Rabble-rousers only embarrassing themselves

Dear Editor,
Even Transparency International has now admitted that the perception of corruption is on the decline as Guyana has made “significant improvement”. However, it must be noted that these marked improvements are specifically from when this Government took office in 2020, since from 2015 Guyana’s TI Index continued to rise as a plethora of corrupt practices became more documented and exposed by the Public Accounts Committee findings corroborated by the Auditor General’s Report itself. Some of these matters are in front of the courts.
During the tenure of the coalition, Guyanese saw corruption levels increasing to astronomical heights whilst the standard of living plummeted and all the sectors, especially the agriculture sector, bore the brunt of the coalition’s ill-conceived and hairbrained policies and deliberate decimation plans. I must add that this sector was a target practice for the coalition’s retribution against the sugar workers.
It is quite an accurate analytical conclusion when the Vice President, Jagdeo stated, “There are a lot of transgressions and trust me there were egregious transgressions involving serious violations that you wouldn’t find in any PPP era.” These “egregious transgressions” replicated what the PNC did in Government for 28 years when Guyana was another Haiti and Guyanese became mendicants, fleeing in droves to all parts of the globe using all means available, both legal and illegal.
It must be recalled that the corruption mantra was honed to perfection by the PNC/AFC duo prior to 2015 and they were able to deceive and fool some of the people, but as fate or karma would have it, they were laid bare and exposed as they clinically destroyed the economy, rampaged in insane haste to squander and did squander our financial reserves to the point of bankruptcy. When they took over the helm of Government in 2015 and until 2020, the masses saw the real PNC in action fully supported by the AFC. It was a sad tale of the coalescing of two corrupt political parties.
I am puzzled about the whereabouts of a few of the current letter-writers during the destructive 5 years when the coalition was in Government. Hibernating, I guess! They heard and saw no evil, quite conveniently indeed! The corruption mantra will be difficult to rejuvenate but now they have composed a new one: the neglect mantra.
Let me ask a question: Why will the PPP Government neglect agriculture? I have read about the agriculture sector being “neglected” and heard a handful of AFC rabble-rousers and mischief-makers singing the neglect mantra in the expectation that they can convince some gullible persons that the sector and they are being neglected.
Since the coalition assumed office in 2015, they embarked on a deliberate plan to destroy the agriculture sector which they unwittingly perceived as the PPP support base. This plan could have been discerned when the budgetary allocation continued to decline year after year from 2015 to $18 billion in 2019. Let me make it pellucid that the agriculture sector has never been as strong as it is now and it is only a scamp and a scoundrel will make those deliberately misinformed statements and it is a shame that a few are giving credence to this wilful attempt to distort the facts. But I know it must be difficult to keep abreast with the rapid pace of development taking place in the agriculture sector and acknowledge it, especially when it was only recently that Guyanese witnessed the utter decimation of the sector, thanks to the coalition. This rapid pace of development is chartered by well-crafted policies and implemented by the most competent Agriculture Minister ever. The entire sector is now benefitting from new scientific technology. It is common knowledge that the PPP Government never neglected the agriculture sector and the coalition is cognisant of this fact.
Let me ask another stupid question: Why will the Government ‘neglect’ Region 6? This is so far from the truth. There are so many transformative developmental projects in the making in Region 6 and across the country as I write that no sane individual will make such an asinine conclusion. Immediately, the deep-water harbour, the all-weather road to the Canje Creek which will open thousands of hectares for farming and aquaculture, the bridge to Suriname which will enhance a multitude of economic activities, and the Hope-like canal which will end the flooding woes, are just some of the transformative projects.
Anyone who listened to the Finance Minister’s budget presentation and the Minister of Agriculture’s Budget speech will not be of any doubt. But any good investor will tell you that like all investments there will be a timeline when the dividends will be seen. The improvement of the drainage and irrigation systems, the rehabilitation and construction of roads and infrastructures, repairs and installation of street lights, and many other community enhancement projects are ongoing and citizens are already benefitting from these. Where is the neglect? Only recently Region 6 was saved from the worst flood disaster ever and cash flood relief grants were given to all affected and farmers were back on their feet in a jiffy. The Rose Hall Estate will be producing sugar in the second crop 2023 and already rehabilitation works are going at a rapid speed. Where is the neglect? To quote a former Minister of the coalition, “it is a figment of their imagination”.
In conclusion, it is my fervent hope that these rabble-rousers should undertake some other less disgraceful pastime, they only embarrass themselves.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf