On May 11, 2015, thousands of Guyanese supported your A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Government because throughout the land there was a yearning for more positive socio-economic change and a higher standard of life.
Citizens felt they had had enough of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and its scandals. They felt that that party needed to be punished and taught a valuable lesson that would see it undergoing massive reforms and never taking for granted again the amount of loyalty and trust placed in it by the populace.
In short, they wanted to give a new political party and President a chance at managing the affairs of the country with a mandate to bolster social cohesion and fight against endemic systemic racism. Citizens had hoped that your political party would roll out visionary policies that would inevitably lead to poverty reduction and higher levels of equality. They also hoped that your party could reach a political deal or treaty that would see national unity, healing and reconciliation becoming a reality sometime in the near future.
It is also important to note that citizens believed in your Government’s promise of a better life defined by higher levels of disposable income; meaningful constitutional reforms; better roads, schools, and bridges; improved access to quality and affordable healthcare; an unwavering commitment to high levels of transparency and accountability as a result of better governance and less corruption; lower levels of crime and higher and swifter levels of justice and public order.
Those were the conditions on which the citizenry agreed to change its appetite from the PPP which it was still comfortable with despite the many blunders over the past 23 years.
But today, your Government has failed to deliver many of its promises made during the 2015 elections campaign. Your coalition has also breached the social contract it entered with the populace in May of that very year. It would appear that once you and your colleague Ministers access Governmental power, there was an abandonment of reason, good faith, due process and political conviction.
While the citizenry would have forgiven some of your most egregious missteps over the past year and a half, they cannot do so in the case of Budget 2017.
Uncle Jordan, your budget as crafted could have catastrophic consequences on the poor, the vulnerable, the disabled and the sick if not withdrawn. The Tax measures contained in the estimates are not only unpopular and harsh but inconsistent with the good life you promised.
While the citizenry acknowledges the explanation you offered on Friday for tabling such a brutish budget, it is disappointed that you appear to be blaming your Government’s decision on advice and recommendations from studies. It is also unfortunate that you believe if Government widens its revenue base via higher levels of repressive domestic tax measures that you will be able to grow the economy, create wealth and deliver a better life for citizens.
The truth is, no one in this country believes that your economic formula or vision will amount to the change demanded in May 2015. In fact, it will result in the loss of electoral support, lower levels of domestic and foreign direct investment, a sluggish and uninspired private sector, lower levels of economic growth, higher levels of crime and unprecedented levels of tax evasion.
The citizenry is disappointed that the ministers did not create “fiscal space” by taking pay cuts and living lesser luxurious lives. It is disappointed too that you did not create “fiscal space” by cutting back on the exorbitant salaries paid to your advisors, ex-military allies, contract workers and other party loyalists within your coalition Government who are now feeding off of the scarifies made by the poor and law abiding citizens as well as professionals of this country.
It is also shocking that you did not see it fit to scrap all of those controversial procurement contracts that you have entered into since May 2015 with selected business personnel with the worst being the bottom house drug bond that was “urgently” rented for over $100M a year to store medicines and pharmaceuticals but which only stores condoms and lubricants at the moment.
Uncle Jordan, we expected you to deliver on your promise to further lift the threshold to $100,000; to increase Old Age Pension to $30,000; to further reduce the cost of electricity by at least 5% after negotiating with GPL; to operationalize the construction of Amelia Falls; to finance a robust crime fighting plan to further defend us; to pay doctors, nurses and teachers a special salary for their commitment to their trade in troubling times; to roll out a turnaround plan for starving sugar workers and rice farmers; to activate your ministerial code of conduct in order to discipline Aunty Volda, Simona, Amna and Valrie-sharpe. The other Uncles are too many to mention; We wanted more sports facilities, a completely funded youth policy, more community centres and more investments.
Remember Uncle Jordan, stricter the Government wiser the population. Elections coming and I hope you and Uncle Granger are ready not for the press but the people.
Yours truly,
Michael the Messenger
