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Jagdeo was no Lee Kwan Yew

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September 19,2017

Dear Editor,

I was in the ninth grade when I decided to study economics. Truthfully, I was inspired by then-President Bharrat Jagdeo, whose fluency in matters of economic policy and professed passion for economic development I found captivating. After the CSEC examinations in 2010, I had the distinct honour of meeting one-on-one with the President. By the time of our meeting, I had just enrolled in the Economics programme at the University of Guyana, and it was a motivating encounter that energized me at the start of what would be a hard four year slog.

During the course of my studies, however, I would come to learn that Mr Jagdeo was not the development guru he styled himself as. He was no Lee Kwan Yew. Granted, Mr Jagdeo’s 12 year tenure, was marked by high economic growth, macroeconomic discipline, and tremendous socioeconomic improvements. It would be remiss, however, to not give some credit to the tailwinds that coincided with his presidency.

Firstly, the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), a package of reform measures overseen by the late President Desmond Hoyte to ease the economy away from decades of debilitating “cooperative socialism” and towards a market oriented economy, was beginning to pay dividends.

Secondly, the United States’s globally unpopular war in Iraq and its subsequent descent into the Great Recession created a perfect storm of political and economic conditions that would redound to Guyana’s benefit. The Iraq War created an opening for anti-American populist socialists like Hugo Chávez, who used his country’s immense oil wealth to curry favour with smaller countries in the Western hemisphere to try to isolate the United States. A central plank of this oil diplomacy was PetroCaribe, a bilateral arrangement under which Guyana would supply rice to the Venezuelan market in exchange for oil. Under the arrangement, Guyana’s rice was valued at 20 per cent above the world market price, a boon of a subsidy for a rice sector that could not otherwise compete with major rice producers for a share of the global market.

More to the second point, the 2007-08 financial crash in America was a net positive for Guyana. Even as remittances from the US ebbed, the spike in gold prices more than made up for this. As investors fled a swooning stock market, funds piled into safe haven assets such as US Treasury bills, platinum, silver, and, yes, gold. The local gold rush of the last decade set off a wave of consumer spending as well as investments in other sectors of the economy such as real estate and retail.

Even as he benefited electorally from the booms, Mr Jagdeo did not do much to parlay what were known short- term phenomena into long-term growth. The country’s electricity supply, while better than it was, was still unreliable to the point where business owners asserted that having to invest in backup generators was a major barrier to investment. Red tape actually increased and deliberately so, as Mr Jagdeo ostensibly claimed that additional layers of bureaucracy were installed to protect ‘the little guy’. The University of Guyana was in a perennial state of decline and as a result of deliberate neglect, was ill-equipped to shape the skilled workforce in the way a modern, dynamic economy requires. Instead of using his stewardship of the country’s  radio spectrum to empower a nascent media and IT industry with the airtime and bandwidth to thrive, Mr Jagdeo turned it into giveaways for contractors and political allies.

Moreover, Mr Jagdeo squandered the proceeds from the commodities price surge as well as the roughly US$1 billion aid package from the European Union granted in compensation for the impending 36 per cent cut in the preferential price for Guyana sugar heading to the bloc. Mr Jagdeo’s big bets on the ill-advised Skeldon Sugar Factory and Marriott, for instance, have come at tremendous opportunity cost when one considers what other investments could have been made to diversify the economy and cushion the blow from the inevitable stabilization of the world’s oil, agricultural and metals markets. Oil prices are now lower than they have been in more than a decade and Venezuela is in no position to continue its international welfare scheme. The US economy is in the middle of an eight year long upswing and stocks are 235% higher than they were in 2009, so gold is no longer as attractive an investment as it was in the middle of the Great Recession.

That Mr Jagdeo, therefore, now holds himself out to be the Champion of the Rural Poor, as he did very prominently at last year’s Albion Reunion Day in New York City, is downright laughable, at best, and hypocritical, at worst. From 1992-2015, the years during which the PPP were in power, roughly 100,000 Guyanese migrated to the US legally. Irony must be dead, therefore, if Mr Jagdeo could, in a speech to expatriates from the rural village of Albion, credibly evade any responsibility for the economic circumstances that precipitated their departure. His characterization of the economic misfortunes of rural dwellers as a coordinated “assault” on Indo-Guyanese by a government that, up until that point, had only been in power for just over a year, was woefully and deliberately devoid of context.

The mendacity of Mr Jagdeo’s remarks at the July, 2016 event flared brightest in his assertion that the government was “snatching people’s land that has transport”, an apparent reference to the foolhardy revocation by President David Granger and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) of leases granted by former President Donald Ramotar to rice farmers in the West Coast Berbice region. Judging by the theme of Mr Jagdeo’s speech, the ex-President is implying that that too is another salvo in the current government’s economic war against Indo-Guyanese.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers.

