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Discrimination against Guyana’s youth
Dear Editor, 
When the campaign of APNU/AFC kicked off in 2015 to topple the then President Donald Ramotar, youth was such a major campaign focus.
So much too that their vote like a boss slogan that was promoted almost exclusively by youth, young people under the age of 30.
The campaign youth focus didn’t end there.
There were many other target policies include youth jobs, empowerment programmes and leadership roles that were promised.
Of course, a politicians’ promise is a fools’ gold, and that is exactly what we were fed. Not long after the elections were won, President David Granger gave an ‘interview’ with media participants that were handpicked by the government.
During the interview, one of the media operatives made mention of the campaign promise and banners that were still to be removed regarding job creation for youth. Mr. Grangers’ response then shocked the country. He told everyone that youths should sell plantain chips and cook-up rice. Can you believe this? I couldn’t at the time. Did Mr. Granger purposely try to insult the intelligence of the nation?
Mr. Editor, even the correct rhetoric seems to be a burden for the current administration as Mr. Granger explicitly told the media that there is no plan. Even by third-world standards, this is a silly statement.
The Cabinet, Parliament and other top positions are comprised mostly of persons just below or over the age of sixty. Some left Guyana decades ago and are now returning to ‘serve’ by monopolising top positions and crowding out youths in the country, even those who were supportive of the government.
If this wasn’t bad, the obsession with military personnel gives an outsider the opinion that Guyana has a military administration that recently overthrew a government and there is a need for the military to annex all top civilian posts.
Military men are now in control of the Cabinet, individual ministerial portfolios, GECOM (yup, it’s not a joke), the country’s most important medical facility (GPHC, not a joke either), and top diplomatic appointments, just to name a few.
If one was to subscribe to this logic, then the ideology would read like this or something similar; military men are special when aged beyond 60, and youths in Guyana with university education are worthless and need to be kept away at all cost.
The former is akin to fine wine and the latter a nineteen-century plague.
I did search profusely, and while I may be mistaken, I could not find anyone aged 35 or under, or even 40 or below that held (for the government) an MP seat, an REO, a Ministerial portfolio, a PS or any other significant position.
To quantify this, people under 35 in Guyana makeup around (it could be more since there is data time lagged) two-thirds of the electorate but hold close to or zero percent of the top positions.
There was even once a Ministry of Youth, which has since been relegated to department and is being controlled by a pensioner (how fitting!).
This is the sad state of youth involvement in the current government. For anyone who thinks this is an exaggeration, I implore you to fact check this for yourselves.
Attiya Baksh
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