Each day brings one or more stupid acts by this government and the people that they have placed in power. This is not by accident. APNU/AFC’s development blueprint for Guyana is the absolute stupidification of Guyana. They are clueless about how to move Guyana forward. They believe that if they succeed in making us all stupid, they can make us all believe that the naked emperor is indeed decked out in the most glorious outfits. Take the requirement that all minibuses must be painted green because the APNU’s colour is green. The joke is on them – we see the stupidity of their governance and we see it every time. Just in the last several days, we have some glaring examples.
In the last two weeks, President David Granger has been travelling – first to India for a solar conference and, second, to Brazil to attend a water conference. I have no reservation about the President attending these meetings. But days prior to travelling to India for the solar conference, the President announced he was foregoing a Caricom Heads meeting because of the border crisis with Venezuela. What happened? Has the problem with Venezuela been solved and there is no more threat at our borders?
The REO of Region Two flabbergasted us with the newest excuse for corruption – excitement to spend money. For almost three years now, the Region Two REO has ruled as if he is an emperor. He has committed one corrupt act after another and has spent taxpayers’ money as if it belongs to him. He has ignored warnings from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. Called to explain himself, he arrogantly offered the excuse that he was “too excited” about spending the people’s money. This absurdity is enough to fire him, but in the halls of APNU/AFC the Region Two REO is embraced as a hero. In APNU/AFC’s stupidification posture, they expect we will overlook corruption and accept excitement as an excuse for abusing Guyana’s treasury.
Over the last several weeks, we have looked with amazement at the incompetence of the Government as revealed by its handling of GuySuCo. Is there a new Board or not? We are told yes and then we are told no. There was even a whole-page advertisement announcing the new Board with the pictures of the new members. Then Minister of State, Joseph Harmon cautioned that this was not the case and the advertisement is a rogue one. Sheer incompetence, but they think we are too stupid to see it.
Last week, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan visited Canje where recently unemployed sugar workers are confronting tough times. This is the same Ramjattan, who, during the campaign for the May 2015 election, promised sugar workers that all estates will be kept open and that sugar workers will be given a 20 per cent annual increase in wages and benefits. Now in March 2018, Ramjattan looked the workers in their eyes and lied again, insisting that APNU/AFC gave the Region Six RDC money in the 2018 Budget to purchase a bus to provide free transportation for the children of sugar workers in Canje. The Regional Chairman immediately slammed the barefaced lie. Ramjattan fully expects people to believe the lie, because he thinks we stupid. In the meanwhile, his Region Six sidekick, Charandass Persaud, is demanding that sugar workers be jailed for not being able to send their children to school.
Agriculture Minister Noel Holder for more than two years ignored the US requirements for new fishery regulations, leading to America banning fish exports from Guyana. Hundreds of fishermen have already become unemployed because we lost one of the most important markets for fish. Instead of accepting blame and accelerating their efforts to resume the trade, the Minister demanded our sympathy because the loss of the market is simply a consequence of America’s protectionist policy. The truth is the Minister is derelict in his duty, AWOL, missing in action.
President Granger’s favourite governance tool, the CoI, if enforced in this case, would reveal total, brazen and reckless incompetence on the part of one of the most inept Ministers in the Cabinet. Instead of President Granger holding him responsible, he is silent and expects us to blame America. The refusal for accountability is based on APNU/AFC’s stupidification strategy.
