1985 under Forbes Burnham and US$2.1B by 1992 under Desmond Hoyte. In short, most of us knew the PNC was responsible for running up this massive debt, but what most of us never knew was how this would then be used as a political football or weapon by the PPP, even as the PPP prepared to retake power without a clue or plan on how to deal with that mess plus the economy itself.
For example, and thanks to Dr Jeffrey, Dr Cheddi Jagan, who knew he was going to inherit a massive foreign debt from the outgoing PNC regime in 1992, originally held the view as Opposition Leader that Guyana should refuse to pay off its debt, pull out of the capitalist world system and join the socialist bloc. In fact, according to Dr Jeffrey, even after Dr Jagan took power in 1992, he still did not want to pay off the debt; however, since there was no world socialist system in 1992 (the USSR had collapsed), he found himself locked into the capitalist system and ended up dealing with IMF/World Bank programme. “New tactics,” Dr Jeffrey wrote, “were required and what he advised should be done unilaterally when in opposition, he now sought to gain by way of negotiations.”
This thinking by Dr Jagan – whether well thought out or mere wishful thinking – is profoundly revealing because it explained why, up to the time of his death in 1997, his party still had not put out a long-term economic recovery and development plan, and it also helps us get a better understanding of how President Bharrat Jagdeo came to make debt relief his priority, rather than opening up the floodgates of the economy to major foreign investors.
Reading Dr Jeffrey, a one-time cabinet minister in the PPP government, debt relief originally was a matter of concern to Dr Jagan, for both practical and ideological reasons. Practical, because Dr Jagan “believed that requiring poor people to pay back debt, most of which had been squandered by various dictators, was immoral”; and ideological, because by using the debt burden issue as a reason, Dr Jagan believed the best course of action for Guyana was to “refuse to pay off its debt, pull out of the capitalist world system and join the socialist bloc.”
So after Dr Jagan died and President Jagdeo succeeded Mrs Janet Jagan, this President had little or no choice but to continue making debt relief a matter of priority. Any attempt, therefore, by his media spinners today to use debt relief as the centrepiece of his presidential legacy should be carefully viewed against the background of the mitigating circumstances that led the IMF/WB to come up with a menu of initiatives for debt forgiveness. Working towards debt forgiveness, to be fair to all concerned, was never a one-man show; it involved several players, so no one man can take credit for any goal achieved here, even if some would love to play politics with it.
By the way, debt forgiveness aside, we are still waiting to learn how much money has been borrowed since the PPP returned to power in 1992. Any takers out there?
Now, since Dr Jeffrey likely will continue where he left off, what I would like to ask him is, given what he knows of the genesis and growth of debt in Guyana, and the relief initiatives advanced by the IMF/WB and embraced by the government, whether it was not practical and possible for the government to do a double-barrelled approach to dealing with our struggling economy by tackling both debt relief and a major economic recovery and development plan that allowed for the constructive exploitation of our natural resources. I think it was practically doable with greater emphasis on economic development via FDIs than those obtained in the last 16 years, so the horses didn’t have to starve while the grass was growing and waiting to be consumed. How much longer are we going to keep talking about our potential instead of realizing it?
Guyana is not a country that relies on foreign income from tourism, like Barbados, (67% of Guyana’s income in 2008 came from taxes, including the IMF/WB-backed VAT) but it is a country endowed with natural resources, especially in the agriculture sector, and so it would have made sense for the PPP to have come back into power with a major economic recovery and development plan, accentuating agriculture, even as it worked with the IMF/WB on debt forgiveness. Sixteen years into power and it still has not bared any long-term plan that major foreign investors could work around, even though it had ample opportunities long before the current global slowdown to attract major foreign investors.
Last time I checked, despite the shaken capitalist system, that’s the system by which the world is still running, so whether the PPP either still hates the West or is afraid and distrusting of it, Guyana’s economy continues to await a comprehensive development plan that could benefit from foreign investors, including Westerners and Guyanese living in Western nations! After being ousted in 1964 due to a PNC-UF coalition at the height of the East-West Cold War, for the PPP to come back into power 28 years later with a chip on its shoulder against the West is untenable, because it seems to be sacrificing the economic concerns of Guyanese on its altar of ideological expediency.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
beautiful, just beautiful. precise and factual. well done Emile. lets hope Jeffrey replies, and for once we’ll have an intellectual and positive debate.
