Dear Editor,
So the Ramotar campaign is off, and what a start! Last count was some 10,000 ‘trucked people‘ from all over Guyana for a typical PPP ‘wine and grind‘ session. In 1992, Dr Jagan had 25,000 Berbicians rallying to his call for time for change, but today this cabal has to scrape all over Guyana to muster 10,000 people. What a step down for Team Ramotar.
But let us get to the substantive points Donald raised, since the AFC will win this election on issues rather than following the PPP style of promising and not delivering. Mr Ramotar pledged at Albion that he will “build a modern Guyana if elected with greater focus on cheaper energy.” So what was President Jagdeo doing all along? Running around the mulberry bush. Did Mr Ramotar wake up on Sunday morning for the first time in his life?
In 2006, this is what the PPP said in their manifesto: “We intend to make reliable and affordable electricity available to all Guyanese and industries.” Five years after and our people are still waiting for this carrot from these bogus leaders.
Well for 19 years the people had no choice since the PNC was an incompetent and ineffective opposition party that still cannot move away from its race-based foundations. Today, however, the PPP is faced with a formidable multi-racial political force in the form of the Alliance for Change (AFC), and we sense the people are in the mood to share licks like peas on the PPP come elections day.
But to expose these empty promises some more, Mr Ramotar talks about “investigating bio-fuel.” If one is to follow the PPP record on bio-fuel it was dead on arrival after the treaty of convenience with Mr Duprey from Trinidad. Mr Duprey got his fame from the Clico conglomerate that lost $6.8 billion of Guyana’s money. The long and short of it was that he wanted 100% of Guyana’s molasses for, among other things, ethanol production, when Guyana had a proposal on the table from a reputable Brazilian conglomerate to produce bio-fuels. For dubious reasons, the political sponsors of Mr Ramotar choose Duprey. Luckily Yesu Persaud sued and saved Guyana from another Clico related fiasco. So here we are 10 years after still talking about bio-fuels rather than reaping the benefits for the people. No jobs, no future thank to the PPP.
The AFC speaks about actually developing a bio-fuel industry creating thousands of new jobs in the sugar belt and in the coconut industry. This industry will be formulated in a transparent manner with a clear aim of creating over 1,500 new jobs in sugar and coconut with reputable bio-fuel companies in Brazil and India. The opening dialogue has already started and once in government, we will conclude.
Mr Ramotar talks about “energy being more expensive than our neighbours‘” yet he sat as General Secretary of the PPP for more than 14 years and did nothing about this crisis. He watched as President Jagdeo spent billions of dollars on fuel guzzlers at GPL and now asks people to trust him to change course? But the truth is the PPP cannot deliver on hydro. If we vote PPP, we will just be setting ourselves up for another Skeldon Factory, more pain, and more losses, all funded by the taxpayers.
Why is Mr Ramotar not explaining to the people how many jobs he will create, and when and where in Guyana? Why is he ducking the debate on jobs?
The AFC will create more than 8,000 new jobs in its first terms as a result of public policy measures flowing from our Action Plan. We will be creating jobs in the sugar belt, in the coconut belt; we will be creating some 2,000 new jobs across Guyana building computers in Guyana, by Guyanese for an all Guyanese school. We will spend less money per computer than the PPP by importing the parts and building the computers at the industrial estates at Colindgen, Hampshire, Linden, Essequibo, and Rupununi.
We will rebuild all 10 regional workshops at Mabaruma, Anna Regina, Vreed-en-Hoop, Coldingen, Onverwagt, Hampshire, Bartica, Mahdia, Lethem and Linden. These workshops will act as incubators for graduates from the vocational schools and technical institutes. They shall be service centres for the state and private sector in many fields like auto mechanics, auto electrical, welding, air-conditioning, basic building repairs and maintenance from plumbing to changing windows, etc. The saving for the state will be to the tune of hundred of millions every year, weeding out the corruption practised by the government of forking out special contracts to their business buddies. At the same time 1,000 young persons will find jobs by the second year of the AFC government in these workshops.
So dance on Donald, to the chutney queen Fiona, dance on. While he wines and grinds, the AFC is concluding its work to fund the 20% salary increase across the board for civil servants. Our technical team will deliver on the promise of our presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan and our prime ministerial candidate Raphael Trotman, to pay the workers a 20% wages and salary increase in the public service.
We will also deliver on the AFC promise of reducing the VAT from 16% to 12%. We will deliver on increasing the tax threshold for workers to $50,000 per month. We will deliver on reducing the PAYE rate from 33% to 25% by the end of the first year of the Ramjattan government. I rest my case that this cabal in charge of the PPP cannot deliver Guyana from poverty, human right abuses, corruption, squandermania and bad governance.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
