An appeal to President Ramotar and Ministers Singh and Manickchand

Sep 18, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In my long career as a newspaper columnist, I have tried to show and prove how unnecessarily backward and primitive Guyana is. I use the word “unnecessary” because in many instances the areas of backwardness can disappear with just the wave of a pen. I will return to that topic but first, let me point readers to my Friday, August 16, 2013 column.
It was captioned, “I appeal to all Guyanese – please stop this cruelty.” The article was about the incomprehensible cruelty that lies in the law against the use of marijuana. I did the column days after I read that the US Attorney-General had ordered an immediate change to the procedures governing mandatory jail sentences for very small drug offences.
I argued that there is a part of Guyana’s anti-narcotics law that defies modern practices in today’s world. Under the law, a prison sentence can be assigned to an accused found with a smoking utensil, not the drug itself, but the mere smoking utensil.
In that very article, I went around the world and showed the many countries that have decriminalized possession of tiny amounts of marijuana. But here in Guyana, you can be jailed for the possession of a smoking instrument.
Two weeks ago, a magistrate jailed a person for such possession.
Let’s return to the ease with which this country can dissolve some of its horrible backwardness. We inherited a harmless stipulation from colonial society over a hundred years ago that we still enforce and that affects adversely thousands of poor people.
Long ago, your social security benefit document could only be signed by a Commissioner of Oaths, medical doctor, police officer or secretary to a trade union.
I discovered that I wasn’t getting my NIS retirement benefits because a clerk had rejected the signature on my form. He is a lecturer at UG with a doctorate. The NIS apologized and agreed that the range of people who can sign such a document needs to be broadened considerably.
It is the same with the UG pension. All that needs to be done is for the NIS and UG to send around a memorandum to its staff informing them that businessmen, lawyers, professionals and other such categories are now permitted to sign. If this old practice by UG, NIS and other institutions is not changed, then a majority of the famous names in law, business etc., and rich people in Guyana, cannot sign these types of forms.
I now come to a heartbreaking situation in which I would appeal to President Ramotar, Minister of Finance Ashni Singh, and Education Minister Priya Manickchand.
A few UG students told me that they will have to leave UG in the middle of their studies because their guarantors have reached the age of 55. The Ministry of Finance stipulates that a guarantor must not be over fifty years of age.
This is simply too incredible to believe. In Forbes Magazine’s list of 100 of the world’s richest persons, almost ninety-five percent of them are over the age of 55. What does age have to do with it? The guarantor must be able to cover the debt in the event that the person does not repay.
A bank is concerned with the financial status of the guarantor, not his/her age. Most of Guyana’s wealthiest citizens are over 55. In the case of one student, his uncle was his guarantor and turned 55 before the new academic year at UG began. It means that the Ministry will not process his loan. I really felt heartbroken when I heard this story.
Of course this has nothing to do with UG. This is strictly a situation controlled by the Ministry of Finance.
Under the Ministry’s guideline then, President Ramotar will not be able to guarantee a UG student. Surely, this is an unacceptable situation that calls for governmental intervention. How can the Government remain unmoved by the plight of these students? Someone from the Ministry can interview them and ascertain if the over-55 guarantor has collateral to back up his/her guarantee. If this can be verified then surely age becomes irrelevant.
One of the reasons I believe these primitive areas of life continue to thrive, is because human rights organizations and opposition parties are so burdened with more pressing and vital issues that they cannot muster the time and energy to confront all the cruel things that the poor and powerless suffer in this country.
Once again, I call upon the President and the Finance and Education Ministers not to let these poor students fall by the wayside. Please help them!

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