Ghost writer, Elizabeth Daly - quoting ghost writer, Paul Taylor!

Tarron Khemraj continues to hurt himself
June 26, 2009 | By knews | Filed Under Letters

Dear Editor,
Tarron Khemraj in his letter in Kaieteur News on June 25, 2009, with the title, “Daly’s outpouring of the ‘fundamental principles of democracy’ is suspicious at best; and it attempts to propose working solutions. However, he once again rationalises all issues based on the implicit economic benchmarks of the developed world; grossly unfair since Guyana is still a developing country.
Mr. Khemraj must note that the Government of Guyana is not God and does not have all the solutions necessary for Guyana to be perfect, but at least they are still attempting to rectify the errors made by the past. So, degrading Guyana (my country) and referring to it as a Donkey-Cart Economy is unacceptable; Cheddi Jagan’s reference to a ‘donkey-cart’ economy carried different parameters. Guyana is a developing country making progress and requires the support of its people to continue progressing, and Khemraj’s mischievous and transparent political agenda is only hurting our young striving nation.
Khemraj rambles that political cooperation is necessary for production transformation, yet still he and his confederates deliberately try to create acrimony among our people, instead of promoting political cooperation. Khemraj certainly has been boxing the texts, however, it must be noted that the text alone will not do, as developing Guyana requires both street smart and book smart approaches. So Mr. Khemraj trying to fame your name is not the game that will improve Guyana; it requires a little bit of common sense, a lot less ignorance, and a lot less silly implicit benchmark comparisons with the West.
Since Mr. Khemraj seems to be a man who likes to box the books, I refer him to the National Development Strategy (NDS) of Guyana, which lists a whole host of development strategies for Guyana regarding Macro-economic Strategies and the Management of the Economy, The Environment, Information Technology, Energy, Agricultural Institutions, Agricultural Institutions, Education, Health, Housing, Poverty Eradication, The Private Sector, etc. Since, Mr. Khemraj is so predictable, he will obviously nitpick on each and every strategy, however, I want him to note that the road to development is not straight, and he is just one obstacle that Guyana will overcome to see its way.
I want the people of Guyana to note that these nitpickers will one day eventually fade away and so will their ignorance and hate which are puncturing the tires of our poor country; but luckily Guyana has a pump.
I quote from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Public Information Notice (PIN) No. 09/61, which states that “Despite external shocks and social pressures, macroeconomic stability was preserved in 2008. Growth decelerated to about 3 percent owing to a sharp shortfall in sugar production, but end-2008 inflation declined to 6.4 percent (6.8 percent target). The fiscal deficit widened to 7.9 percent of GDP (6 percent target) due to measures adopted in early 2008 to reduce the impact of high fuel prices, most of which have since been eliminated. So far, the financial system has been relatively unaffected by the global turmoil.” Also, the notice further states, “Significant progress has been made in the area of fiscal reforms and the VAT is now well established,” and the Executive Directors noted that, “by implementing prudent fiscal and monetary policies, the Guyanese authorities had maintained macroeconomic stability in 2008 despite external shocks and social pressures. Sustaining these policies will be critical to reduce vulnerabilities associated with commodity price volatility and possible spillovers from the global crisis. Directors commended the authorities’ commitment to further entrench macroeconomic stability, strengthen the financial system, and implement structural reforms.” If Mr. Khemraj truly likes debating, then I challenge him to challenge the IMF and World Bank (WB).
Also, Khemraj knocks the ‘Grow more Food Campaign’,” for his own selfish reasons. I refer him to a letter by Paul Taylor in SN on August 9, 2008 captioned, “The Ministry’s “Grow more Food Campaign,” is helping”; which states that “With the current ‘Grow More Food Campaign’, I have seen food prices reducing drastically in the various regions of Guyana. I travel a lot in the Caribbean and speak to friends and family in the North American countries and they are seriously complaining about the hike in food prices in these regions.
Through the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture, we don’t have to do any such complaining in Guyana.”
I also refer Mr. Khemraj to the Bureau of Statistics and Ministry to Finance to argue against the Per Capita Gross Nation Product (US$1214.3) for the year 2008. Do some research Mr. Khemraj; it might do you some good.
Khemraj should start interpreting all the books he has read and rationalise and analyse the information and apply it to reality.
Instead, he portrays himself as a mad man which will only do him more harm than good and will further hurt his academic credentials.
Elizabeth Daly