The nightmares no one talks or writes about

Apr 03, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – There is no reason why a country given Independence in 1966, continues with formal ways of doing things that are long gone, never to return. But more frustratingly, it is the lack of human consideration by organisations in Guyana that seek to speak on behalf of people but they do not.
No one knows how many organisations that purport to speak on behalf of the citizenry, this country has but there are plenty, really plenty and the citizens only know about them when it is convenient for them to be visible.
I will always remember in 2012, the government announced that it will give financial assistance to African-oriented groups to celebrate Emancipation Day. More than two dozen of these groups emerged. The first thing that crossed your mind was where they were all this time.
This country is a backward place that tears away at the soul of ordinary people. Here is evidence why ordinary people go through hell in this place. I was part of a television panel that included prominent engineer, Marcel Gaskin. I brought up the hassle people endure at GRA and other places for very, very simple things.
Mr. Gaskin said he was sympathetic but he never experienced those things because he doesn’t do those things for himself. The man was being honest but his little words tell a large story of what Guyana is. Many resourceful persons have office attendants that would do these chores. For example, a boss would not go to the police station for certificate of fitness. He sends the driver with the car. It is the driver who experiences the nightmare.
This column was motivated by a complaint I read in the newspapers by a well known attorney. Once more the pen and voice of national organisations are missing. He wrote that he doesn’t understand why when you are conducting business in the GRA, the relevant official would ask to see your TIN certificate (TINC) when the GRA has that very document in its data base? He observed that a judge made that identical inquiry in a court case.
He is absolutely right. If I go for compliance, there is no need to produce a TINC because with my ID, they can follow me through their data base. The NIS now has a policy where through Whatsapp you can submit your pension claim. The official speaks to you, sees you, then you produce your NIS card and ID. But you still have to fill in a life certificate form (LCF) which you must get from the NIS.
This defeats the purpose of making life easier for the pensioner. It is simple. And it goes like this. After the Whatsapp transaction, the official then enters the submission for that period into the data base. It cuts out the hassle of travelling to the NIS to get an LCF.
A driver’s licence should be renewed in five minutes. Your details are in the data base. On producing the old licence, the machine prints another with the change of expiration date. Why is a driver’s licence not as permanent as an ID card? Each morning I go on the seawall, I see the long and winding line at Eve Leary for police clearance. Embassies, employers, etc., require it. It is an important paper. Why should it involve a hassle to acquire it? Each morning I go on the seawall, I would see the nightmare outside the passport office.
Research done the past 40 years would reveal a commonsensical fact – no road accident or road fatality was caused by an old car that did not have certificate of fitness (CF). I am bold enough to emphasise it – no old car has caused a road fatality because of the vehicle being unfit to be on the road. Yet each year, thousands have to line up to get a CF.
After 55 years of Independence, only seven, I repeat seven categories of people can sign a UG pension form or an NIS form. We inherited that in early colonial days. We left colonialism 55 years ago. Commercial banks want to see proof of address on a bill only from GPL or GWI. In the digital age, those bills are outdated. You receive notice online to pay and you pay online.
All these nightmares that people go through are ubiquitous in Guyana 55 years after Independence. But here is the most tragic thing about this country. We have a plethora of organisations, associations, institutions, groups and entities that say they are concerned about wrong things that occur all the time in Guyana. But they never, I repeat never, address these nightmares.
“God is dead, Marx is dead
And I’m not feeling too well myself.”
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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