Latest update April 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 27, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
In one of the episodes of The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby took the decision to show his kids what responsibility is. He decided that the kids should assume the role of adults and pay rent for their boarding and lodging. It was all part of their learning experience through playacting.
The kids learnt the hard way about responsibility and what it took to manage a home and provide all the things that they took for granted.
Looking today at what is taking place in Guyana, one cannot help but wondering whether the PPP is not allowing some of their young members to acquire a political internship through playacting. What we have in many cases in Guyana, are a pack of kids being pushed into high office and being asked to assume responsibility for the lives of citizens
This is a dangerous game that the PPP is playing. It cannot continue to entrust the future of this country into the hands of interns. It should cease this experiment once and for all since it will have further disastrous consequences for the people of this country.
Already there is talk that the finances of this country are being treated like play-money. There are serious concerns about the manner in which public funds are being utilized.
Just a while ago, there was a huge uproar by rice farmers over the low price being paid by millers for paddy. The farmers were furious. Their principal complaint was that some millers were only paying $2000 per bag of paddy while their cost of production was closer to $2500 per bag – some are saying higher, but one must expect some degree of exaggeration from some of these farmers.
The farmers were agitated and were demanding that the government do something. Instead of confronting this situation head-on, the government initially sought refuge in the free market.
The farmers were however not accepting that. They demanded that something be done. Immediately it was announced that four hundred million dollars was being set aside to deal with the problem and that consultations would be held as to how the money would be spent.
The farmers immediately stopped their protests, and were no doubt waiting to learn how they would benefit. Some persons even went to great lengths to suggest that only small farmers – those who planted less than 25 acres – should benefit from the 400 million of tax payers’ dollars that the government was using to help these farmers.
This column has already commented on the fact that here was a government allocating money without knowing specifically what purposes it was being allocated.
We are now being told that the consultations are taking place, and that the monies would not go into the hands of the farmers. What we are not being told is into whose hands this four hundred million dollars will end up.
The rice farmers are now being told that the monies will be used for infrastructure works, such as drying floors and on one newscast it was even reported that the monies will also be used for drainage and irrigation works. There has also been mention about the creation of some production fund but it is not clear whether any of the four hundred million dollars will be used for this fund.
Even if it isn’t, it is highly laughable but tragic as to how the hard-earned taxpayers’ monies are being utilized by this government. If this four hundred million is dedicated to infrastructure works how does this help those farmers who will lose as a result of the low prices being offered for paddy? How will this help them when they have to go to their bankers and inform them that they cannot service their indebtedness? How will it help them to go back to crop? Tell me how.
If the problem within the rice industry has to do with the price being paid, how does this proposed spending help the farmers? All it is going to do is to put money into the hands of contractors and in the hands also of those millers with drying facilities.
It is terrible that this is how a working class government is using taxpayers’ money. This sum of four hundred million dollars has not been approved by parliament. And it cannot be deemed an emergency grant because the newspapers are quoting the Minister of Agriculture as saying there is no crisis in the rice industry. Well, if there is no crisis why did the President of Guyana find it necessary to allocate, on top of the billions that are spent each year on drainage and irrigation for the rice industry, a further four hundred million dollars.
If there is no crisis in the rice industry, there can be no emergency and therefore there is no justification for this allocation.
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