Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 03, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists
The People’s Progressive Party thought that it was able to fool some people into believing that it was serious about implementing its promises in its 2011 elections Manifesto ¯ entitled Working Together for a Better Tomorrow.
President Donald Ramotar therefore thought that he could get away with trying to fool all the people by re-warming and re-launching the same stale menu of promises four years later. He has no better chance of implementing this year’s 64-page Manifesto entitled “Our Vision, Guyana Version 2.0” than his failed 2011 version.
Ramotar, in the PPP’s 2011 Manifesto, had pledged to hold the local government elections within a year of his election to office. He later reneged on his promise, refused to implement an amended bill passed by the National Assembly calling for those elections to be held by 1st August 2014 and stubbornly resisted a sustained campaign by A Partnership For National Unity, civil society and the international community to hold the elections.
Ramotar’s Manifesto Version 2.0 now pretends that it is ready to finalise the Local Government Amendment Act and establish the Local Government Commission, which it has failed to do so far. Ramotar’s unwillingness to commit to a date for the polls in 2014 led to the APNU-AFC’s decision to bring a no-confidence motion against the PPP administration last year. Ramotar, in response to this challenge, prorogued Parliament on 10th November 2014 and dissolved it entirely on 28th February 2015.
Ramotar, similarly, pretended in his Manifesto Version 2.0, after years of failure, to move forward on the appointment and operationalisation of the Procurement Commission demanded by APNU and AFC.
Ramotar is again promising to simplify the tax system, to review the impact of taxes on cost of living and restructure corporate taxes to support job creation. He had promised a continuous review of the taxation system, including the contentious 16% value added tax (VAT) in 2011. He claimed in December 2011, less than a month after his election, that he had set up a three-man panel to review the taxation system.
When asked about the review, however, he responded weakly, “…you have to recognise that when VAT was introduced in our country, we eliminated many other taxes…like the consumption tax. As far as the report you are talking about is concerned. Yes, I had set up a committee that I had given this task to do. There was [sic] some little problems with the terms of reference and so forth. I haven’t had a report on this as yet and I don’t know if they are waiting on us to resolve some of our differences.”
Who can believe this after over three years?
Ramotar, in his Manifesto Version 2.0, also pledges to continue to support the modernisation of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) which has been languishing under the malignant chairmanship of PPP Central Committee member Dr Roger Luncheon for the past 22 years. Ramotar had previously promised to conduct a comprehensive review of the NIS to ensure its long-term viability and to improve its accountability and strengthening the supervision of pension funds to ensure the protection of post-employment benefits.
An actuarial review found that the NIS was nearing a crisis stage. The NIS General Manager reported that the Scheme faced a projected deficit of G$713 M for 2014. Ramotar has now suddenly discovered that reform is needed to allow for improvements in the Scheme’s delivery of services and the viability of its investment.
Ramotar, a former member of the board of the ailing Guyana Sugar Corporation, has now pledged in his Manifesto Version 2.0, to invest G$20B in the sugar industry. He seems oblivious of the fate of the challenged US$200M Skeldon sugar factory, the legacy of his predecessor Bharrat Jagdeo, which has been an expensive embarrassment for him. Jagdeo, a year before demitting office after serving twelve years as president, had promised ‘personal’ intervention to repair the problem-plagued, Chinese-built factory which has underperformed since its commissioning and has also required costly repairs.
Ramotar’s Manifesto Version 2.0, despite the Corporation’s miserable annual performance, makes an incredible commitment to increasing production to about 400,000 tonnes annually although the industry has struggled even to produce half that amount. Can he be believed?
Ramotar boasted that Manifesto Version 2.0 would propel Guyana’s development through “…world class infrastructure that support our industries and businesses and from which revenues are derived to guarantee our people world class education, superior health care, reliable and affordable electricity, water, housing and other social services. It is a Guyana in which our people are united; in which there is greater social and religious tolerance. It is a Guyana governed by the rule of law, and in which every citizen can live secure and safely, free from both internal and external threats; a Guyana where everyone can aspire to be the best that they can be.” Can he be believed?
Ramotar continued, airily “…These plans include transforming the University of Guyana into a ‘world-class institution.” Ramotar’s commitment to hold new local government elections and to establish the long-delayed Public Procurement Commission have been heard before. Who will believe him this time?
Donald Ramotar is still to learn the lesson that Abraham Lincoln taught the world over a century and a half ago: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
Apr 19, 2024
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