Economist Frederic Emam Zade writes in his Saturday column
in the El Caribe newspaper that the government outsmarted the business community
with the signing of the IMF agreement. Emam Zade explains that the business
sector favored the signing of the IMF agreement so as to oblige the government
to control its spending. In a parody of what was going on behind scenes, Emam
Zade writes that the government ministers applied a jujitsu technique to the
business sector and instead of resisting the pressure to sign with the IMF, used
it against the sector in favor of the government. He explained that the
government knew it would be its own ministers that would be doing the
negotiating and could keep confidential what would be required of the business
and population in general. The parody also explained the government resorted to
the divide-and-conquer sector, promising some business segments benefits, and
saying that the IMF demanded a 14% increase in taxes, not 5%, so as to appear as
the saviors when only levying the 5% tax. Furthermore, the strategy would be to
spread the word that if the 5% on exports were not levied, then the power bill
would have to be increased, thus the business sector would be the bad guys.
The parody ends with the statement:
?I can imagine that now many of those who pressured us to negotiate with the IMF
are sorry. The businessmen wanted to discipline the government and now they have
been punished with more taxes and silenced. They wanted to put a straightjacket
on the government, and they ended up with their own belt tightened. And they
even helped us to get US$1.2 billion loan just right before the opening of the
electoral campaign!?