Dear Editor,
The days of invoking worship of leaders and brain-washing, although tried in Guyana, are slowly becoming a thing of the past. The world is paying rapt attention to Guyana’s political and economic landscape, for reasons that range from it being a strategic port for shipments of illicit drugs to its potential for being overcome by a brand of politics not exactly in line with traditional geopolitical interests.
The President is expected to speak at Parliament this Thursday. The following are issues I wish to propose he addresses:
- Why, in Guyana’s democracy, where all men are equal in the sight of the law, and each must pay his fair share of taxes, Guyanese working for $100,000/month have to pay $15,000 in taxes while he, the President, receives approximately $1,800,000/month, and pays none at all. This excludes an additional $500,000 or so in annual allowances. Apparently this was written into Section 13 of the Income Tax Act, and applies also to the Chancellor and the Chief Justice. All of this lends to the president a mistaken perception that he is somehow better than other hard working Guyanese. There are a number of ways of looking at these numbers. The President receives $21,600,000 annually, or $108,000,000 million during his term in office, excluding allowances. Additionally, he neglects to pay $6,300,000 in annual income taxes, or $31,500,000 over the five-year term. These latter amounts can assist much in financing increases for the lowest paid public servants who continue to get a raw deal. Examining these figures and the President’s declared intention to deliver on that ‘Good Life’ for Guyanese, it becomes clearer how concerned he is about improving the lot of public servants on one hand, and how he is viewed from the global perspective as an ethical person concerned about eliminating the abuses of the executive powers enshrined in our laws.
The President should move to rescind the relevant section, and just to restore face, he should pay all back taxes due since his installation last year. This has been an issue about which no one is talking recently, but which the international community is quietly observing, since all of this provides insight into the basic character of the man who is the president. That he has not addressed it in the first instance is precarious enough. One gets the impression that he is playing a muted version of the power game of the Kabaka (the all-powerful colloquial title of king assigned to Burnham), which would definitely not sit well with international investors with the potential to transform Guyana.
- Prior to the elections last year the President and his government strongly advocated for job creation and higher wages. Subsequently, job creation was subsumed within his newly coined paradigm of a ‘Green Economy.’ More recently he seems to have been advocating that we become entrepreneurs. Two changes in strategy to dealing with a crucial economic problem in just two years. If we all become entrepreneurs, then there will be no workers left. But this might just be his point. There would be no need for the annual acrimony and negative public relations that result from consulting with unions.
- Some time back the President displayed what in some circles was considered gross disrespect to a section of the Private Sector by saying that they were small-minded, while proceeding to push through the name change for Ogle Airport to its current title. The concept of branding is an important revenue-generating factor in international trade relations, influencing the flow of millions of dollars in foreign currency. Interference by governments in such trivial yet important matters raises questions about what the government considers to be its true role in the economy.
- From this, we fast-forward to the recent move to acquire private property to serve the public interest. As have been highlighted in the press, such tactics are reminiscent of nationalisation under Burnham, and allowing for some wider perspective, may be used in the future to seize private property for redistribution to cronies through NICIL, which has found renewed strategic importance to the current government. The president is called upon to announce a revocation of this latter process and indicate an immediate end to any and all such activities now and in the future.
I suggest that his success in office depends on decisions he makes on these issues.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester
