The PPP is not a party in favor of the poor
Kaieteur News – The best comment is that the ideological confusion that the PPP / C finds itself in is captured by the comment that today’s Budget is pro-poor and pro-entrepreneurial. In other words, he is pro-poor and in favor of business, a contradiction in ideological terms.
Ever since Bharrat Jagdeo became President, the country has taken an ideological turn. The PPP / C still pretends to be a working-class party, but the bourgeoisie knows that Jagdeo and his acolytes have their biggest champion.
The PPP / C is trying to do enough to keep track of the poor. They give school grants of G $ 10,000 and uniform allowances of G $ 4,000 but as it is not means tested, it means that the rich and poor parents benefit. And the poor get upset about this.
The PPP / C also shares a $ 25,000 COVID-19 cash grant to each household. It could easily have been $ 200,000 per home, had they negotiated with Exxon over Payara. But they sold the country briefly when they issued the production sharing license. And yet, the people will get upset about that $ 25,000 COVID-19 grant, because under the previous government, they got nothing and for a poor person $ 25,000 looks like God’s send-off.
The main beneficiaries of the PPP / C public sector investment program are the contractors. These contractors are given excessive projects and make a fortune, while many do sub-standard work. Each Budget, however, brings new schools to build, new roads to install and bridges to build. Each new Budget makes provision for government to spend huge sums on running and equipping government officials and the benefiting business class.
The sugar industry is reopening and will become a cash cow for contractors. The decision to reopen the sugar estates was not a working-class decision; it was a political census. Jagdeo and his cohorts figured he needed some extra votes to win the elections and the only way to get those votes was from the sugar belt and by promising to reopen the closed estates.
The decision to give bonuses after Christmas to public servants was because the PPP / C was hearing rumors in its constituencies in the sugar belt. The sugar corporation does not make money and could not afford a production bonus to sugar workers. But it would have been politically suicidal to offer a bonus to the sugar workers and not public servants who had not enjoyed an end-of-the-year rise as was the tradition started by Jagdeo.
Today’s Budget is going to see more government spending. But the majority of that spending will not go to the poor. Most are going to run the bureaucracy and support the business class, especially the construction sector.
The APNU + AFC had increased taxes and license fees. The PPP / C promised to reverse these. He didn’t turn all of this down because he acted like a ‘sweet guy’ – he provides enough to create a caring government atmosphere. He introduced some taxes back last year and will roll back others this year. This will also create excitement.
The PPP / C leaders have an ego problem. They do not accept that any measure they are implementing should be overturned or challenged and so what they are doing is retrofitting what previously existed.
The so-called pro-poor measures never reflected the working-class orientation of the PPP / C. It was part of the strategy of throwing away a few sweeteners of the people to distract from the real beneficiaries of the fiscal largesse of the PPP / C – the business class.
This is the business class that will benefit most from the tax breaks and tax concessions. This is the bourgeoisie class, which benefits from not paying taxes on dividends – how many people own shares. This is the contracting class that will benefit most from this year’s round of public sector investment program.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)