By: SASE Singh; M.Sc. – Finance, ACCA
Last week I spoke about politicians and bureaucrats failing to deliver what they promised, and I started a conversation on ten (10) reasons why Team Granger are failing. In the column last week, I explained four (4) of those ten (10) reasons: lack of pertinent knowledge in Team Granger; information asymmetry; a determined effort on the part of Team Granger to crowd out the private sector; and the time lag in their decision-making abilities. We continue today with the remaining six (6) reasons, listed below:
5. A Rent-Seeking Attitude
A rent-seeking attitude is one that seeks to gain privileges through using Government policies for private gains. This kind of action expands the number of rent-seekers in the system who are making corruption the norm, rather than the exception.
If we recall, it was Mr. Granger who promised in 2015 that he was the man who would lead the team that would not “offer favours to his favourites”. The last 48 months have proven that Mr. Granger did not deliver on his words, and is not a man to be trusted.
Today, the distinction between corruption and following the “rule of law” has become totally blurred. Clientelism, corruption, and the misapplication of resources have become the order of the day under Mr. Granger.
6. Vote buying
Immediately after the Charandass vote, the PNC slipped into the failed strategy of vote buying. History has taught us that no other political party was successful at this strategy, so why would Mr. Granger think that this attitude of thinking of the people as some sort of “political chattel” would work for him?
The PNC-led Granger regime has spent millions of taxpayers’ funds to bolster a concert showcasing a convicted drug dealer, hoping that he would be able to influence the youth voters. This strategy will fail because our youths are not drug addicts, and they know that, morally, BUJU is no role model.
7. A failed promise of “The Good Life”
The so-called “Good Life” projects have failed to deliver the goods for the people. After the BUJU show, life for most Guyanese is still one of struggle, with major dissatisfaction with the standard of living. All of this is happening in potentially the richest country in CARICOM. So why is so much of the nation’s resources being drained in places that are not helping the people directly?
8. Regulatory Capture
The term “regulatory capture” denotes a government’s failure when the regulatory agencies do not pursue the original intent of promoting the ‘public interest’, but fall victim to the special interest groups that are close to the political elite. One only has to look at the operations of the Police and SARA and one would realise that the public institutions have been captured by Team Granger and rendered into toothless poodles mainly in service to the business buddies of the rulers. Such a situation destroys the incubation of new human-friendly investments, and also chases the best minds abroad.
9. Short-sightedness
From day one, all Team Granger thought about was the time horizon to “first oil”, and how their small cabal can benefit from it. Their mission was to fill only their own pockets, while ignoring the plight of the people. Team Granger failed to realise that this oil, if leveraged properly, can “lift all boats”. It’s disingenuous to sell these fairy tales of “one barrel of oil per day per person” without properly explaining to the Guyanese people the cash flow realities. To date, no one has competently explained this reality to the people.
10. Rationalise Ignorance
Team Granger, rather than sitting down and working harder and smarter for the Guyanese people, spend an enormous amount of energy rationalising their ignorance of the human development challenges facing Guyana. So, in their two-pronged approach to justify their misrule, they use outfits like DPI and other state media to sell their misinformation, with the hope that the Guyanese people are too ignorant to understand what is really happening. And to complement that failed strategy, if anyone speaks up against these acts of deception, another army of sycophants is prepared to launch into personal abuse with an aim to shut down any other school of thought. But yet the message of truth against the fake news out of Camp Granger continues to multiply. Why?
In conclusion, what we are seeing today is that the PNC and their phantom creation, the APNU, have gotten neither the mechanism nor the message to motivate the majority of the nation, and no amount of money would help them. Using state resources (NCN etc.), they have failed to subvert the real message. The silent majority have made up their minds, but there is need for the free thinking people to speak up more in support of the trials and tribulations of the masses. In the past, people like Yesu Persaud and Bishop Randolph George did it; where in Guyana are their intellectual descendants of today? It is time for civil society to wake up. Silence is not an option anymore!
