[INGEZONDEN] – At the start of the solar panel project in the village of Boquete, the Vice President of Suriname made a number of ridiculous and stupid statements. He complains about the non-implementation of already approved projects. He accuses the Surinamese government of deliberately delaying solar panel projects and other local projects. He also suspected that it was a strategy of the government (read Santokhi government) to give ABOP a bad name, so that it would lose its seats.

I find these kinds of remarks most reprehensible in connection with a government in which Brunswick himself is Vice-President. It is clear that the Vice President wants to blame President Santokhi and the Minister of Finance. He plays politics with his silly remarks and thinks he will win votes. But in reality he basically gives himself a certificate of unfitness. If you don’t understand things or don’t want to continue working for the government, you should leave and give others the chance to do better.

In my opinion, Vice President Ronnie Brunswick does not really know how the government works or does not want to take responsibility for the policy pursued. If the government does not have enough money, how should it release the money? Where does the government get the money from? Should President Santokhi take care of that, or should the entire government do it?

As Chairman of the Cabinet, you would expect the Vice President to be aware of the precarious financial situation in the country. Does he not remember the financial chaos that the current government has controlled? Did he quickly forget that we have a huge debt of nearly $4 billion that needs to be paid?

The Santokhi/Brunswijk government’s recovery plan indicated a clear path for economic recovery. The plan must then be fully implemented. This means that you can not only do things that cost you money, but also things that generate income. Only with more income can the country pay more expenditures.

What we see is that ABOP and the vice president want to spend a lot of money, but they don’t cooperate to generate income. This undermines the policy itself, which is responsible for continuing to rise in inflation and for the exchange rate to begin to rise. President Santokhi wants to implement the social program and ensure a reasonable standard of living, but without sufficient income he will not succeed.

More income must come from the following four sources, among others, to make the economy sound: the gold sector, the timber sector, the increase in land rent and the possibility of land conversion. Many billions can and should come from these sectors, while it may also mean that wage earners will remain immune from tax increases.

Not receiving billions in revenue, the government faced big problems. The IMF also sees the possibility of generating sufficient income, but this appears to have been postponed. The reader must ask himself who stopped these things? Who has big interests in the gold sector and stops the increases? Who has interests in the timber sector and stops the hikes? Who will stop the increase in land rent and transfer? Under which ministries are these things located? If you are not blind, you will see that the Vice President and his party are responsible for this themselves.

So the government is losing many billions in revenue because it was deliberately withheld. The vice president isn’t talking about it. On the contrary, he makes ridiculous and irresponsible statements about his government. Not only does the vice president give himself a certificate of incompetence, but it turns out that he is the cause of the lack of resources himself.

He and ABOP themselves hinder development, especially at home, because it does not provide state income, with which to advance the projects of his supporters. He does not understand how the government works, but he wants to be president himself in 2025. This will not end well for the people.

Idris Nepal