Dear Editor,
If the members of the PSC who are supporting the Marriott project believe that Marriott is a gold mine opportunity, they should invest their own money in the project and not support a partnership with the government using poor taxpayers’ money.
Mr Robert Badal and people like myself have no objection to Marriott, Hilton or Sheraton coming to Guyana but let them use their own private capital and not Guyanese taxpayers money. This is a fact that many people are missing or seem not to understand.
Also the same tax-free concessions that would be granted to these foreigners should be granted to existing hotel operators to upgrade their facilities.
The government does not want to name the private partners in this Marriott project because they are the same individuals who are the President’s friends that lost out in the bidding for the Pegasus.
This is no economic venture but a venture of revenge against the present owner of the Pegasus.
Only recently some of these members of the PSC had complained that the GDF should not be competing with private local aircraft operators in the hinterland transportation business as it was not fair for government to be involved in business.
The head of the PSC should remember when his organization was objecting vigorously when a Venezuelan beer bottling plant was to be established in Guyana.
The PSC seems to consist of self serving and selfish “businessmen” who are only concerned about themselves and not the country and are afraid of the President.
The entire population of Guyana should come out in praise of Robert Badal, the Chief Executive Officer of the Pegasus Hotel for his bravery and his stance against the government for using taxpayers’ money to build a Marriott Hotel that is doomed to failure.
The blind mice opposition we have in Parliament is allowing the government to get away with all types of misfeasance with taxpayers’ money.
It is a clear case that Mr Robert Badal is not afraid of speaking out as he has nothing to hide. Anyone who is doing illegitimate business or carrying on nefarious activities would have to be fearful of the authorities and dare not oppose them.
The tourism industry is a failure in Guyana and will never develop because of problems I mentioned in a previous letter to this newspaper.
It appears that because of the amount of overseas travelling, the President of Guyana has been addicted to hotels and cannot see the big picture of developing Guyana through technology, agriculture and industrial activities.
Yours faithfully,
Balwant Persaud
