Dear Editor,

I refer to Mr. John Da Silva's letter (Guyana Chronicle 27-11-2001), which was a response to Mr. Vic Puran's letter [ please note: links provided by LOSP web site ] in Stabroek News (26.11.2001).

Mr Da Silva sought to include Mr Puran in a "corps of anti-Government leter writers as well as TV talk show hosts whose main role it seems is to distort events and developments, misinterpreting them ..."

Mr. Puran never said the blocking of JP Santos's doors by vendors that led to failure of the business was a statement made by the Govern-ment nor did he say that the PNC protest marches did not have a negative impact on the economy. Indeed Mr. Puran in his various letters to the press, advocates the position that both the PPP and the PNC are the causes of Guyana's problems.

Mr. Da Silva is engaging in the dishonest debating tactic of attributing arguments to an opponent, which are not the opponent's and then proceeding to answer his own inventions in an attempt to disparage his opponent.

I challenge Mr. Da Silva to state what are the factual inaccuracies in Mr. Puran's letter.

Mr. Da Silva complains that "The whole gist of Puran's letter is really to attack the PPP/Civic Govern-ment". Indeed, that was Mr. Puran's point and I do not see why he should apologise for putting blame where it belongs.

Mr. Da Silva seems to suggest that the causes of our economic woes are globalisation and liberalisation. Assuming this to be so, Mr. Da Silva ought to know that "globalisation and liberalisation" are to be likened to the concept of the 'given' in Mathematics and therefore government must have the vision, which Mr. Puran complains that the Government does not have, to work around the 'given' so that we can prosper notwithstanding globalisation and liberalisation. In other words globalisation is not the problem in itself, it becomes a problem when Governments have no strategy to deal with it or to benefit from it.

With regard to Mr. Puran deliberately overlooking the many new businesses, could Mr. Da Silva say where are these businesses? Mr. Da Silva ought to take the time to inform himself that registering a business name at the Deeds Registry does not mean that such names are actually conducting business.

Or is it that Mr. Da Silva is thinking of the proliferation of hair dressing salons and tyre shops and cook shops. Indeed there is a proliferation of "sweetie tray" businesses. I do not see any Omais and Baramas coming to Guyana under the PPP.

I look forward to the PPP spokesmen accepting Mr. Puran's challenge to a debate on the topic "Is the failure of businesses in Guyana due to mismanagement or due to a lack of vision and inability of the PPP Government to facilitate an environment conducive to growth". And let the debate not be in the newspaper, please.