Misir and the other spinners are not invited.
Emile Emile you own my heart my good man you own my heart.
Jagdeo put that in your pipe and smoke yourself silly!
17 years and what do we have? a dictatorship!
The PPP has no need to produce a long term economical plan because they have no fear of being removed from office. Their support base is 100% committed to voting by race and with 51% of the population being Indians they are secure for life.
Emile Mervin was one of the people who pushed for the implementation of the PPP government when he had a falling out with the PPP. Now he seems have regrets and is sniping at the their heels like a perterbed chiwawa.
Who do you love Mervin?
….how abt dis ,, “perturbed chihuahua” ,,,, hey Bissy ,, since i am the only one who is making corrections ,,of ur spelling
- not in a pedantic way – since it seems noone else reads ur posts ! ah wandah why ?????????????? hmmmmm….
Please stop attacking emile mervin, if the man had a falling out with the PPP like ramjattan moses and other people it is for good reason I am sure.
It shows that these are men of character that they wouldnt sit idly by and watch a dictatship take over the country and unleash the abuses these clowns are carrying on with.
What utter rubbish from “Biswattie Ramsawak 174.113.121.253 not found”. Indo Guyanese do not make up 51% of the population, the reality is more closer to 42%. The PPP has made commendable inroads into all the ethnic and geographic communities of Guyana. Does Biswattie know that the PPP won 19% of the Region 10 votes at the 2006 elections, a region in which Afro-Guyanese are the majority? This is a fact that cannot be hidden. Further, they continue to make inroads into the Amerindian communities, a community once dominated by the now almost defunct TUF.
The multi racial parties in Guyana remain the PPP and the AFC. The PNC is still languishing in the past with their absolute dependence on race based politics and they are dying as a relevant institution because of this. The first thing they must do is apologise for their rigging of past elections, apologise for their errors with respect to the Courentyne Ballot Box Martyrs, Walter Rodney, and Michael Forde. Failure to do this and their fate will be condemned to the reality of never receiving more than 100 Indo-Guyanese votes. Now if 42% of the population is solidly against you, how can you win and what make this situations most amazing is that regardless of the level of hopelessness in some of the Indo-Guyanese dominant communities, they will never, ever vote for the PALM TREE. I am a fairly intelligent young man and I can share my experience of being in a polling both. The mere looking at that Palm Tree in a Polling Booth send chills down my spine, it is like committing a sin to even look at it in a Polling Booth. Do you understand the reality now Biswattie. This is not fanaticism, this is how a significant proportion of the population feels toward that PALM TREE and its Sophia headquarters.
You can put Prakash Gossai, the most popular hindu leader in Guyana or the head of CIOG as the leader of the PNC and still they will still get less than 100 Indo-Guyanese votes. Do you understand the reality.
Apolgise, reform and survive or fade away into the cesspit of history, that is the choice for the PNC.
Sase Singh must be living in never- never land. Who do you expect to believe such garbage? If the PNC is still languishing in the past what is the PPP languishing in. Day-in day-out we hear PPP supporters complaining about the 28 years of PNC rule so who is languishing in the past. Let’s be real Guyana is a failed state. Guyana had the misfortune of having leaders who were either socialist or communist and we have paid a price. There is one thing I agree with no matter who you put as the leader of the PNC Indians will still vote PPP. As far as I am concerned “a pox on all three houses” When will this nonsense end? I grieve for my fellow Guyanese. I see no end to their suffering. It seems as though the two main political parties are locked together in a death grip as the country descends deeper and deeper into the abyss. So Mr.Sase Singh I left Guyana because of the PNC and I will remain abroad because of the PPP.
I agree with most of what Sase has said but the truth is the PPP and the PNC are one and the same.
Jagdeo and the PPP have done nothing to get rid of the dictators tools and all the sham organizations Burnhame created. They have actually made them worse.
The evidence of PPP mismanagement is clear as day, when you have a government that has overseen 34 million USD walk out the door while breaking the insurance laws of the country that is gross mismanagement.
!7 years later and we are still under burnham’s constituition why?
17 years later and the tax payer is funding a state propaganda apparatus costing us in excess of 700 Million dollars GY per year is absolutely horrendous.
The PPP has barely spent a penny protecting the population from crime and whatever they have spent simply has no strategic value they are merely spending money in a haphazard way to say look we spent x or y.