Mr Jagdeo’s remarks, which have been receiving renewed prominence on social media, were not only an affront to the liberal, cosmopolitan ethos of the city where he made them, but an insult to the collective intelligence of the Guyanese people. Whatever residual regard he had upon departing from over a decade of public service, now lies shattered on that trail of misinformation he continues to blaze.

Yours faithfully,

Saieed I Khalil

Replies sorted oldest to newest

I suppose Bharrat Jagdeo will smile if he reads Khalil's critique and accept it gracefully. There was a time when young economist Bharrat Jagdeo had also critiqued his superior economist Asgar Ally, the PPP government's first Senior Finance Minister. Asgar's feathers weren't ruffled. 

FM

President meets 2010 CSEC top student Saieed Khalil.

http://guyanachronicle.com/201...tudent-saieed-khalil

– says Gov’t committed to supporting, retaining intelligent minds
TOP student at the 2010 Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) exams, Saieed Khalil, paid a courtesy call on President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday, and was given the assurance of Government’s commitment in assisting and retaining intelligent young minds.

Khalil a former student of Queen’s College, topped this year’s exams with 15 Grade Ones and one Grade Two. He was among 141 Guyanese students who secured grade one passes in eight and more subjects.
Khalil told the Government Information Agency (GINA) how delighted he was to meet the President whom he described as an inspirational figure for all in the business field of the class of 2010 at QC.
“It was an honour to have met the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” Khalil told GINA.
He is now pursuing a first degree in Economics at the University of Guyana.
QC holds a reputation of high academic standards, and other schools producing top achievers this year were Anna Regina Multilateral in Region Two, West Demerara Secondary School in Region Three, President’s College,  Bishops’ High, St. Stanislaus, St. Joseph’s High, Marian Academy, Mae’s Secondary, Central High, St. Rose’s High, St. John’s College, New Guyana School and, Mackenzie High.
The overall pass rate at the general and technical proficiencies for Grades One to Three was 66 per cent and the overall 2010 Grades One to Four pass rate was 86 per cent.


 

This Guy is wan bright kid,

i will have to retract my inquiry "who is he"

Django
Last edited by Django

The mendacity of Mr Jagdeo’s remarks at the July, 2016 event flared brightest in his assertion that the government was “snatching people’s land that has transport”, an apparent reference to the foolhardy revocation by President David Granger and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) of leases granted by former President Donald Ramotar to rice farmers in the West Coast Berbice region. Judging by the theme of Mr Jagdeo’s speech, the ex-President is implying that that too is another salvo in the current government’s economic war against Indo-Guyanese.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers.

Mitwah
Django posted:

President meets 2010 CSEC top student Saieed Khalil.

http://guyanachronicle.com/201...tudent-saieed-khalil

– says Gov’t committed to supporting, retaining intelligent minds
TOP student at the 2010 Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) exams, Saieed Khalil, paid a courtesy call on President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday, and was given the assurance of Government’s commitment in assisting and retaining intelligent young minds.

Khalil a former student of Queen’s College, topped this year’s exams with 15 Grade Ones and one Grade Two. He was among 141 Guyanese students who secured grade one passes in eight and more subjects.
Khalil told the Government Information Agency (GINA) how delighted he was to meet the President whom he described as an inspirational figure for all in the business field of the class of 2010 at QC.
“It was an honour to have met the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” Khalil told GINA.
He is now pursuing a first degree in Economics at the University of Guyana.
QC holds a reputation of high academic standards, and other schools producing top achievers this year were Anna Regina Multilateral in Region Two, West Demerara Secondary School in Region Three, President’s College,  Bishops’ High, St. Stanislaus, St. Joseph’s High, Marian Academy, Mae’s Secondary, Central High, St. Rose’s High, St. John’s College, New Guyana School and, Mackenzie High.
The overall pass rate at the general and technical proficiencies for Grades One to Three was 66 per cent and the overall 2010 Grades One to Four pass rate was 86 per cent.


 

This Guy is wan bright kid,

i will have to retract my inquiry "who is he"

Maybe the man should run fuh president heh? Ramson Jr. and Khalil should be able to run these old corrupted bums out of office. There is still hope for Guyana.

FM
skeldon_man posted:
 

Maybe the man should run fuh president heh? Ramson Jr. and Khalil should be able to run these old corrupted bums out of office. There is still hope for Guyana.

If the PPP is serious about winning, then it needs to regen with some bright young ones. Too many deadwood stifling the young shoots.

Mitwah
Mitwah posted:
skeldon_man posted:
 

Maybe the man should run fuh president heh? Ramson Jr. and Khalil should be able to run these old corrupted bums out of office. There is still hope for Guyana.

If the PPP is serious about winning, then it needs to regen with some bright young ones. Too many deadwood stifling the young shoots.

Guyana needs young bright and aggressive minds, people who think outside the box and don't give a rat's ass about offending any one in any party.

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Five years from now we would like this young economist to assess the economic performance of the present admin. 

If he is still in Guyana. If he is still there, I would like him to compare the last 5 years of the PPP and the last 5 years of the PNC.

FM
skeldon_man posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Five years from now we would like this young economist to assess the economic performance of the present admin. 

If he is still in Guyana. If he is still there, I would like him to compare the last 5 years of the PPP and the last 5 years of the PNC.

The PNC would be advised to retain his services now. 

Mitwah
Mitwah posted:
skeldon_man posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Five years from now we would like this young economist to assess the economic performance of the present admin. 

If he is still in Guyana. If he is still there, I would like him to compare the last 5 years of the PPP and the last 5 years of the PNC.

The PNC would be advised to retain his services now. 

If the man is that smart, some mother and father from America or Canada would offer their daughter's hand in marriage. This often happens. I am sure the young man would not hesitate to jump on a plane to a different country.

 

FM

A bright kid...and he is writing like an economist. I hope he becomes one and decides to make Guyana his home

However,  if he had stuck to the economic issues he is writing about instead of throwing dirt on a popular (despite what some of us think about Jagdeo) politician, he would have come across as having more credibility. Aside from his astuteness, he comes across as someone who takes the same PNC line to discredit the former president (as much as he may deserve it). Here is an example of what Saiied said below in this quote below. It was widely reported already that the PPP, Donald Ramotar and others had already made this an issue by clearly stating that the PNC was taking land away from Africans. I do not recall where in the media the PPP and Jagdeo made such statements as this young man is claiming. He is being dishonest or misinformed.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers. So my point, based on my reading of the situation, is that the verdict is not necessarily out on this question of "snatching land". Jagdeo has a right to sound the alarm as this is only going to further divide the Guyanese people.

In addition, youth cannot substitute "smarts" for experience. Regarding the land issue, the PNC, with the land COI, and judging by the remarks made by members of ACDA, seems to be a driven journey to take land away from Native Indians and, possible Indians. They are saying that Blacks deserve "reparations" for "chattel slavery". No one can disagree with this, but Amerindians and Indians do not have to suffer or provide reparations to Africans because they deserve it.  Amerindians deserve the land they have and Indians also deserve reparations....my point is that the claim about "ancestral land" is a scam.  

Finally, Django, you are being a knucklehead, especially with the title you placed on this thread. Perhaps you are driven by the same dislike for Jagdeo as Saiied. Your half-slip is showing buddy.  

 

V
VishMahabir posted:

A bright kid...and he is writing like an economist. I hope he becomes one and decides to make Guyana his home

However,  if he had stuck to the economic issues he is writing about instead of throwing dirt on a popular (despite what some of us think about Jagdeo) politician, he would have come across as having more credibility. Aside from his astuteness, he comes across as someone who takes the same PNC line to discredit the former president (as much as he may deserve it). Here is an example of what Saiied said below in this quote below. It was widely reported already that the PPP, Donald Ramotar and others had already made this an issue by clearly stating that the PNC was taking land away from Africans. I do not recall where in the media the PPP and Jagdeo made such statements as this young man is claiming. He is being dishonest or misinformed.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers. So my point, based on my reading of the situation, is that the verdict is not necessarily out on this question of "snatching land". Jagdeo has a right to sound the alarm as this is only going to further divide the Guyanese people.

In addition, youth cannot substitute "smarts" for experience. Regarding the land issue, the PNC, with the land COI, and judging by the remarks made by members of ACDA, seems to be a driven journey to take land away from Native Indians and, possible Indians. They are saying that Blacks deserve "reparations" for "chattel slavery". No one can disagree with this, but Amerindians and Indians do not have to suffer or provide reparations to Africans because they deserve it.  Amerindians deserve the land they have and Indians also deserve reparations....my point is that the claim about "ancestral land" is a scam.  

Finally, Django, you are being a knucklehead, especially with the title you placed on this thread. Perhaps you are driven by the same dislike for Jagdeo as Saiied. Your half-slip is showing buddy.  

 

"The mendacity of Mr Jagdeo’s remarks at the July, 2016 event flared brightest in his assertion that the government was “snatching people’s land that has transport”, an apparent reference to the foolhardy revocation by President David Granger and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) of leases granted by former President Donald Ramotar to rice farmers in the West Coast Berbice region. Judging by the theme of Mr Jagdeo’s speech, the ex-President is implying that that too is another salvo in the current government’s economic war against Indo-Guyanese.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers."


 

The above is what Saieed said,nothing to do with reparations.

Suh who is the "knucklehead" eh bhai.

