Why Guyana has remained poor?

Apr 06, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I am calling on the general public to consider an appeal to make the death penalty mandatory for corruption, as many prominent figures in our ‘Blood Soaked’ history deserve worse. I humbly ask my fellow Guyanese at home and abroad, to also boycott the upcoming elections and to throw aside the ‘No Confidence Vote’ for the merry circus of hearsay that it is. After careful review, I am now convinced; the economic plight we now face is the sole responsibility of successive authoritarian regimes, which chose to protect party donors. Though radical, let me shed light into the darker side of our political elite who chose to ignore the masses and their plight, which in turn led to the economic demise and impoverishment, of one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America and the cruel extents to which they went to preserve power.
The working class family receives eight percent interest on their mortgage while the business elite receives one percent on business loans. Per every borrowed $1,000,000, the elite repays $77,000 in interest while the poor repays, a whopping $720,000 over a wearisome 15 years. An average house in Guyana costs $10,000,000. The poor must therefore repay $6,430,000 more in interest than the wealthy.
To my horror, if this family cannot repay, the bank kicks them out of their home. But these selected few stand unscathed because these administrations are printing money to clear their debts. This causes our hard-earned salaries to lose purchasing power, effectively throwing the financial burden onto the poor. Consequently, a plot of land within a housing scheme once cost $20,000; now it costs $500,000.
Foreign firms export cheaper goods to Guyana and people are more likely to buy from them. A fall in sales means losses – and the business elite do not accept losses. Administrations discourage the sales of rivals by imposing taxes on their products. Simply, the poor must pay the losses of the rich. Instead of underselling, the ruling class viciously raise competitor prices to maintain their foothold on power in Guyana while 35 percent of our population cannot even afford basic food stuff (Central Intelligence Agency 2018).
Our political elite have been granted sole control over almost all infrastructure and resources in our country and all Guyanese life is dependent on them. Our telecommunications, agriculture, mining and construction industries are now the personal property of a select few who think our country is a monopoly board. From Internet service providers being restricted from laying submarine cables to large mining blocks being farmed out to cronies. A lack of competition has made the ‘Business Cartel’ even more greedy. They seek to provide the poorest quality at the highest price, for their pockets know no bottom and their hearts have no soul.
The rich feed on our poverty. Regimes have overlooked and stagnated our economy while protecting their monopolistic friends. Poor economic growth has bled our public finances dry leading to meagre investments into the welfare of the weak and vulnerable. This has caused poor provision of health care and education by the state. Only the rich can afford private health care and an Ivy League education for their children.
In 1985, the US Department of Treasury and the International Monetary Fund issued economic advice to all third world countries, which we now know today as the Washington Consensus. Our leaders would have done well to have followed their counsel and I further advise that health care and education be privatized and made freely and universally accessible through public financing.
The economic order we now follow was pioneered by France and Japan. The World Bank concluded their success was solely due to market conformity, education and high saving rates. The ironic turn of events for Guyana was caused by the absolute incompetence of our leaders. They neglected market conformity when they wiped out the competition for their greedy friends. They brainwashed the people and robbed them of their life savings. Somehow, they perfectly did everything wrong.

Yours respectfully,
Keron Ali

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