The PPP needs to go into the sunset with the PHENC holding hands and a few palm trees and cups while they are at it.
The PPP is the only political party in the world that is guaranteed to win every election because of the racial voting. And as soon as the East Indians finish voting and praising Fidel Castro they run to the American Embassy and the Canadian High Commission to apply for visas. Judging by the rate of migration the day will come when the East Indians will not make up the majority. Sase, you should follow the elections in Guyana more careful or perhaps you should hook up with Vishnu B.
Sase Singh ! Wow. Well folks, there you have it . You can almost feel the hate towards the ‘ Palm Tree ‘ re: a sector of that society. But, at least, he is honest in his rhetoric. Apart, the gov’t can care little about what Mr. Mervin writes from a distance. He is of no consequence to them as they continue to enjoy being in power. Go and see them at the cocktail circuit.
Sase you are young, you haven’t seen anything yet,.. you scared of the Palm Tree?.. in my day it was the BROOM.. and the motto was Sweep them out and keep them out”… and the supporters.. carried out the motto.. If you were walking down the pavement,.. and one of the Comrades, feel you were PPP..if yuh hair long”.. yuh got a pointer broom in yuh, face,.. or yyuh feet got sweep, so yuh don’t get married”, as ole people say…but the point is,.. The PNC ONE ELECTION GOT 66% OF THE VOTES.. so they must have had a large Indian following;.. so how some of me fellow bloggers could conclude, that they would never win election, must be some other reason”"”.. A think, Brandon, or Biswattie, must be got the answer.. at least Madam Bis could provide one Indian vote to. the Opp… in2011 ?..
I want to enter this discussion about Guyana’s debt situation .I hold no biases in Guyana’s politics so my position is purely objective.
I my last post I urged Mr. Jeffrey to accept the fact that Guyana’s debt is manageable and therefore should not be of concern to any policy maker at this time. I also argued that Guyana’s problem is structural. I am of the firm view that Guyana can grow itself out of its debt situation and that Guyana’s debt, which now stands at 33% of GDP, should be at around 40% of GDP in perpetuity. (The debt to GDP ratio of the USA is almost 60%). People who understand financial leverage and the concept of weighted average cost of capital, or WACC, should know where I am coming from. Let us not forget here, gentlemen, that not all accumulated debt is bad; acquiring a debt to build a school is a good debt since it is an investment in the future, acquiring a debt to buy government cars is not such a good debt since cars can’t be considered an investment in most cases. I believe that most of Burnham’s debts which are in dispute were good debts because part of his free education turned me and others into some fine professionals (smiles).I am sure that if the children of Burnham’s rule start to make knowledge and financial repayment to Guyana we would make Guyana’s first executive president look like a genius. I know of at least three economists who benefitted from free education in Guyana who are front and center in the efforts of reviving the world’s economy.
How do you fix the structure of Guyana? It is critically important that government policies are geared towards addressing this. First there has to be a strong judiciary system that will protect property and personal rights. The courts should be seen as an efficient institution that is impartial and free from political interference or corruption. That means that all rulings whether for or against the government or citizens MUST be enforced. A functioning judiciary system and security are at the top of the list of things a wise investor looks at before he invests his money (property) anywhere.It is the bedrock of the capitalist system.
Second, the parallel economy (run by the street hustlers) must be shrunk or incorporated into the mainstream economy. Doing this brings more people out of the shadows hence the tax base of the government goes up dramatically. Devaluing the Guyana dollar in the late 1980’s and tying it to the street rates was a good first step. Advancing investment friendly policies such as tax holidays, land giveaways etc are good ways to attract job creating companies and create high paying jobs. Such jobs will make selling on the pavements less attractive since most pavement sellers would rather have a steady decent pay than the uncertain one they now enjoy. It also clears the streets of Georgetown. What bothers me: is apart from Carl Greenidge, Kenneth King and Desmond Hoyte nobody seems to understand this.
Third, policies should be geared at education, health and infrastructure building. The government today should be commended for its efforts in building schools, hospitals and roads and its role of advancing technology in Guyana. Efforts should also be guided to make sure that these things are functioning at maximum levels and are staffed by the most competent and qualified people. The housing policy is something that the government should adjust. The policy of handing out individual house lots to people promotes shanty towns and poverty. Building well laid out organized housing schemes with functioning infrastructure such as water,sewer and lights can help elevate a people out of poverty and set the next generation on course to success. South Ruimveldt should be a model.
