Dear Editor,
Dr Bharrat Jagdeo’s press conference, which was held on February 03 at the Arthur Chung Convention Center, could not come at a more opportune time, since it sought to address many aspects of misinformation and inaccuracy being promulgated by members of APNU+AFC in and out of the National Assembly regarding Budget 2022.
The Vice-President aptly described the economic philosophy of APNU+AFC as ‘consumption-based’. And when one carefully reviews and analyses the Opposition’s term in office, this characterisation becomes evident from their inauguration in May 2015 to their unceremonious dethroning in March 2020.
Under the leadership of former President David Granger, one of the first acts of the APNU+AFC administration was to give their Cabinet members a 50% increase in pay, and other generous benefits and allowances which were financed through the aggressive taxation of goods and services that grossly impacted the cost of living for the ordinary citizens.
According to Dr. Jagdeo, Guyanese were forced to pay nearly $50 billion in taxes to support the lifestyle of Granger and his Cabinet members.
And who among us could forget the damages caused in the five months after Elections 2020. An entire nation was held hostage by many of the same persons currently representing APNU+AFC in the National Assembly. Our economy was brought to a halt to facilitate their disastrous excursion into the election-rigging. We were on the brink of economic sanctions by the ABC countries. I doubt that any of the coalition members were considerate of how traumatising their actions were on the poor and vulnerable, whom they are now falsely championing.
If I were to place a monetary value on the pain and suffering endured, it would be in the ballpark of $552.9 billion – the same value of the national budget, for the simple reason that we, the poor and ordinary Guyanese people, were robbed of so much during APNU+AFC’s five years in Government.
Here is where I disagree with Dr. Jagdeo’s characterisation of APNU+AFC’s economic philosophy as consumption-based. In his attempt to intellectualise the Opposition’s wasteful spending and aggressive taxation, one critical factor was missed: the guiding principle which governs APNU+AFC’s fiscal construct theory is greed.
Sincerely,
Todd A Morgan
