Guyanese are crying out for a voice and a sense of fair play

Jun 04, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Many Guyanese celebrated Tunisia’s democratic revolution, which has set off a flow of events elsewhere in the Arab world.
Young people overthrew ruling oligarchies with the hope and dream of creating stable and functional democracies. Are the youths of Guyana going to rise up in 2011, launching our democratic revolution by turning out in their number and voting against the dinosaurs of the past?
All the conditions are present in Guyana to demand a democratic revolution. For starters, it is not enough for the PPP/C Government to boast about reasonable economic growth.
Economic growth for whom, is the more pertinent question. Who are the ones that commandeer most of the Government procurement contracts in value for their business buddies and use their positions to offer jobs to their family by excluding real Guyanese talents?
Clearly the answer is the ruling PPP cabal. So who are the principle beneficiaries of this economic growth? Obviously, the PPP family!
What value is it that the ruling oligarchy secured good Article IV ratings, while at the same time being totally unconcerned that they are creating inadequate jobs for the masses?
Even increasing expenditure in crime fighting, health and education cannot suffice since most of these funds are leaked into private pockets connected with the ruling cabal to the disadvantage of the people.
All over the world, countries are focused on creating enough jobs for new entrants into their labour force, while here in Guyana; the government seems clueless on what really they ought to be doing with respect to job creation.
What the incompetents in charge do not realise is that high unemployment and pervasive corruption create a combustible combination that has not exploded into the street as yet because our people have the ability to migrate to every conceivable country possible thus taking the pressure out of the Guyana pressure cooker. But again the pertinent question is, for how long?
What matters to those who choose to stay or cannot leave is a sense of equity and fair play. Is there a sense of fair play and equity in Topoo in Albion or Bare Root in Haslington? All are suffering under the PPP, regardless of their ethnicity and this has to stop, now.
If, when jobs are scarce, and those with political connections get them, and if when wealth is limited, government officials accumulate masses of money, and when business people are being slaughtered by a phantom force while the friends and family of the ruling elite are preserved; should there not be a justifiable outrage at such inequities – and at the perpetrators of these “crimes”.
Who fails to create the jobs? Who fosters the corruption to the disadvantage of the working people? Who fails to serve and protect the business and working people of Guyana?
Who are the creators of this combustible environment in Guyana that facilitates unfortunate comments from the like of Tacuma Ogunseyee? The answer is clear – the PPP. This cabal is solely and singularly responsible for the ethnic security dilemma that Guyana faces.
Democracy with elections every 5 years is certainly not enough. True democracy is providing the people with an opportunity to increase their social responsibility and to proactively partake in the sharing of the nation’s economic pie. This is not happening in Guyana.
Most Guyanese today, who live in Guyana, are worst off than they were a decade ago, with almost all the gains from economic growth going to the small elite cabal devoted to the political rulers.
Corruption is now the norm rather than the exception in Jagdeo’s Guyana where a pharmaceutical company can have exclusive contracts to supply billion of dollars in contracts without even spending one minute of their time in an open and transparent tender process. The Treasury is now under even greater pressure in 2011 as a result of the appointment of Ramotar as a presidential Advisor. All the indicators in good governance exposes the centralize plan in the PPP to purchase the elections with state funds. How can this be fair play, how can this be a sense of equity in a nation that is so unequal and unfair?
In today’s’ Guyana, the people cry out for a voice and a sense of fair play as they struggle against the odds at trying to maintain that sense of cohesion with their neighbours. However, as a result of ill-conceived, ill considerate and callous actions by the Jagdeo regime, they continue to be overwhelmed by how the political connected can remain so uncommitted to transparency, ill tolerant to their developmental needs and hell bent at excluding large swats of the society from sharing the economic pie – both politically and economically.
What the people are seeing is that the PPP Government was captured by special interest groups and there is no commitment by them to a free and fair political campaign. What the people are seeing is that there is no commitment to transparent privatization auctions and competitive bidding for procurement which increases the scope for rent-seeking behaviour by business buddies of the rulers. Everybody connected with the rulers are looking for a payback from the state. Who pays the bill at the end of the day – the powerless taxpayers?
This is the battle that the Alliance for Change (AFC) is up against but we shall overcome. With the people’s help, the AFC will change the constitutions to make it more relevant to the political needs of the people; less power to the President, more power to the people. The AFC will embark on a development policy that will keenly focus on human development, not scoring a complimentary Article IV commentary for the sake of a score. We shall engage the IMF but on terms and conditions that places human development at the top of our agenda.
The AFC will guarantee certain rights, both the political (freedom of religion, speech and press) and the economic to meet the needs of the people. Our leadership is absolutely committed to implementing all elements of the UN’s universal declaration of human rights and this will not only be fully enshrined in our new constitution but will be fully enforced. Never again will we have the private parts of a 14-year-old child such as Twyon Thomas, being burnt without the state and its players being held fully accountable both financially, legally and morally for these dastardly acts of human rights violation.
In 1992, most Guyanese were motivated to support Dr. Jagan at the dawn of a new era. What an amazing start that was, people acted with purpose. Guyanese with talent and achievements rush home on a moments notice to put their shoulder to the wheel, volunteering from all over the globe to serve their country at that critical juncture. Only to see after 18 years all of this goodwill vaporized into thin air, seriously damaging that dream of a new system of governance called “lean and clean”. The dream is over and gone and it is now up to the AFC to reignite that flame and rebuild this dream since we are the only political force with the credibility and goodwill to wake-up the people to create a new developmental era for Guyana.
The AFC is willing, the AFC is ready, and the AFC has access to the Guyanese talent globally to take us on this journey. Our conversations with the people on a daily basis convinces us that in greater numbers, the people believes us and they are willing to make the right turn and make a difference in 2011 for their children’s future. It is time we all read the AFC action plan at www.voteafc.com and get on board to be the change that you want to see.
Sasenarine Singh

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