Addressing statement that PNC Government had no sovereign wealth?

Dear Editor,
The PNC hotly contends that it failed as a government because it had no sovereign wealth, like the present PPP/C Administration. They wallow that had they been blessed with wealth as the PPP/C, they would have done so much for the people, and provided a better life for all.
Nice sounding words, I must admit, but is this the real picture painted on the tapestry of our minds when we analyze all matters about wealth in this country? Are The PNC telling us they were so bereft of finances to manage this economy compared to their counterpart the PPP/C? Are they telling us that the PPP/C was blessed while a curse was laid on them? Is this the message they want us to believe?
The comparison drawn is the PPP/C is blessed and highly favoured, while the PNC is the unfortunate party that fell on hard times.
Now, if you are not familiar with Guyanese politics, you are tempted to believe that PNC Mantra. However, closer scrutiny dictates that we wipe that unfortunate thought from our minds. In the first place, Burnham was blessed with resources coming from triple sources: rice, bauxite and sugar. These three combined gave him a good head start. Bauxite gave this country foreign exchange in hefty quantities comparable to that period. This is up until nationalization, when things took a drastic downturn. I promise to carry an in-depth discussion on bauxite sometime shortly.
Rice, as it always did, was a bedrock to Burnham’s Regime, making great financial deposits into the treasury, thus the combination of rice and bauxite provided liquid cash at the PNC’s disposal.
We save sugar for the last spot, due to its most significant position on the economic scale of foreign exchange earners. Sugar earned itself the top spot badge, due to the following factors:
1. Preferential treatment: our exports entered Europe, specifically Britain, tax-free, and our total earnings reached their maximum
2. The Sugar Protocol Agreement gave us an added advantage in those our brown muscovado Demerara crystals, which were the much-sought-after sweetener in Britain.
3. Guyana’s rum and molasses, which are byproducts of sugar, were also bestsellers on the European market.
The foreign dollars earned from sugar can be rated with that coming from the oil of today, as sugar ran Guyana’s economy. Proceeds from sugar gave us free education from nursery to university, and built our roads, schools and drainage channels. Sugar was so significant a sector that it was taxed to prop up the bauxite community of Linden. How fantastic! And carefully following the funds, some were smuggled into private bank accounts. It was reported by the foreign press that, around this time, Burnham became the 23rd richest Black Man in history.
These are the telltale facts of our economy, that in 28 years of the PNC, Guyana went from a high position to a humiliating low, taking up the position of a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) below Haiti. This is all due to the corrupt nature of the regime and a lack of futuristic vision.
Fast forward to another 5 years, 5 months of the PNC and we see a repeat performance of the Burnham Mistake. They came into office in 2015 under the “manufactured truth” that the treasury was empty and our country was bankrupt; yet, in two (2) short months, they reduced their poverty by raising their salaries by 50% over. Could they tell us where that money came from, seeing we were so bankrupt? Is this another attempt to “piss in our eyes and call it rain”? We can safely conclude that the modus operandi of the PNC was not that of developing a country; theirs was a classic case of “we are here to plunder”.
Further to our discussion is the fact that our First Oil Money of US$18M ExxonMobil Signing Bonus, given to us in 2016, cannot be accounted for. Where did that money go? To whose account was that money deposited? We reserve the right to know. Presently, the matter resides in our court, as we get down to the bottom of it, the former finance minister owes us a sensible explanation as to where our money is.
We close our discussion today by taking a glance at the two regimes. Here we find a vast difference in economic values; that is, frugal developmental management and forward vision on the part of the PPP/C, while, on the other hand, corruption and gross mismanagement on the PNC’s end. We are separating the proverbial men from the boys here. The PNC cannot defend that asinine excuse that they were not blessed with economic gains. Yes, they were, but the difference lies in the absence of proper management and a lack of vision on their part.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams