JUST last week, in one of those moments of intense clarity that tend to precede the not so clear haze of the Friday evening after-work lime, I was consumed in a deeply philosophical discussion on “change.” People say that change is inevitable, if not desirable. So much has changed in Guyana that I doubt my grandfather would scarcely recognise this place when he returns to vote this year for his beloved cup no doubt.  I have learned to steer clear of political discussions with “Aaja.” How can you convince the certainty of experience through logical, impassioned arguments for change from the old politics of party loyalty to voting on issues and following reason? Needless to say, I supported the Alliance For Change (AFC) in the last elections. I voted for Change! Hoped for Change! Prayed for Change! And change they did, right into the jumbie politics Aaja warns about.
The blatant disingenuousness and deception in statements by the AFC leaders has profoundly shocked and disheartened me, as I had sincerely hoped for better from them. Case in point, the recent article in the Kaieteur News of January 30, 2015 titled “We need assurance that the regime won’t further deplete int’l reserves – AFC” and the internet news article of January 29, 2015 on Inewsguyana.com titled “AFC reports mismanagement in Guyana’s economy; questions decline in Reserves.” These articles point to statements by Mr. Nagamootoo suggesting that the drop in Government Reserves between 2012 from US$835 million to US$609 million in 2014 “speaks of troubles in the economy” and claims that this is the result of mismanagement of the economy. Polishing up with the linguistic craftiness of a well sharpened politician, he says this “…is arithmetic, not Ph.d Economics!”
While I do not hold a Ph.d in Economics I know enough to see past the duplicity and spiteful misrepresentation of the cold hard facts. The fact is that just about two years ago when I bought some gold to make a modest piece of jewellery to give to my new born niece it cost me nearly $40,000. A few weeks ago, pretty much the same piece of jewellery was just a fraction of that price. Between 2012 and 2014, the price of gold on the world market tumbled from about US$1,800 an ounce to below US$1,200 an ounce. This loss of more than 1/3 of the price for a commodity that in 2012 contributed more than 50 percent of export earnings with US$7,16.9 million inevitably had a major negative impact on export earnings and certainly would have resulted in the loss in foreign exchange reserves.
No country with such a significant share of gold in its exports would have been able to resist this drastic pull on its reserves. How then is this development the fault of Government or a sign of economic mismanagement?
Certainly, in my after-work lime, I would like to, and often do, blame the Government for everything. However, unless the AFC launches its campaign with free bottles of 5-year olds, they have got to do better than bogus arguments and the old staple of bitterness and malicious political statements. Perhaps my fellow free thinkers would have to wait just a bit longer for that new politics to emerge. For now, I expect Aaja and I would finally have something to agree on for the next elections.
J. W.