HAVING listened to the press conference of the AFC over the weekend and now having a clearer idea what is in store for Guyana were they to realise victory at the upcoming elections, my first impression is indeed one of optimism for the future. Like thousands of Guyanese who would have been listening to the programme which featured its Presidential Candidate, Mr. Ramjattan as well as its financial expert one Mr. Sasenarine Singh, it does seem to me that for almost half a century we could have avoided this state of affairs we so desperately find ourselves in today, ever so gradually removing ourselves from the morass of poverty and underdevelopment and within a term of office of these new kids in town, make us the pride of the Caribbean and even the wider world at large.
To begin with, the AFC has promised not only to increase salaries of every living person in the employ of the state, including the members of the security forces,  by 20 per cent. And if that is not enough, to find the necessary funds to reduce the income tax rate to 25 per cent, Corporate tax rate to 25 per cent, increase the Income Tax threshold by $10,000 per month, reduce the VAT by 25 per cent (from 16 to 12 per  cent) among a host of promises,.
All of these mind-boggling new initiatives, that would obviously improve the standard of living of the poorer classes in society, do look extremely attractive to allow for more than 70 per cent of the population to directly benefit in a significant way and boasts of even stopping the brain drain. They are no doubt referring to those people who are currently experiencing high levels of unemployment, living below the poverty line and are struggling everyday to keep their heads above water.
The promises made by the AFC are premised on their government having to find more than 50 billion dollars annually to sustain just these electoral promises. As I continued to listen to the press conference it dawned on me more and more that what the AFC is promising is based on a lot of wild and reckless speculation.
In the first instance, the AFC claim that they are aware that over 20 billion dollars is being stashed away by the current government as what they refer to as slush funds that would be partially used in the first year to fund these initiatives. Then their financial gurus, as there were more than one at the press conference, argued that a significant amount of the money needed to sustain these new expenditures will come from local borrowing leading to an increase in the fiscal deficit. Furthermore, in order to sustain these ’50-billion dollar’ promises to the Guyanese people, a sufficient amount of new jobs will be created from a host of new and existing businesses that would all be lining up to pay over 50 billion dollars in taxes annually. One of the presenters  who paraded on the television even made  the promise to also reduce public spending by as much as 15 per cent as these monies he claims, are currently paid out to corrupt politicians by contractors to obtain contracts.
I am aware that all of the political parties have signed on to a code of conduct which stipulates that the electorate should not be bribed in anyway and subjected to deception to obtain their votes. I am appealing to the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally, to immediately appoint a committee of experts, so that the public can be forewarned about this lunacy of making campaign promises that are not only wildly speculative but downright misleading. The committee should be tasked with scrutinising the wild assertions made on such public media, that are masqueraded as facts and the general public cautioned about its misleading content. The real danger is that with the high level of illiterate people of this country who are very gullible, if only 20 per cent were to be persuaded to cast their votes for the AFC in expectation of receiving these benefits, then we can be expecting also of having lunatics running this country not before long.
It is my view that the signing of the code of conduct places a responsibility on the Guyana Elections Commission, just as much as it places a responsibility on the political parties not to mislead the Guyanese people. The ball is in your court Dr Surujbally to put a stop to this dumbfounded nonsense.