Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 15, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists
The Government early last week issued a statement just after an online news outlet published a story headlined: “PPP ‘likely’ to win next elections but tighter anti-corruption efforts needed – US expert”.
The Government accused the said outlet of ‘cherry picking’ words and phrases from the long report by the ‘expert’ which had been published in April this year. Government has also said that the PPP’s resort to quoting from this report “illustrates that the PPP is attempting to distract (the public’s attention) from their beleaguered presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, and their recent disastrous manifesto launch.
It is very important for you, the public, to know that this ‘expert’ has repeatedly published his own opinions labeled as research, and he unashamedly refers to past articles that he wrote as reference. His attempt to attain some semblance of autonomy came with an admission that the PPP regime has left a legacy of corruption, victimization, nepotism and a narco economy.
The Government’s statement agreed: “This is the PPP’s real and true image, and that is in their DNA. The PPP is not to be trusted, it is not reformed, and it is the same old cabal with the same kleptocratic agenda. No high-priced Washington lobbying firm with a bucket of whitewash could mask that from the Guyanese people”.
This Government is interested in the real development of every part of this country. We are in a nationwide development overdrive. The PPP on the other hand, cannot wriggle out from under the weight of its international reputation for being obscenely and grotesquely corrupt.
REVAMPING OLD MONEY-DRAINING PROJECTS
The aforementioned report pre-supposes that with the PPP in government in 2020, certain major projects would resurface, awarded to Chinese companies and funded by oil revenues. These include the abandoned US$800Million Amaila Falls hydroelectric plant; re-opening of sugar estates that the PPP itself had closed before 2015; re-construction of the disastrous Skeldon sugar factory; and construction of electricity transmission infrastructure.
The greatest fear we walk around with is that a PPP Government will AGAIN dispossess Guyanese loggers in Region 10 and in the hinterland, and owners of barges and tugs that haul stones from the quarries. These hard-working folks in Kwakwani and Rockstone, e.g. faced unfair competition from BaiShanLin (BSL) and other concerns because they (companies) had so much money they were able to shove the Guyanese out of business. They could do nothing except stand aside and watch as BSL just snatched their right to earn a living from the products of their own soil.
CONFIRMATION
The report conceded this: “Under the APNU-AFC government of David Granger (2015-2019), the nation is making meaningful, if slow, progress in combating corruption and reforming its institutions”.
So, the PPP cannot do much else except try to whitewash its disastrous mismanagement of the Guyana economy for 23 years. The evidence is there, and the Minister of Citizenship, former Commissioner of Police, Winston Felix, said that there is no doubt that the following crimes skyrocketed to an all-time high under the PPP:-
• Rampant contraband smuggling across borders
• Narco trafficking and gun-running
• Gun-involved crimes at an all-time high incl. armed robberies
• Drug-fuelled death squads who roamed the streets
• Over 400 unsolved murders in the early 2000’s
• High rate of human trafficking
• Bribery
• Inter-personal violence
• Piracy
• Rapes
The police force was starved of resources and requisite training, and their weapons, equipment and facilities were not upgraded in decades. As a result, they were outmanned and outgunned by the criminals they were supposed to protect the citizens from. Morale was low and they had enough reasons to fear for their own lives. That was the Guyanese reality pre-2015.
Since then, the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (NANA) was established to tackle drug trafficking and the police keep increasing the numbers and frequency of narcotics seizures, with over 800kg of cocaine, 65,000kg of cannabis, 1,900kg of heroin seized in 2017 and 2018. Out of 503 cases taken to trial, 227 resulted in convictions, and they are working on increasing these numbers. Intelligence gathering has received a boost from the Safe City camera system along with ramped up police training.
Also, this Government has been relentless in our drive to keep Guyana compliant with the Financial Action Task Forces (FATF and CFATF) that were set up to stem worldwide Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).
Meanwhile, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has forecast staggeringly high growth for Guyana over the next 12 months. In a recent Economic Overview of the Caribbean, ECLAC said that Guyana’s growth rate in 2019 is likely to be 4.5 percent, but in 2020 (hold on to your hats), it will be 85.5 percent.
This same prediction was made earlier this year by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ECLAC also said that the Guyana Government will receive approximately 14.5 percent of all oil revenue in 2020.
The fight continues on all fronts to keep Guyana safe from the PPP!!
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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