It would take looking through the special prism devised by the government to convince Guyanese that the way to confront the challenges facing our nation is to stay on the course government has chartered for them. Such a prognosis would require the adoption of a self-loathing paradigm since such a course has earned Guyanese nothing but social, political and economic instability. It would mean paying credence to government’s paradigm that to be reactive, unprincipled and contemptuous of the law was viable once opportunity existed to blame the fallout on the powerless political opposition. It would mean absolving government from its fundamental duty to be resourceful, law abiding and to take effective initiatives to steer this nation away from the precipice of disaster.

In fact as we see things the administration has little political incentive to respond to the cries of the people to alleviate their hardships and deprivations as witnessed along the ECD corridor, the rice sector and in bauxite industry. This political dilemma needs to be corrected through the introduction of appropriate democratic measures in the electoral and parliamentary systems since the correlation between economic growth, development and more democracy is now recognized internationally. Therefore, it has to be stated that even though the decision has been made to increase the tax threshold to $20,000 there is no real benefit to cash strapped Guyanese when the numbers are crunched. In fact as others have already pointed out, the hard pressed low income tax-payers stand to loose disposable income in light of the new telephone tax.

Also we cannot ignore the unjust and burdensome electricity and water rates and other tangential costs which translates into an unofficial tax being placed on an already heavily burdened people as ‘blackouts’ turn our lives upside down. How could the Finance Minister hope to get away with pretending that the unprecedented high level of unemployment was unworthy of mention in his budget presentation when joblessness has reached national disaster levels?

Staying on course would mean pretending not to know that as the government begs for debt relief it was systematically increasing the debt burden to unmanageable proportions, increasing the balance of payments deficit drastically from US$8.4Mn in 2001 to US$25.1Mn last year. It would mean pretending not to know that the trade imbalance last year stood at US$68.2Mn. That in increasing the withholding tax rates to 20% would discourage use of the baking system to escape this punitive tax while making those who evade the tax targets for the criminal elements marauding and pillaging with impunity. Staying on course would mean turning a blind eye to the administration undermining the public service through welding inordinate influence over public officials and their conduct, such as that taken last week by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue when he sought through a notice in the newspapers to issue an order outside the legal provision of the statute governing the Guyana Revenue Authority to give effect to the tax proposals contained in the budget speech.

It would mean allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked by the minister’s deliberate use of ambiguous and confusing figures in relation to Go-Invest and the true quantum of investment attracted last year. The point has to be made that the Finance Minister’s silence on the performance of the tourism, pharmaceutical, footwear and the garment industries in relation to his expressed expectations last year is suspect or shows a deficiency in the budgetary preparatory process. Submitting the annual budget in a timelier manner before the beginning of the financial year should be seen as a management imperative that is long overdue.

We cannot help but note that emerging out of the government’s subjective reality is an attempt to brainwash and misinform the people. Government’s prognosis is not the reality. The reality is that government has failed to manage competently and efficiently the current social, economic and political problems facing Guyana. The objective reality should be one composed of principled conduct based on reality in managing the affairs of state transparently, justly and prudently in order to ensure that our people prospered and endured in peace and harmony for generations to come.

The prevailing reality threatens this desirable outcome as we observe a growing hopelessness among our people, a growing level of intolerance, of lawlessness and banditry that is uncharacteristic of the Guyanese ethos. Disturbing reports reach us of youngsters under the legal age of maturity brandishing weapons and disrespecting the sanctity and the gift of life terrorizing innocent citizens in and around Buxton. I urge you as the government responsible for the safety and security of our people to move with speed to hack at the root of this evil. As our society grapples with the unprecedented levels of criminality, violence and wrongdoing at every strata of society, the words of Dag Hammarskjold seem appropriate, “you cannot play with the animal in you and not become wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds”.

