Government has divided Guyana into two nations

May 03, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

It is time for the public to know that the government has reverted to its pre-2015 style of governance of being arrogant, corrupt, partisan, spiteful, big-headed, egotistical and above all vindictive.
Under this government, the interest of the poor is being ignored while those of the rich and powerful are given full consideration. Many believed that the government is at the root of the fracture of Guyana into “two nations,” one for the rich and the other for the poor. The image of Guyana becoming ‘two nations’ is frightening, because it is an oil-producing country with untold future wealth.
However, it is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua. With only 780,000 and with colossal agriculture, minerals, timber and fishing, Guyana’s should have been the wealthiest country in the Caribbean. But it is not, because of our corrupt political leaders.
The two nations have become non-intersecting worlds of rich and poor with very little or no sympathy, thoughts, or feelings for the poor from the government. In fact, the government has and continued to portray the poor as uneducated inhabitants from a different planet. Today, Guyana is fractured into two entities, politically, between the PPP with overwhelming Indo-Guyanese support and the PNC with massive Afro-Guyanese patronage and economically, between the rich and the poor. And while the people no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning, yet there has been no attempt at reconciliation by the governments to heal the wounds and unite the people. By now, Guyanese ought to know that the development of the country and the survival of the government depend on a baseline of fairness, equality, non-partisan politics, and the even sharing of the resources. But in Guyana with “two nations” no one, not even the rich and powerful can live a happy, peaceful, and productive life if the poor is not recognised and given their fair share in society.
The country is facing a crisis that could destroy it and retard its development and paraphrasing a passage from the New Testament: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” The division of the country can be blamed on the government given the fact that the “One Guyana Initiative” as enunciated by the President is a sham. No one, not even the powers that be believe in that garbage. It is a propaganda stunt to deceive the masses. Since taking office 18 months ago, the PPP has openly and deliberately excluded and ostracized a large segment of the population. It has fired more than 1000 public servants whom it deemed are supporters of APNU.
To the extent that the government has the power to award huge contracts to friends and relatives has led to the enrichment of one ethnic group and not the other. As a case in point, a close friend of the Vice President has been awarded a government contract to import 85 percent of drugs into the country. And the government has barred BK International and several other contractors from bidding for government contracts because of their alleged support for APNU. It is important to mention that BK International is without a doubt the largest contracting company in Guyana and perhaps in the Caribbean so for the government to bar BK from bidding for contracts while it favours Chinese contractors could result in losses of jobs for Guyanese, because most Chinese contractors only hire Chinese nationals from China. Against this backdrop, it will be difficult for the government to build support for any significant development of the country. Many agree that the government is deeply flawed and unrepresentative of local content as it continues to promote the interests of foreign companies over those of locals. Not surprisingly, the government has not changed from its pre-2015 arrogance and vindictive behaviour. Its action will melt the country away and swallow everyone.
Respectfully,
Jeffery Downer

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