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Can these MPs really represent the people?

Apr 15, 2012 Letters

 

 

Dear Editor,
I was visiting a very nice hotel and restaurant in Guyana when I witnessed on several occasions something strange happening. I saw numerous members of parliament (MP) come to eat at the hotel. The meal of the day was duck curry, dhal and rice.
Then it occurred to me that these MP could afford to eat delicacies like, duck, while the poor Guyanese can’t even afford to put meat on their plate. How can these MPs truly represent their constituents when the MPs are living the affluent life? Can the MPs relate to their constituencies who cannot afford to buy food for their children?  Can the MPs feel compassion for those poor constituencies they represent?
This incident reminds me of the days of slavery, when the slaveholder lived the affluent life, eating the finest food, while the slave struggled to get food to eat. Is there some form of slavery happening in Guyana today? What I saw sure looked similar to what I read about slavery in the past.
Today, the MPs are the slaveholders, while the poor and disadvantaged are the slaves. Just as the MPs are able to eat the duck paid for by the poor and disadvantaged taxes, the slaveholders were able to eat the finest food paid for by the free labor of the slave.
One day I decided to go down to see what happens during parliament. I was shocked with what I saw MP was doing. They were heckling each speaker regardless of party. They were cracking jokes about each presenter.
For example, when Moses Nagamootoo was presenting on the floor, one of the MP asked him loudly, “ Moses, do you want a half bottle of rum?”  I was disgusted with the MP’s behavior. They were acting like children. They were playing and joking while people in Guyana are suffering, struggling to get food, and women are being physically and emotionally abused everyday. While the MP are cracking jokes and having in parliament, there is nothing funny about women in Guyana being killed by their lovers.
There is nothing funny about women who can’t feed their children. There is nothing funny about the high unemployment rate in Guyana. There is nothing funny about the fact that MP can afford to eat duck while the poor and disadvantaged can’t afford to buy food.
While the MPs were heckling and cracking jokes, children were going to school without anything to eat. While the MPs were having a good time in the parliament at the expense of the poor taxpayer, the poor are suffering financially.
Anthony Pantlitz

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