Dear Editor,

While I was surfing the online version of the Guyana newspapers, a couple of letters caught my attention. The first was one by D Deonarine captioned `Foreign companies conduct themselves according to the environment' (SN, 20.9.200l). This letter made some serious allegations about the accounting practices of several of the foreign companies operating in Guyana. Using the lax accounting environment to create huge inter-company debts, these foreign entities are causing an expatriation of capital rather than a net infusion of capital into Guyana. Contrary to our expectation, we are not reaping any benefits from these companies, but rather, we end up paying the debts of these companies. Can we have Mr Christopher Ram, who seems to be our top accounting expert, pronounce on the validity of this thesis?

Another letter by Mr Balram Chaitlall captioned, `History will vindicate President' [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] which appeared in the Guyana Chronicle on 21.9.200l also caught my attention. Mr Chaitlall claimed that when the history of Guyana is written "the name of Bharrat Jagdeo will be immortalized like the saints in heaven." The reason this struck me as strange was that while I was in Berbice during the last elections I had occasion to witness Mr Jagdeo holding up a photo of the much vilified Mr Ravi Dev sitting with Messrs Desmond Hoyte and Asgar Ali. Mr Jagdeo went on to explain triumphantly that this was the proof that Ravi was having talks with Mr Hoyte and was planning to `join the PNC.' I was surprised and disappointed for I had heard Mr Dev lambasting Mr Hoyte in the past, and thought that he should have made better use of his time. I later learned though that the picture was actually a newspaper clipping of a debate organized by GECOM which had invited all the presidential candidates, including President Jagdeo to the said debate. Mr Editor, I would assume that a prerequisite for being "immortalized like the saints in heaven" would be living a life devoid of such ethical lapses as this.

Mr Chaitlall also claimed that the ROAR party had promised to create jobs for Guyanese using information technology and had promised to take action to protect Indians. He asked, "Where are the jobs?" and "where is the defence [mechanisms for Indians]?" The point has to be made that when political parties push their plans, and try to sell their visions to the electorate, the expectation would be that these plans would only see the light of day if they actually get the opportunity to form the government. One cannot effectuate economic policies or fortify the defence mechanisms of a country if one is an unelected, isolated or powerless entity. To do so one would need powers embedded in the legal structures of the state.