Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 19, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
In a country of murder, killing, blood-spilling and the meagre valueless nature of life, one of the great murders of democracy, dignity, decency and humility took place on Friday, September 16, 2011. A crime of misplaced agendas, egotistical self-promotion, power paranoia and wanton and arrogant display of vanity, hubris, conceit, waste and pomposity took place on Friday, September 16, 2011.
Even Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham for all his self-indulgent self-homage, his narcissism and his rank wallowing in showmanship, never went to this extreme, debauched and shocking level of sinfulness that took place on Friday, September 16, 2011. This was not just a barefaced act of deluded grandeur, it was an act that asked a serious moral question of a nation and demanded economic and financial answers.
The moral question is whether Guyanese saw this atrocity for what it was, whether they were able to see the dangerous hypocrisy of a President spending lavishly what may appear to be not only the money of his backers but the money of all taxpayers, while they remain behind bars in their own land frightened and sweating at the sound of a barking dog in the middle of the night.
The financial question is simple: who paid for this event? We need proof just like we need proof from President Jagdeo that he purchased the 29 tons of materials be received from Ed Ahmad.
It is a moment of truth for those who were so broke and destitute that they denied themselves a meal last night or ate less or could not afford the price of sugar or couldn’t afford to eat chicken this week because of the indentureship of life in this savage land of inequality created by Bharrat Jagdeo.
For this is about whether the Guyanese people who have eyes can ever finally see the bold courage of the truth; whether those who have some dignity and truth left can reap something from it. The pattern of the past few years has strongly suggested that Bharrat Jagdeo is reluctant to lose power.
The question remains whether he is truly leaving. Donald Ramotar whose puppetry and coattail-hanging has become a bigger joke than the APNU masquerade, said he sees Jagdeo sticking around. I cannot see Jagdeo sticking around and playing second fiddle.
Someone will have to get stuck with a dirty knife in their back, and like with Julius Caesar, there will be blood as long as this perfidious union of Ramotar and Jagdeo persist. This con game will backfire spectacularly in the end and this country will suffer terribly for it.
One presidential candidate claims that approximately $120 million was spent on the Appreciation Day mayhem. I hope those who appreciated a man who may not really ever leave the halls of power, appreciated living in a cage in absolute fear in their own homes in a country of criminality, abuse, wrongdoing and fear created by the same appreciated leader.
I hope they appreciate paying that massive mortgage payment due on September 30th or October 1st for which they must commit senseless acts of sacrifice against themselves while a day of dancing, chest-thumping, music, wine and bacchanal honouring a man who is leaving office but not really leaving power was a mortgage possibly paid for by their taxes. This man, our President, Bharrat Jagdeo, will allegedly get a shocking $3 million per month in pension when he retires. For those who will get $40,000 per month to dodge bullets, save lives and cut cane in the sweltering heat in a cost of living nightmare called Guyana, that figure should sicken you to the stomach. US $15,000 every month, tax free. Leaving office at the young age of 47, gives Bharrat Jagdeo at least 20 years of pension collecting. Poor people of this country better be prepared to hand over that 33% income tax plus 16% VAT plus corruption payments plus high cost of living disbursements to give Mr. Jagdeo the at least $720 million or US $3.6 million in pension he will collect in those 20 years.
Severn hundred and twenty million dollars in 20 years, tax free, to a man whose 11-year presidency has given you unbridled criminality, a crushing VAT, skyrocketing inflation and destructive cost of living increases, stripping your dignity and the unfair and corrupt transfer of your taxes from all of you to the few lucky contractors, some of them with their hands in the right pockets. This retirement pension that Jageo has given himself is another one of those contracts his administration has become infamous for. It is another case of the exploitative and tragic taking from all and giving to a few select and in this case, giving to one. Which decent human being, living in the second poorest Western Hemisphere country, where the majority poor people cannot afford the price of chicken and cannot find sugar on the shelves and are living in complete and utter fear of being killed every single day and are living on slave wages, gives himself $3 million dollars every month in pension? How could the PPP party and its members sitting in the National Assembly approve this travesty? A man who destroyed a country and left it in the hands and control of drug cartels pays himself $3 million every month, while pensioners who have served and slaved in the trenches of this country for longer than Bharrat Jagdeo, are being handed a gross insult of $7500 every month and told they are getting manna from God.
The orgy doesn’t end there. Bharrat Jagdeo gave himself other benefits including unlimited telephone and electricity bills; personal, household, field and administrative staff; medical expenses for himself and dependants; security for his person and residence; motor vehicles owned and maintained by the state; toll-free travel in Guyana; and annual vacation allowance. These benefits could saddle taxpayers with a staggering additional $400 million over those 20 years. The grand total for 20 years of this debauchery is a total of $1.12 billion. All this for a man who obtained $120 million for a home he sold and who got over $100 million in tax free salary as President for over 10 years when he essentially lived mostly free off the state.
This is a moment of truth for those who slave away in this broken and failed country Jagdeo has created to lift their heads from their marginalisation, inequality and servility and ask themselves whether it is fair for them to collect $7500 per month when they retire while a President who has decimated this country and buried its hope will get over $1 billion in retirement. Those who lift their heads have to stand up for themselves and take what is rightfully theirs before it is all taken away from them. This election is about the moral-minded of this country, including those within the PPP standing up to Bharrat Jagdeo and his political stooge Donald Ramotar just like they stood up to Forbes Burnham. Cheddi and Janet Jagan never did this. Desmond Hoyte never did this. This is about the people vs. Bharrat Jagdeo and the people vs. Donald Ramotar.
M. Maxwell
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
Apr 23, 2024
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