The Hamilton Green pension worth about million annually is unprecedented and obscene. Why pussyfoot around it – it is scandalous, corrupt, cronyism at its worst. Green is disdainfully laughing at us, while Granger, Nagamootoo, Williams, Greenidge, Ramjattan and their A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) colleagues mock us with their limitless arrogance. For the umpteenth time in less than two years, they have betrayed Guyana and made us again the laughing stock among the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Not just their arrogance, they are supercilious, carrying on as if they are superior to the citizens of Guyana. In every way, each passing day, they bow down in homage to the George Orwell’s Animal Farm notion of equality: we are all equal, just that some of us are more equal than others. Indeed, APNU/AFC has made this Orwellian principle the cornerstone of their rule, in everything they do, it must be about them. What is it that Sting sings – every move we make, every step we take? For sure, every move and every step, every breath they take is to rape Guyana’s Treasury.
Green rightfully receives a pension as a former Prime Minister and MP. He also receives a pension as the former Mayor and City Councillor of the municipality of Georgetown. Green, now at 81, serves as the Chairman of the Central Planning and Housing Authority and receives benefits associated with this position. But APNU/AFC decides that like their Cabinet members, Green needs to live as a king, “Cadillac lifestyle in a fiefdom of peasants and a donkey cart economy.”
In Jagdeo’s time, Granger, Nagamootoo and APNU/AFC had insisted Guyana could not afford to pay Jagdeo to live a “Cadillac lifestyle in a donkey cart economy.” They lied that Jagdeo’s salary, benefits and pension were the biggest in the world and unfair to the Guyanese taxpayers. They claimed that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Ministers were paid too much. Yet, as soon as they got control of the Government, they claimed that those same so-called high salaries and benefits were chicken feed. Hence the APNU/AFC Cabinet’s salary and benefits are almost double what PPP Cabinet members were paid. Granger’s and Nagamootoo’s salaries, pension and other benefits far exceed what Jagdeo and Ramotar are entitled to. They give sweetheart deals to their friends and donors. They raid the Treasury with impunity, as if it is robbing the bank in broad daylight.
Guyana is presently worse off than when Jagdeo was President. In less than two years, Guyana’s economy has plunged downwards, crime is spiralling, the health sector is in crisis, sugar and rice find itself in desperate situations, mining is suffering from APNU/AFC highhandedness, but every day another raid is carried out on the Treasury. The raid on taxpayers’ money to sweeten Green’s greedy pockets is highway theft.
Green is being decorated with taxpayers’ money for his role in the imposition of dictatorship, party paramountcy and thuggery between 1964 and 1992. As Health Minister (1985-1992), he led the collapse of the health sector and as Mayor of Georgetown, he spent more than 20 years travelling the world for free while his city became a haven for rats and pests. APNU/AFC rewards him for these “sterling” performances as if he was the sitting Prime Minister, with additional perks as if he was the immediate past President. His healthcare cost, electricity, telephone, Internet, maid, gardener and guard services are to be as if he was the former President. He is entitled to a fleet and driver staff. He is entitled to travel with his partner free on first class tickets. Should every past public servant, therefore, expect the pension of present occupants of similar position? Should all former Ministers be treated as if they are present Ministers?
According to APNU/AFC, Green deserves this treatment as a king, because he is a patriot. Did I hear someone say “patriotism is the refuge of scoundrels?” I will just plagiarise the American author, Jarod Kintz: “Sure politicians rob us, the people – but only because it’s in our best interest. If they did not rob us, somebody else would, and this other scoundrel would not even bother to wrap the theft in the Golden Arrowhead. So really, we should rejoice in being swindled, and group together as patriots, singing national anthems, because we are being looted by men and women who believe they are the best thing for us – and they are the best among us. As such, they deserve special privileges that we, the huddling masses, have no right to question.” (Send comments to [email protected])
