Partisan politics and slave wages are the underlying causes of poverty in Guyana

Dec 22, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Below the surface of Guyana’s artificial political peace there exists an antagonistic ethnic monster waiting its moment of opportunity to explode.
The PPP cabal’s pretense that Guyana is a politically stable and economically prosperous state, however, conceals powerful internal racial contradictions in the society.
Many critical tensions prowl through the body politic threatening to throw the society into turmoil. Perhaps, the most salient of these tensions derives from the PPP regime’s partisan politics, and they range from cronyism, nepotism, jobs for only relatives and friends of the party leaders, slave wages paid to civil/public servants, meagre pensions for senior citizens and the marginalization of a certain ethnic group.
After 22 years in power, the PPP should have known that the challenge of change, simply put, is to restore trust and confidence in the people.
Trust and confidence are conditions that assume a common and equal stake among the people, and the joint promotion of Guyana as a country that supports and takes care of all the people, including the poor and the downtrodden.
The PPP cabal needs to carefully reflect on what the primary problems are, what the secondary ones are, and what methods they intend to use to assess and address them in the interests of all and not a selected few who are their friends and relatives. But so far, they have failed in this endeavor thus plunging Guyana into one chaos after another.
Conventional appraisal must be employed to maintain political economic and social stability in the country. We believe that ethnic allegiances, which are a sociological fact with potential political impacts in a multi-ethnic society, may lead to ethnic fragmentation. It should be understood that multi-ethnicity is not a curse but a blessing on all possibility for serious social, economic and political progress in Guyana.
For the past 22 years the PPP regime has not invested in the living arrangements of all the people, only a selected few with party affiliation for their primary allegiance. If the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal does not take steps to end social, economic and ethnic segmentation; it will become a permanent condition that portends dire consequences that could result in toppling the minority regime. In other words, a revolution similar to the Spring Arab Revolutions could occur sooner rather than later.
The PPP leaders’ inability to break away from ethnic loyalties suggests that they are not interested in breaking this bond and construct a new, more inclusive ethnic social society.
In fact, what the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal has done is to set false limits on the human spirit in Guyana by promoting a snapshot of society as an absolutely eternal truth.
These uninspiring and deceitful PPP leaders should know that without ethnic solidarity there is no social, economic and political progress or peace.
Moreover, there is an increasingly large number of young people who believe that their ethnic moorings should not be taken for granted by the PPP regime or determine which party is elected to office because they are prepared to vote on issues and for change and not ethnicity.
Burdened as they may be with their internal conflicts and vindictiveness against those who criticize the cabal, it is becoming increasingly clear that the PPP regime has abandoned its moral obligation to ensure that the widening economic problems and challenges facing the poor and the working class do not get worst.
Lack of jobs continues to devastate the poor, especially the youths in Guyana, and slave-like wages paid to civil/public servants have led to widespread poverty, thus forcing some to steal or take bribe; others to commit crimes, sell drugs or indulge in prostitution and other illegalities in order to put food on the table.
There is no denying that Guyana is a failed state and was ranked by Transparency International as the second poorest and corrupt country in the Caribbean after Haiti. A reality the PPP regime continues to deny simply because they know it is the truth but is in denial.
Of more immediate relevance, however, the ruling PPP cabal has not done anything of substance to help the poor or has engaged in any practical initiatives that will reduce the poverty gap between the haves and the haves-not.
The 2014 budget is a classic example of how the PPP continues to treat seniors by offering them a mere $625.00 increase per month in their pensions.
The plight of the poor and the working class is not on their radar; only the fortunes of their relatives and friends are. It is for these reasons we believe that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal is bad for Guyana.
The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal has the moral obligation to help the thousands of poor Guyanese, especially the elderly and the single mothers and children in Plastic City who continue to suffer the daily hardships handed to them by the uncaring PPP minority regime.
Today, the poverty gap between the rich and the poor in Guyana is 125 to 1 and this should have gained the attention of the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime to initiate changes and to uncover solutions to help the poor and the working class.
There is no evidence that the President or any member of his cabinet has made any sincere effort to reduce unemployment or help the 60 percent of the population at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.
These problems are directly linked to negligence, arrogance and blatant disregard of the poor by the ruling PPP oligarchy who for the past twelve years has implemented policies to enrich themselves, relatives and friends at the expense of the poor.
They have given the country’s airwaves and prime real estate land and resources to their friends and relatives.
Simply put, partisan politics, lack of jobs and slave wages are the underlying causes of poverty in Guyana.
Sadly, as if too overwhelmed by recurring internal party conflicts between the Jagdeoites and the old guard at Freedom House, corruption and crime, the President has been mysteriously missing in action when it comes to tackling these problems or helping the poor as well as the victims of crimes and floods.
 Asquith Rose and Harish Singh

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