FINANCE Minister Dr Ashni Singh has said, in not so many words, that old habits do indeed die hard where the main opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is concerned. 

“They may have called themselves PNC in the 1970s, and now call themselves APNU, but their resentment of, and hostility and destructive attitude towards, the private sector remain strong,” he said yesterday when asked to comment on the Opposition’s recent stance on a number of major private sector developments.
He justified his argument saying, “If we examine the facts, during the 1970s and most of the 1980s, the PNC destroyed and decimated Guyana’s private sector. They expropriated the private sector’s assets, intimidated and effectively banished the entrepreneurial class, and completely destroyed the environment for doing business.
“Their attitude today reveals that although they are attempting to hide behind the thin veil of a new name, their hostility towards the private sector is much the same; and they remain diametrically opposed to private sector-led development. This is perhaps unsurprising, considering that some of their main ideologues remain the same, in particular Greenidge as the economic czar that presided over the destruction of the Guyanese economy from 1983.”
Warming to the topic, Minister Singh said: “Examine their attitude today: Towards the Amaila Falls project, creating conditions that are hostile to a large international investor like the Blackstone Group topped off by Greenidge’s insulting comments to the domestic private sector that if they think Amaila is a good project they should finance it; towards the Marriott project, threatening potential investors that contracts will not be honoured; towards the Berbice Bridge, threatening to nationalise the company; in relation to the anti-money laundering legislation, dismissing the private sector’s concerns and fears and placing the entire economy in jeopardy by open foot-dragging on this legislation; all point to a deeply entrenched hostility by PNC/APNU towards the private sector and towards private sector led development.”
Noting that it is most unfortunate that in today’s modern world, a political party parading as an alternative Government can have such an unembarrassed intolerance of and hostility towards an important stakeholder like the private sector, he said in closing:
“Such an attitude simply has no place in the modern world. Our Government will not allow Guyana to slip back into the state of decay that Greenidge and his cohorts presided over. We remain resolutely committed to private sector led development in Guyana, and to meeting the needs and expectations of the citizens of our country who yearn for continued prosperity and sound stewardship of the economy.”