THERE are Guyanese in and out of the country who are inflexibly opposed to the PPP for reasons of colour and class and other factors. Some of these people consider themselves achievers in life.
I can name two of them (males) who have chalked up substantial accomplishments and are known through the length and breadth of this country. They are intimately connected to the management at Stabroek News (SN).
Do these people read the editorials of SN and when they do how do they feel inside their minds? How do they feel when both of them are constant condemners of the PPP and its leadership of the government, and they see the appalling ignorance that saturates an untold number of editorials?
Can you deny the ignorance in these editorials and have the temerity to criticise the government for faulty reasoning? If the people who read these editorials see no ignorance in them then my point wins and wins by a long way – there is no connection between ignorance and lack of education.
A close associate of SN, Melinda Janki, as I wrote yesterday, wants Guyana to have educated people if it is going to have a future. What follows below is evidence of educated people writing unadulterated ignorance. Please do not accept my reasoning; read for yourself. Here is evidence of ignorance in human society. I will cite the editorials followed by my comments
Editorial, Saturday, January 13, 2024. “The oil money has obviously gone to their heads and convinced them that suddenly, they are geniuses. What they really are, is lucky because Exxon found oil.”
Comment: Is this ignorance, stupidity or asininity? How can anyone argue so idiotically? All governments are elected to use the country’s resources as part of their policies. There isn’t a government on Planet Earth that is run by a government that does not use the resources of the country to develop the nation.
I live in Guyana and I see no repertoire of policies that indicate to me that because of the policy-making success, the ministers consider themselves as geniuses. Why should any government consider itself lucky that it has an industry that is an export earner?
Editorial, Saturday, February 3, 2024: “Revenues from personal income taxes in 2023 make up less than eight per cent of this year’s budget. They (the government) do not need our money anymore so they don’t need to listen to us. It is this autonomy which is loosening the democratic pillars….”
Comment: I ask readers if in their adult life they have ever encountered more Herculean ignorance than this. Which human in which country the past 500 years did not want less taxation? There have been revolutions in European history because of excessive taxation. Is it not commonsense that the less taxes you pay, the more money the family has? Is it not commonsense that the less taxes you pay, your income naturally increases?
One of the highest forms of taxation in this country is on reconditioned vehicles. Here is a newspaper telling us that if the government scraps the tax of such cars, it makes the government more independent of the citizens and thus the citizenry has less control over the government.
But more importantly, it is the degenerate ugliness that posits a relation between democracy and taxes. The SN tells us that the less taxes you pay, the less democratic the government gets.
In fact, it is the other way around. The more taxes you pay, the deeper is your anger and it may vent itself on an assault on democracy? To think the person who wrote that editorial is still writing. Tell me in all honesty, which member of the Cabinet can utter more ignorance that what came out of that editorial listed above?
Editorial, Saturday, March 16, 2024: “Come elections in 2025, the ruling party will use our taxes to ensure it wins another five years majority rule.”
Comment: “Has there been more ignorance since self-government more than 75 years ago, coming out of a newspaper? In the same breath, the newspaper admits people are no longer paying taxes because the government does not want our taxes and only eight per cent of money from personal income taxes went into the 2024 budget. Yet, ironically, it is those reduced taxes the government will use to win in 2025.
Finally, did you notice something? I bet it slipped you. All three of the asinine editorials were written on Saturdays. Go to all the Saturday editorials and you will see the pattern is the same. I am convinced the Stabroek News has a Saturday editorial writer who is the most ignorant person in the world.