Django
Last edited by Django
VishMahabir posted:

A bright kid...and he is writing like an economist. I hope he becomes one and decides to make Guyana his home

However,  if he had stuck to the economic issues he is writing about instead of throwing dirt on a popular (despite what some of us think about Jagdeo) politician, he would have come across as having more credibility. Aside from his astuteness, he comes across as someone who takes the same PNC line to discredit the former president (as much as he may deserve it). Here is an example of what Saiied said below in this quote below. It was widely reported already that the PPP, Donald Ramotar and others had already made this an issue by clearly stating that the PNC was taking land away from Africans. I do not recall where in the media the PPP and Jagdeo made such statements as this young man is claiming. He is being dishonest or misinformed.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers. So my point, based on my reading of the situation, is that the verdict is not necessarily out on this question of "snatching land". Jagdeo has a right to sound the alarm as this is only going to further divide the Guyanese people.

In addition, youth cannot substitute "smarts" for experience. Regarding the land issue, the PNC, with the land COI, and judging by the remarks made by members of ACDA, seems to be a driven journey to take land away from Native Indians and, possible Indians. They are saying that Blacks deserve "reparations" for "chattel slavery". No one can disagree with this, but Amerindians and Indians do not have to suffer or provide reparations to Africans because they deserve it.  Amerindians deserve the land they have and Indians also deserve reparations....my point is that the claim about "ancestral land" is a scam.  

Finally, Django, you are being a knucklehead, especially with the title you placed on this thread. Perhaps you are driven by the same dislike for Jagdeo as Saiied. Your half-slip is showing buddy.  

 

Wise muslims have a track record of being pro-PNC. That goes back since in the 60's. Gloating about Shahabudeen wiseness from time to time also shows up on this BB. Failure to credit him with the massive failure of the written Constitution doan happen on here. He is remembered as a smart indian who was with Burnham. Is he really an Indian? 

S
Django posted:
VishMahabir posted:

A bright kid...and he is writing like an economist. I hope he becomes one and decides to make Guyana his home

However,  if he had stuck to the economic issues he is writing about instead of throwing dirt on a popular (despite what some of us think about Jagdeo) politician, he would have come across as having more credibility. Aside from his astuteness, he comes across as someone who takes the same PNC line to discredit the former president (as much as he may deserve it). Here is an example of what Saiied said below in this quote below. It was widely reported already that the PPP, Donald Ramotar and others had already made this an issue by clearly stating that the PNC was taking land away from Africans. I do not recall where in the media the PPP and Jagdeo made such statements as this young man is claiming. He is being dishonest or misinformed.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers. So my point, based on my reading of the situation, is that the verdict is not necessarily out on this question of "snatching land". Jagdeo has a right to sound the alarm as this is only going to further divide the Guyanese people.

In addition, youth cannot substitute "smarts" for experience. Regarding the land issue, the PNC, with the land COI, and judging by the remarks made by members of ACDA, seems to be a driven journey to take land away from Native Indians and, possible Indians. They are saying that Blacks deserve "reparations" for "chattel slavery". No one can disagree with this, but Amerindians and Indians do not have to suffer or provide reparations to Africans because they deserve it.  Amerindians deserve the land they have and Indians also deserve reparations....my point is that the claim about "ancestral land" is a scam.  

Finally, Django, you are being a knucklehead, especially with the title you placed on this thread. Perhaps you are driven by the same dislike for Jagdeo as Saiied. Your half-slip is showing buddy.  

 

"The mendacity of Mr Jagdeo’s remarks at the July, 2016 event flared brightest in his assertion that the government was “snatching people’s land that has transport”, an apparent reference to the foolhardy revocation by President David Granger and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) of leases granted by former President Donald Ramotar to rice farmers in the West Coast Berbice region. Judging by the theme of Mr Jagdeo’s speech, the ex-President is implying that that too is another salvo in the current government’s economic war against Indo-Guyanese.

Had Mr Jagdeo shed the ethnocentric lens in his glasses through which he perceives Guyanese politics, he would have noticed that nine of the plaintiffs in the two court cases which eventually reversed the revocations are Black farmers."


 

The above is what Saieed said,nothing to do with reparations.

Suh who is the "knucklehead" eh bhai.

Django,

I know reparations are not mentioned in the letter but I was making the broader point that Jagdeo's statements captures the current fears that Indians feel about the recent developments in Guyana...something Saiieed does not see.

The MMA issue was already addressed by the PPP. I believe it was Nandlall who helped the African farmers regain the land that was given to them by Ramotar....so the PPP acknowledged that its not just Indians, but Africans whose lands were in jeopardy.

Mr Saiied is a naive young man who, at this point, does not see the whole picture. He is riding the tide of some segments in society who wants to get his two cents by cussing down the PPP leader.

To his credit, he did praise Jagdeo for having the ability to reduce the debt and reviving the economy....something most of your friends here are unwilling to do.  

V

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