…on Government
Now, it’s quite usual for any tradesman you hire to fix a problem – say, an electrical one in your home – to immediately lash out at his predecessors and their “horrendous” workmanship. Par for the course. Same thing with governments, one would suppose; after all, they’re just a collection of tradesmen writ large, aren’t they?? To fix the problems of our country and get things humming again!!
So, your Eyewitness wasn’t surprised at the outraged expressions of indignation from the incoming PPP regime, as they eased into their offices. Their five-month excruciating and nail-biting wait on Granger and the PNC to accept defeat wouldn’t have done anything to cool down their ire!! But, really, all those revelations on the featherbedding in every Government department can’t be brushed aside as kvetching by the PPP to make the PNC look bad. This was something systemic; in your Eyewitness’s opinion, this went all the way to how the PNC see the state and their role in it.
While, as your Eyewitness said above, most of the world see government’s role as to solve their country’s problems, the PNC sees Government as taking care of only THEIR problems, and the devil take the rest of the people!! Wasn’t this what Burnham did?? He nationalised practically the entire economy and handed it out to his upper and middle echelon supporters to run, so they could live high off the hog. So what if they ran the entire edifice into the ground within a decade and a half??
Granger appointed his army squaddies and other PNC upper strata to run every Government and “autonomous” institution in sight. Think of Brigadier Lewis at GPHC!
All the “contracted employees” we’re hearing about are at the low end of this strata. His lower-echelon supporters were defined as “the small man”, and, by golly, Burnham would make them into the “REAL MAN”!! He gave them land; go check the records of who got land in the MMA, for instance. He gave them tractors, farming implements and animals to get them going in co-ops!! Check the records of how many co-ops were formed, and how much state revenues were directed into them? Then just look at the $2.6 billion grant to the small farmers of Ithaca, Buxton, BV and Mocha by Granger to replicate Burnham’s efforts in this area.
Finally, of course, there’s the Disciplined Forces!! Burnham created sinecure for his supporters by creating the largest army in the world – in proportion to the population. And Granger has followed him to a tee in this respect again.
You didn’t know we now have the People’s Militia once again??
…on development
Now, your Eyewitness expected the featherbedding and sinecures described above – on the cynical theory that hyenas never change their stripes!! But he never expected the revelations on how the PNC just didn’t focus on getting anything done to get the country’s economy and infrastructure going.
He’s not talking about shutting down sugar and firing those 7000 workers; that was pure power politics. Cripple the PPP at the legs!
But how’d you explain their inactivity on so many projects from just a single pipeline from the bilateral donor India? That ferry to the North West District, more prosaically known as Region 1, Donald Ramotar had secured that loan since 2015…and the PNC still hasn’t awarded the contract?? What the heck?? Ditto for the East Coast- East Bank Bypass road. Imagine, delaying that project just to expand it to dole out land to their financiers and insiders!!
And let’s not get started on the new, fixed Demerara Harbour Bridge that was also inherited from the PPP. To date, all we got was a $153 million scrapped design from Patterson!!
…on media
So, who’s surprised that NCN’s near bankruptcy?? And it’s not just the featherbedding and sumptuous furnishings. Remember Duncan, who was rewarded with a parliamentary seat?
It’s their hypocrisy about “educating” the people through the media they corrupted!
