By Sase Singh; MSc – Finance, ACCA
Introduction
It is a danger to have anyone who subscribes to the philosophy of “Me, Myself and I” in charge of anything, much less a nation. Unfortunately, after three years, there is enough evidence to confirm that Guyana has someone in charge that uses his Executive position to unilaterally inject arbitrary and bias interpretation of the rule of the law to the detriment of the entire society. These actions obviously have unnecessarily imported greater disunity into the Guyanese society. The outcome; a miasma of mediocrity on too many fronts across the nation.
But we cannot blame the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) for this mess. If one is to study the cadre of officers the GDF has produced over the years, overwhelmingly many are solid leaders. But there is a catch. The general (no pun intended) expectation of the Brigadiers is that they operate in a framework that is very familiar with the concept of ruling by fiat. It is expected that in the GDF when Brigadiers issue the orders, the soldiers are expected to comply blindly. But this is not the reality in civilian life; people question their leaders and quite rightly so.
There are two principal kinds of officers in the GDF. Firstly, there are the genuine soldier – leaders who lead from the front and are well respected by their “squaddies and subordinates”. I can think of Bruce Lovell and Joe Singh as two examples of this class of soldiers. Then there are the political officers who are feared. This second group whom I classify as unfit officers, exhibit a characteristic that engenders a theme of “do as I say and not as I do”. This second type of officers take the bulk of the credit for the good things achieved but always pass the buck for the problems to others when they develop. When last have you listened to a David Granger speech – “You the Private Sector must do that and you the youths must do this and so on.” It is never about the “WE” and this is what I will do to join you in changing the way we think and work to build a better future. Mr Granger never talks about outlining what his Government has done and will do by a certain time to lend support to the national development process.
But when you look carefully at the policy and spending action of team Granger, it is all about “Me, Myself and My Group”. Three weeks into the new Government, they offered themselves a 50 per cent increase under the pretext that it will stop corruption in high office in Guyana. Well, it did not and the “Sussex Street Bondgate” and the “Demerara Bridgegate” are just two of the 210 documented cases of abuse of the Treasury over the last three years. You see, “Me, Myself and My Group”!
After the 28 years of the People’s National Congress, 23 years of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and now three years of the Granger presidency, the divide between the “haves” and the ‘have nots” is at its widest. On the shoulders of the working class rest the bulk of the tax burden that is being used to fund this commitment to “Me, Myself and My Group” today. I have also seen many of these situations under the PPP. But the icing on the cake for public abuse of the Treasury must be given to the David Granger Administration. It is under this Government that over GY$500 million was spent on housing for the Cabinet members, where over GY$1 billion was spent on their executive travels, where a Prime Minister, who does less work than clerk in the public service, can have 10 vehicles at his disposal all paid for by the Treasury.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, their Prime Minister is selling out his State vehicles to contribute to meeting the salary bill of teachers. Let us not forget the multimillion-dollar medical plan, which the working class of Guyana continues to pay for, but do not have access to; instead, their place is at one of the death zones fronting for a public hospital system.
In conclusion, it is important that the Guyanese people vote hard in the Local Government Election 2018 to send a strong signal to the Granger Government that this “Me, Myself and I” mentality of his has no place in modern Guyana.
