EVERY day, the Guyanese people face a deluge of superfluous and indignant comments on the PPP/C Government and the Presidency.
And for some years now, it would appear as if there is some new opposition’s conspiracy to destroy the integrity of the ruling PPP/C. The Government and President are in a perpetual political struggle with elements who constantly abuse freedom of the press in their quest to incapacitate the government’s functioning.
I say this not to advocate any prohibition of criticisms against the ruling PPP//C and the Presidency, as this is an essential ingredient for a democracy; but to draw attention to these criticisms vis-à-vis the continuous abuse of press freedom to present aberrational attacks and deception.

QUOTE:The Government and President are in a perpetual political struggle with elements who constantly abuse freedom of the press in their quest to incapacitate the government’s functioning.

Clearly, after many years of dry holes, the new opposition’s force remains rhetorical, without any bite, or to put it another way, its failure ‘to draw even a little blood’.

It, therefore, is not surprising, that the new opposition would now revert to aberration, deception, and general abuses, as abuse of press freedom, to take its aggression up another notch, hopefully, to convert its unending failures into some kind of success; desperation is fast becoming its only trump card, as national elections are nigh.

QUOTE:The new opposition engages in excessive overgeneralizations, producing selective observations; the outcomes can only be biases, and not the truth.  These biases find their way through arguments in the press. And the conclusion seemingly is that arguments over some matters constitute truth.  This line of thinking bears too many fault lines, and is far from the truth.

As the new opposition’s adrenalin of desperation flows, we see more and more aberrant behaviors akin to cherry picking, where the new opposition picks on only those cases consistent with their own biases and deception, and thereby supporting their own pre-existing beliefs.

Just that you know that while cherry picking is inappropriate to draw general conclusions, we must not overlook those individual cases of torture, human rights abuses, corruption, etc., alleged or otherwise.

At any rate, Guyana is not faultless. Let us address the challenges on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, in whatever we do, let us not paint each challenge with a broad brush.

The new opposition engages in excessive overgeneralizations, producing selective observations; the outcomes can only be biases, and not the truth.

These biases find their way through arguments in the press. And the conclusion seemingly is that arguments over some matters constitute truth.  This line of thinking bears too many fault lines, and is far from the truth.

Nevertheless, in Nehru’s vernacular, we may find truth only in life itself, only through experience, and certainly not in arguments about matters.

Anyway, the perspective that exposition and bias are a surrogate for truth is what the press upholds each day in Guyana. And the perpetual endorsement of this perspective by the press really is an abuse of press freedom.

Nevertheless, what is the New Opposition’s justification for this unusually high flow of desperation? What have the PPP/C Government and the Presidency done to Guyana to warrant such unjustified criticisms and aberrant behaviors vis-à-vis the abuse of press freedom?

The answer requires an engagement with the past. Look, I do not want to return to the past for the sake of dwelling on the past, or to do any finger pointing. I want merely to engage the past, so that we never return to that past.
After an engagement with the past, I will peruse the 2009 accomplishments, and then look at the Bank of Guyana half-yearly report.

All of these I will do briefly in the interest of trying to establish the nature of  several ‘out of the box’ or aberrant criticisms against this government; the criticisms are not your average/mainstream-type of criticisms, as many have no evidentiary basis.

In 1992, the PPP/C Administration inherited a complex and problematic economic baseline, to which the predictable post-elections violence followed from 1992 through 2001.

The World Bank Report explained that Guyana experienced economic and social decline between 1966 and 1988, principally a result of misdirected government policies and an unwarranted state role. This Report pointed out that the “Economic performance worsened significantly during the 1980s.

Demand management policies were expansionary, the real exchange rate appreciated, the country lost competitiveness, the balance of payments came under pressure, and the government relied increasingly on price controls and quantitative restrictions on trade.

This further reduced overall economic activity while spawning a parallel market for foreign exchange that fed inflation.

The country’s infrastructure became dilapidated, real incomes dropped sharply, and the government became increasingly unable to provide basic social services”.

There is a lot more I could say about the abysmal state of affairs in 1992, but I will leave it here for now. But the ruling PPP/C had to pick up the pieces in 1992 and post-1992, especially when there was no financial viability until about year 2000.

Some economic successes for 2009 now follow. Sugar, rice, and Other Crops productions increased by 3.35%, 9.25%, and 5.8%, respectively.
Macroeconomic fundamentals were still in place – reduced inflation rate, reduced fiscal deficit, increased external reserves, and a stabilized exchange rate. Commercial banks increased their loan ceiling for housing from $2 million to $8 million. And gold declarations rose from 14.7% to 299,822 ounces.
The Bank of Guyana indicated that most of the sectors registered increased production in the  first quarter of 2010; and there was relative stability in the financial system, as the Licensed D
epository Financial Institutions (LDFIs) carrying satisfactory capitalization; the Capital Adequacy Ratio continues to rise beyond the standard of 8%; and private sector credit rose  by 2.3%.
For these reasons, the new opposition’s aberrational attacks on the ruling PPP/C through the abuse of press freedom are unwarranted.
The usual suspects would counter with the usual mundane detractions, that there is corruption, that there is an informal economy, that there is racial discrimination, etc., and the government takes a back seat on these matters.
These negatives have a life of their own. And these people should counter, but not vis-a-vis the abuse of press freedom.
Nonetheless, the new opposition’s continuous deceptions, racial incitement, and vulgarities vis-a-vis the abuse of press freedom target the incapacitation of the PPP/C Government’s functioning. And clearly, with this modus operandi, the new opposition engages in undemocratic behaviors.