Organisations like GMR&SC must not see the President as some cash machine

Dear Editor,

The spirited defence in yesterday’s issue of Stabroek News by two letters of the GMR&SC’s acceptance of $40M of taxpayer’s money to repave their track `The President’s gesture will certainly catapult motor racing in Guyana to new heights’ by Bryan Mackintosh and `Motor racing inspires national pride in all the people’ by Malcolm Harripaul gave a good indicator of the mindset of the elite of this country.

First Bryan Mackintosh thanks the President for his “kind gesture”. It is not a kind gesture. It is an unauthorised transfer of taxpayer’s money to a rich man’s club engaged in a quite superfluous activity.

Malcolm Harripaul is more accurate in describing Jagdeo’s gift  as “courting cheap popularity and political support”. Well there’s the perfect reason not to accept the money!

And using the tourism argument is predictable but the writers still do not address the possibility that the club could raise the money itself. In fact if it is the case that so many people flock to the racecourse, as the letter writers claim, surely the funds generated would go a long way to improve the track.

The bigger issue is this: organisations must not see the President as some cash machine whom they can go to as they see fit. He is not a king, he is an elected representative of all the people and as such his government must allocate the people’s money responsibly and not based on a system of grace and favours. All Guyanese if they truly believe in their country need to look at the bigger picture and ask if they really need the people’s money or whether it could be better used to help those more in need. The race track goes unpaved, so that some real roads can be improved. That would be the ultimate “kind gesture”
by the GMR&SC.

The way things stand today Karl Marx’s maxim on communism has been cruelly perverted by this PPP government with the collusion of many of the elite, including now the GMR&SC, to the point that it now reads:
“To each according to their access from each despite their needs”.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)