So gentlemen, Guyana’s problem is not debt but the policies that have been implemented there once the money is borrowed. The challenge is to get the government to see it that way.
I hope my 17 minutes have been constructive.
Nicely put, but I would have liked to have your views on UG especially the FOT added to this recovery. We can have the best of the rest of the foundations but as the song goes, pretty, pretty face and bad character…. Apply this to the role of education here. The first policy must be to fix UG.
Yo Cummins, your comments here are the only sane assessments in this asylum of blame with revisionist tales. And further, as far as I’m concerned Henry Jeffery only just realized that the dripping soup from the table was always rancid to the taste. As the saying goes better late than never, nevertheless, the sinner must bear their own cross.
From the inception, Guyana has always being governed with an ideological sledge hammer, which demanded blind loyalty and conformation for its very survival. Most of those so called two-bit professionals, who worked for and advised the national leadership over the last 43 years are equally culpable. You can’t just pick up your bat and ball and leave when you finally feel irrelevant in the game.
To this end, I categorically refuse to listen to any excuse or explanation that they concoct now to make themselves look and sound plausible. Back then, if everybody was in agreement with the strategy and tactics of the game plan, for whatever reasons, it simply means that nobody was thinking independently.
As for you Mr Sase, dude you probably don’t even know what’s happening next door to where you live right now, but you absolutely know for sure how the Guyanese electorate will vote come 2011. And they you make matters worst by saying that you are ‘a fairly intelligent young man’ just laughable bro… Remember, that nobody knows the way the people feel about abject failure, crime, nothingness and poverty just to name a few.
Well said and documented Mr. E. Mervin–good job. I am particular interested in Dr. Jeffery stint as Minister of Education and more profoundly how he and his PPP comrades further sunk the education system. Minister Jeffery as member of the PPP is responsible for the void of any developmental future
“I am a fairly intelligent young man and I can share my experience of being in a polling both. The mere looking at that Palm Tree in a Polling Booth send chills down my spine, it is like committing a sin to even look at it in a Polling Booth. Do you understand the reality now Biswattie. This is not fanaticism, this is how a significant proportion of the population feels toward that PALM TREE and its Sophia headquarters.”
The quote is from the letter above. For the last few days I have been driving home the point of the importance of fear as political weapon that the PPP uses to maintain its stranglehold of its supporters. Well Sase you have confirmed what were once only my suspicions into beliefs. I think it was Herman Melville of Moby Dick fame who said “Ignorance is the parent of fear”. Based on 28 years of Burnham rule you claim to have a psychotic attack whenever you see a palm tree in a polling booth. Well what should be the reaction of African descendants of slaves to the sight of European people? What should be the reaction of African Guyanese to Indian Guyanese whom you admit cast race-based votes that prolong the Africans’ marginalization? For your information, the African is forgiving and not vindictive. No amount of prejudice can overcome the acts of brutality, resentment, malice and ostracism directed at Africans by every other racial group. Still Natty keep on coming through. Natty Dread will rise again. We are the survivors. The African survivors.
Forget about a palm tree in a polling booth. Every time I see a Palm tree period, I feel the same way. That’s why I stay away from Florida. Hey,Natty,I’m still trying to figure out why you’re using the name “borapork”. I thought you guys didn’t eat “arnold”. Maybe “plainbora” might be more politically correct.
As a child I was walking along Camp Street close to the prison when my mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I pointed to the prison and said I wanted to be in there. She almost fainted. There was however around that time numerous radio reports about two notorious prisoners Borapork and Macacheer and for some reason I was I was enthralled by them. I never realized my early ambitions so I am using this moniker as testament to my rebellious nature and allegiance to the underdog and less fortunate.
More power to you, borapork!
Emile I would probably say easily the PPP has borrowed more than 1 Billion over the past 17 years, there is no way they could continue to sustain the Burnham sham institutions and such a bloated government without borrowing that kind of money.
Common sense will tell you that when the government is the largest employer in the land and sugar and all other major industries are in serious decline the government had to have been borrowing a lot of money.
Where did the money come from to lend to Buddy’s to build a hotel?
Berbice bridge errrr sorry we know where that came from.
700 Million a year to maintain the propaganda infrastructure burnhame created, chronic, NCN, GBC or whatever the heck it is called now.