In his 2003 budget presentation the Finance Minister at long last acknowledged that political stability was a prerequisite for economic development, job creation and for the image of Guyana as a destination for foreign direct investment. Yet, he stopped short of indicating to us that government was prepared to make a positive paradigm shift from its nebulous political ‘inclusivity’ proposal in the context of its inability to implement the constitutional reform measures for several years now to move the country out of the current prevailing political morass. He stopped short of indicating to this House that government understood that, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – An observation made by Albert Einstein. “For almost every significant breakthrough in the field of scientific endeavor is first a break with tradition, with the old ways of thinking, with old paradigms.” – quoted from Thomas Kuhn’s landmark book, “The structure of Scientific Revolutions”. So crucial is this concept that I hold the view that the way out of the current political crisis in Guyana is predicated on it. I am convinced that the current political impasse calls for a willingness to subordinate what we think we want now for what we say we want for the Guyanese people – peace and harmony, and happiness and prosperity for all.

If as the Finance minister said, government really cared about the physical and psychological damage that last year’s traumatic events inflicted on our people, government would muster the courage to decisively bring to an end the sapping of our people’s energies, the eroding of their quality of life, the perennial divisive political and parliamentary systems that were handed down to us. What is so difficult about making such a paradigm shift when in the last century alone we witnessed the rejection of the monarchy and the concept of the divine right of kings and queens that controlled the world for centuries, witnessed the development of a movement of government of the people, by the people and for the people followed by the advent of a constitutional democracy, which unleashed tremendous human energy and ingenuity, creating a standard of living, a standard of freedom and liberty, a level of influence and hope unequaled in the history of the world. Recognizing that the perennial political instability robs us of social and economic advancement is but one step; changing the system is the next.

The impression we’re getting is that government sees itself as being part of the solution but not part of the problem. The days when you could have gotten away with that argument are gone. You are as much a part of the problem as you must be the solution. Further more, as the occupants of the seat of government you have a greater responsibility than the opposition to broker a solution to the debilitating political problems that have left this nation traumatized and fractured for the last four decades. The situation clearly calls for an end to political posturing, the defending of partisan interests and focusing instead on the people’s welfare. History will treat you unkindly should you fail to rise to the occasion.

For local and foreign investors the problem of injustice in the allocation of discretionary and discriminatory fiscal incentives persists. The Trade Minister’s last attempt to defend the indefensible with the absurd comment that incentive regime schedules were posted on the web for all to see only served to highlight the pachyderm manner in which this administration is prone to address national problems.

The reality for jobless Guyanese is that unemployment has reached “new heights” yet the Finance Minister chooses to make the rate of unemployment in the country a closely guarded secret. Labour relations continue to be fractured impacting adversely on the social and economic environment. Corruption continues to be treated as an aberration by the government even after concerns have been expressed for the last decade by the political opposition, donor agencies, the IFIs and most alarmingly by the former Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority who resigned a year ago in a veil of accusations of interference and corruption in that institution. After a decade of agreeing there was needed to reform the Central Tender Board the status quo remained the same sending several contracting and consulting firms into oblivion by government refusing either to pay them for works executed or by the corrupt system denying them work through the employment of unethical methods applied in the tendering process; meanwhile creating multi-millionaires out of a few new favoured consultants and contractors.

As I listened to the Finance Minister deliver his fourth budget speech I was struck by the absence of excitement, absence of a clear economic plan, of an education policy that recognized the value of the teaching profession in the context of an agreed vision for the nation’s development as against a policy that considers the renovation of school buildings more important than the welfare of teachers and students. I wondered about the lack luster pall enveloping us as a nation and about the disconcerting raucous cacophony being made by our colleagues outside the parliament chambers and wondered dear God how much more must we endure before you take this bitter cup from us. If only we could look ahead to that place where the light shines at the end of the tunnel when we would be working collectively and fervently to end the nation’s torment of injustices, insecurities and hopelessness wearing us all down.

Sheila Holder, MP

2003-04-06

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