Yes, everything is falling apart

THE EDITOR: Guyana Vice President Bharath Jagdeo said that “T&T is falling apart” and with this true statement the PNM administration went on the attack to deny this. Energy Minister Stuart Young hasn’t been available for comment to date, however anyone in the energy sector would naturally be concerned about the that remark.

Jagdeo in his statement said, “Because if we don’t do that, when the oil money goes we’ll be poorer than many countries in the world. Look at what’s happening in Trinidad now...Trinidad is falling apart, and that’s putting it mildly – falling apart!

“No jobs, sustained periods of negative growth and can’t see the light of day for the near future.”

How can one really deny that everything is not really falling to pieces in this country? And that the Government is turning a blind eye while the country is being decimated, one sector after the next? There seem to be attacks on our democracy; just look at the property tax being forced upon us during this time when many people cannot catch themselves.

This is another harsh plan by the Government being forced down our throats. The property tax is just another way to beat us down and for the Government to take every last dollar out of the hands of hard working citizens. Now even at this stage when we are hoping to be moving from pandemic to endemic, citizens still can’t put food on the table and we continue to hear about the Government bringing back property tax.

All because this Government has mismanaged our energy sector, has mismanaged the economy, and has failed to provide proper assistance for businesses, restaurants, bars, cinemas and retail stores. It just looks like everything it puts its hands on turns out badly.

After six and a half years under the PNM leadership we are facing increased prices for food and other produce by approximately 30 per cent from January last year. Under its leadership since 2015, some $300 billion was spent, without proper accountability to the population, yet we face some undeniable issues.

The effects of the economic fallout – the high unemployment level, the inequality between the less fortunate and the rest of the country, and the crisis in the retail sector due to the virtual shutting down of the country for almost a year and a half – have only increased anxiety and stress for our citizens. We need a time-out. We need to breathe.

Prime Minister Rowley hasn’t exactly been building bridges with Guyana in any significant way either. Recently the country witnessed Dr Rowley’s outburst in Parliament where he made it clear that he is the Prime Minister of the country and what he says and does are irreproachable. He berated UNC MP Rodney Charles for always speaking about Guyana. Rowley advised Charles that he was free to leave TT and go to Guyana if he so wished.

All Jagdeo was saying was what is clearly evident to anyone living in TT. He was simply stating the need for Guyana to diversify its economy instead of finding itself in a similar situation to TT. If our Government had a similar foresight we may not now be at the edge of an abyss staring into the inevitable darkness.

It is difficult to see how we reached this point as many citizens thought they were doing the right thing for TT in August 2020 by handing the reins of power to a PNM government again. Now all we see are hash rules and regulations, mistrust, despair, disappointment, with no way to extract ourselves from the mess.

It will be a long time before we see any way forward, any clarification or hope. The next few years look bleak. There is a feeling of dread and darkness across the country as the PNM government has no clue how to get us out of this economic tailspin.

With the addition of more and more taxes to an already strained population, increased crime, increased food prices and the economic downturn, the future looks dark. This Government had better come up with some extraordinary ideas fast to ease the suffering of citizens or we may never recover from giving the reins of power to a PNM government for ten years.

NEIL GOSINE

former chairman, NP