GPL is still using diesel fuel there is not a single renewable power generating element of GPL guess where that money is coming from?? loans.
GWI is a mess – more loans
All the millions they are doling out here and there to buy off this person and that group guess where that is coming from? loans.
The evidence is clear as day do not kid yourself. Guyana is still borrowing a horrendous amount of money this is why the PPP has refused to tell us how much they are borrowing.
…..for awhile i have been saying the PPP led govt ,, came to power ,, without a re-construction plan ,, or so it would seem ,, since everything so far seem to be crumbling around them ,, while they seem to have an endless supply of “duct tape”..
but in the game of politics ,, de good doctor & mervin is snatching at straws ,, since from what is unfolding ,, seem to be obvious in the political arena relative to GUYANA ,, but of course neither of the two being “politicians” ,, all they have is theories that look sound on paper ,, to cast doubt ,, while the socialist theory seem to be working with the IMF/WB/IDB,, by
still giving aid to the PPP led GOVT !
to qualify ,, what i have been singing to the choir abt ,, is since ‘93 …. the first things that should have been made new ,, was /is education ,, health ,, – to a lesser extent ,, tho still important -,, followed by water , light ,, and then roads ,, instead of making new ,, the PPPled GOVT has embarked on a “refurbishing” with the use of duct tape and band-aids !
while they wait on the oil to come to the surface ,, and talking abt oil ,, what’s de story wid de man from Grove ,, who while drilling fuh watah ,, somehow found himself right smack dab over ” natural gas” !
WHAT is dis guvament doin abt it ! oh …… an since dis is de w/end ,, i may be off to play some golf ,, if the weather would allow such excess ,, i may not be back here ,, to know what’s going on for a day or so ,, but a happy safe and ,, healthy w/end to all ! an 1 mo’ ting ,, wah iz de storie wid mclean and ramlal and the alleged bogus paypahz narman gih de US EBASSY !
My Dear SideKick:
Guyana is not a failed state, there is a high level of all forms of corruption, especially metal corruption. Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan are failed states.
Well you can arrogate as much as you can, the facts will speak for themselves come 2011. The PPP will win hands down. The best thing that can happen for Guyana is if the AFC become the main opposition party. Then Guyana will have two parties that are not race based, but can challenge each other in the future on issues.
For clarity, Indo-Guyanese are not the majority in Guyana, they are now a minority – 42% of the population. If the PPP was a race based party, then they would have never won the last elections.
Let me make it clear to Georgie, I do not hate any people, we are all one. What I hate is that the PNC continues to present itself to the Guyanese people as an option when their foundation, their core values remain rigging of elections. Ask Vincent Alexander about his experience at the last Congress, Van West Charles will find out soon.
The PNC is the greatest asset the PPP has since the people will never visit the pertinent issues once the PNC is around. Gwan from hey PNC, Gwan fast, you stooping progress and prosperity in Guyana.
Well, Sase, you don’t know that for sure. You can’t look at the percentage composition of the total population and say that the voter turn out mirrors exactly those percentages. I doubt whether the PPP got any significant Afro Guyanese votes in the last election. However, we know the Amerindians voted for PPP in large numbers thanks to fungible funds from debt relief, multinational loans, lotto funds, foreign aid, etc. Indeed, the Amerindian party – GAP – was decimated by the PPP and of course the boat engines and the hand outs to the village chiefs. However, the persistent ethnic conflict is still between the Indo and Afro Guyanese population. There is no multi-ethnic party in Guyana.
The PPP government’s economic policy agenda is rooted in the IMF’s stabilization mechanism – essentially IMF does the thinking and analysis for them (but at the same time the party itself vociferously holds on the Leninist tenet of democratic centralism so the will/whims of 15 individuals can be foisted on the masses!). Part of the IMF’s agenda is something known as financial programming which the BOG implements. Essentially they liberalize everything, put a lower target on the central bank’s net foreign assets (NFA) and a maximum target on that institution’s net domestic assets (NDA). All this is premised on the assumption that once macroeconomic stability (through deflation) is maintained the markets will naturally do the rest on the supply side (while, of course, the ideas and views of those 15 individuals are paramount). But this is a mistaken view (and of course reeks with hypocrisy!) and an insufficient policy agenda, although macroeconomic stability is important but just part of the policy toolkit required for sustainable long-term growth.
In this regard, therefore, Emile is right.