Guyana Observer News

OVERVIEW:
One individual told me that with all the financial crisis and lack of an economic plan by the PPP government, at the end of the day it is the “small people” that are forgotten. They also added that the financial crisis and loss of jobs does not affect anyone in government. They still drive their gas guzzling vehicles, do not pay GPL or fuel bills, or are the ones that lose their money in CLICO or in the banks that will also start to fail and they all still have their jobs.

The economic crisis that the President said many times will never come to Guyana is here. What happened to the “firewall” he built around Guyana? He even said two weeks ago that CLICO is safe and because it is “Guyana CLICO”. What a bunch of crock. The President once again has lied to us. Just this Friday he made another wild statement as if he was the CEO of Republic Bank. He said “Republic Bank (Guyana) is a very solid institution which does not have much of its investment abroad” Which bank does not have investment abroad? What then do they do with the money in the bank?

OUR ECONOMIC STANDING
According to the latest Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings, a compilation of economic freedom globally by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, Guyana is at 155 on the overall list, lower than Haiti at 147. Overall, it scored 48.4 on the economic freedom scale, meaning its freedom is repressed. The banking system was also dubbed as `inefficient` since the percentage of loans that are considered non-performing is relatively high at 14 percent, down from 25 percent during the mid-1990s.

This rating tells the story. It tells us we have an incompetent team managing our economy. President Jagdeo has made passing statements of which little can be gleaned. Now we know all those statements were false.
As I have said before, the issue is the survival of the Guyanese people during tough economic times the world over. We have been in a perpetual economic crisis situation since the latter half of 1994 and “fiddled while Rome burned”. We must stop this madness.

SUMMARY
What does all of this mean to the ordinary people who are looking for a way out of financial and economic hardships? The PPP needs to tell the people that their government needs to invest in stimulus programmes quickly and efficiently while avoiding wastage and leakages from the usual corruption associated with his government.
We need economic justice in our nation to see the radical shift we so desperately seek, which will start with a new governance model. A model formed with the interests of the people as a whole in mind, not just the selfish ambitions of a few. Economic justice will help change despair into hope, stagnation into progress and deficiency into plenty by commitment to liberty and an understanding of how this relates to the economic advancement of our fellow citizens.

The PPP administration is immobilised by policies that smother individual initiative and drain the private sector of resources. Instead of stifling the energies of their citizens, this administration should be capitalising on those energies so we can collectively benefit from entrepreneurship. If we create an environment where businesses can thrive and economic prosperity can be attained, investments will flow into our country, jobs will be created and our economy will grow. There is no reason to believe that we are not as intelligent, hard working and capable of achieving economic prosperity. Economic growth is only a means to an end. This end, of course, is a higher standard of living for all Guyanese. Until next time “Roop”.