Jagdeo, Hoyte, Exxon and what the National Development Strategy said
Bharrat Jagdeo is not, in my opinion, a very bright man. That opinion is based on what I saw personally what he did and allowed to be done in GuySuCo between 2000 and 2010. Mr. Hoyte told me, and I think that Adam Harris may recall my telling him this in 1994, why he agreed to the provision in the Carter Center’s formula of counting the votes at the place of poll, the single most import provision which derailed in a big way the shenanigans which accompanied our election process since the 1960’s. Nobody in the PNC at that time, would have agreed to it, but the Carter Center had promised Hoyte that if he agreed to it, they would help to remove the US$2 billion debt Guyana had at that time which had made Guyana as identified by the World Bank, a Heavily Indebted Poor Country, HIPC, because it had a debt which it could never repay, but being who he was, a Guyana-first man, and knowing that his Economic Recovery Programme setting up among many other things, the Cambios for example, was changing the entire Guyana economic situation, he privatized telecoms and sold it to what became GTT, attracted Omail Gold Mines Limited, Barama Company Limited and other investors. He brought in external managers to return GuySuCo to profitability and ten years after he did, GuySuCo’s annual production rose from around 150,000 tonnes, to 320,000 tonnes. Desmond Hoyte’s own supporters referred to him as Desmond Persaud. This country allowed the 9th March 2024 which marked the 95th birth anniversary of this great Guyanese Desmond [Persaud] Hoyte, in my humble opinion, the best President we ever had, to pass without a single referral to it or praise for him. I checked the Stabroek News of 7th 8th 9th of March this year and I did not see any referral to it. It’s not their responsibility to do it of course, but they did not report any press release from Congress Place or anywhere else, for that matter, about it. But they are having a 9th commemorative lecture on Friday 21st June 2024 which I fully intend to attend.
Jagdeo cannot point to one successful national achievement by him since being Guyana’s President, other than he has amassed an enormous personal fortune for himself and his closest friends and in the process destroyed the sugar industry and presided over corruption to a level unpresented in our history.
Recently there were allegations that Jagdeo and his government are behaving as if they are more employees of Exxon rather than employees of the people of this nation.
Before I go further, I want to state that in 1992 Cheddi Jagan did not get 33 seats in the Guyana parliament he won 32 seats. Nadir who was leading the UF could not possibly finance an election in 1992, so he was financed by someone, would anyone like to make a wild guess who? So this garbage of landslide election wins created by sycophants of the PPP is just propaganda and lies. In this cycle parliament is
controlled by the PPP who only got 50.76% of the vote in the last election and scraped by with a top up of 0.24% and these PPP people are still behaving as if they won by a landslide and the other 49.24 % of this population are completely ignored as both citizens and opposition. Furthermore, any opposition is regarded by Jagdeo as bothersome and disruptive to his dictatorship.
Also recently I saw Jagdeo on some programme telling the public that it was he who produced the National Development Strategy (NDS). Yes it was he as Minister of Finance who tabled the NDS in the parliament but he had nothing to do with its preparation and content, I think that it was a condition of Carter for intervening in our elections in 1992 and the NDS was financed by the Carter Center and prepared by Dr. Kenneth King and others and I am proud to say that many aspects of sugar and agriculture Dr. King asked me for my opinion.
Now for the strategy, and why I am writing this today, the first paragraph of section IV of the document identified as “The Strategy” advises us that :
* First, that we could considerably assist in removing the scourge of racism from our land, if we developed and put into practice inclusive systems of governance in which all would feel that they have a stake, in which all would know that they are involved, and in which there were established both procedures and penalties to ensure transparency and accountability. Second, that a considerable degree of harmony would prevail in our country if we were able to formulate and implement social and economic policies which would lead not only to significant economic growth, but also to the widest distribution of the benefits of such growth among the population, no matter in what district they are located, and to what racial group they belong.
• Accordingly, the first prong of the strategy has been crafted to ensure that the practices that are followed by all future governments of Guyana are as inclusionary, participatory, accountable and transparent as possible. This imperative applies to the regional and local governments, as well as to the central administration.”
Earlier in the strategy under Politics we see this incredible statement ”Partly because of the prevalence of fierce racial political rivalries between these two groups, and partly because Guyana’s constitution is largely based on the Westminster model which does not embrace inclusivity in governance as one of its main characteristics, there has been little or no meeting of the minds between these powerful political parties on any major political, social or economic issue since Guyana became independent”. On the contrary, confrontation of every sort has been the norm. Two nights ago, I watched in total dismay this man in his weekly press conference telling the media that information submitted to the government by Exxon would have to be edited by the ministry before it is released to the public.
I am going no further. Has anyone seen any attempt to be inclusive by anyone? The level of discourse and cooperation is so good that we are unable to have a substantive Chancellor or Chief Justice for over 20 years, because the two sides of our particular coin PPP/PNC have failed to agree to the nomination.