VAT AND CASINO GAMBLING CAUSE PUBLIC DISCORD AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GEORGETOWN 000059

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/16/2017
TAGS: EFIN KCOR SNAR PGOV GY
SUBJECT: VAT AND CASINO GAMBLING CAUSE PUBLIC DISCORD AND
POLITICAL DISSENT

REF: GEORGETOWN 27

Classified By: DCM Michael D. Thomas, Reason 1.4(D)


1. (SBU) Summary: The PPP/C government,s sloppy
implementation of VAT and heavy-handed efforts to legalize
casino gambling are giving rise to public discontent and
fueling internal dissent within the party. End Summary.


2. (U) The difficult introduction of VAT in Guyana was
reported reftel. Adding to its January woes, last week the
PPP/C government tabled in Parliament the Gambling Prevention
(Amendment) Bill, the effect of which would be to legalize
casino gambling. The pending gambling legislation has been a
matter of public debate--almost all negative--for several
months. The Government,s public and private reaction has
been that it will push the gambling bill through Parliament
regardless. (Note: The government,s public musings on
possible criteria for casino licenses suggest that only one
hotel would be eligible: "Buddy's Hotel" currently under
construction next to the new cricket stadium. The owner,
Omprakash &Buddy8 Shivraj, is a suspected money-launderer
and business partner of indicted narcotrafficker Roger Khan.
In late 2005 Shivraj was charged with two counts of fuel
smuggling. The irony of the apparent GoG intention to hand a
casino license to a businessman who has already been arrested
for financial crimes has not been lost on civil society.)


3. (SBU) At an early-January dinner party Opposition Leader
Robert Corbin told opposition politicians that the PNCR would
not agitate against the VAT because VAT implementation issues
would work themselves out. However, a week later on January
12 the PNCR issued a Public Statement saying that "It is time
to shut the country down for a day or two" as a protest of
the Government's "uncaring implementation" of the VAT and
introduction of a bill in Parliament that would legalize
casino gambling. The PNRR statement did not name a date for
the action. However, high and increasing levels of public
discontent over the VAT and widespread opposition to
legalized gambling that crosses religious
(Christian/Hindu/Muslim) and ethnic (Indo/Afro) line puts the
PNCR in the fairly unique position of having traction on
issues at the top of public consciousness.


4. (C) The gambling and VAT issues are also causing schisms
within the ruling party. PPP Executive Committee Member
Reepu Damon Persaud, who is also leader of the Guyana Hindu
Dharmic Sabha, joined leaders of the Christian and Muslim
communities in December in speaking out publicly against the
proposed gambling legalization. Earlier this week at a
Chinese Embassy function, PPP Executive Committee member
Komal Chand (General Secretary of Guyana,s largest union)
joined a conversation between DCM, the leader of the
Afro-Guyanese dominated and PNC-alligned Guyana Public
Service Union (GPSU),and the Indo-Guyanese Chairman of the
American Chamber of Commerce. The businessman was detailing
his trials and tribulations with the government and the VAT.
At one point, Chand said &That is the sort of thing we
agitated against for decades; I am not going to condone it
now.8


5. (C) In conversation about VAT and gambling at the same
party mentioned in para 3, Joey Jagan related that his
mother, PPP founder Janet Jagan, complains that President
Jagdeo no longer listens to her. Another source with good
access reports that the January 5 meeting of the PPP
Executive Committee was marked by great discord over
Jagdeo,s apparant anointment of Agriculture Minister Robert
Persaud as the presumed PPP candidate for president in the
next elections.


6. (C) Comment: After their slaughter in the August polls,
the PNCR has been searching for issues that can give it
traction. The PPP/C government,s sloppy implementation of
VAT and ham-fisted pushing of casino-gambling has handed the
PNCR two. The PNCR statement is more of a feeler than an
immediate call for action, but does show that the PNCR has
begun to explore taking a more active opposition role. The
questions now are how hard the GoG will push casino gambling
in the face of widespread public discontent, how effectively
the GoG can make up for its misleading VAT public relations
campaign, and whether the PNCR can formulate an alternative
plan of action for VAT that will resonate with the furious
Indo-Guyanese business community as well as the angry public.


7. (C) Comment continued: That Janet Jagan has lost her grip
on Jagdeo is not really news, nor is Joey Jagan,s propensity
to air family business in public. On the other hand, both
Persaud and Chand are decades-long members of the PPP
Executive Committee from the Cheddi Jagan wing of the party.
For them to speak out against party policy in such a manner

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is an almost unprecedented violation of party discipline.
For years the PPP was riven into two factions: the Cheddi
wing and the Janet wing. The complaints from both sides
suggest to us that lame-duck Jagdeo has solidified his
independence from the old guard.

Robinson