PPP men finding their conscience

Nov 01, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Things are bad on the financial front, just ask any struggling, working class, minimum wage Guyanese. For those Guyanese on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, managing to get by on a daily basis is the equivalent of hell on steroids. Things are now so tough that even a former PPP/C Minister could not restrain himself any longer, and was forced to speak his conscience, and to call matters as they are in Guyana.

This was what bubbled up recently from a stalwart PPP/C hand, as captured in a revealing caption: “‘Guyanese workers deserve better wages’…says feelings of hopelessness, poverty and desperation must be erased from the minds of citizens -Nanda Gopaul” -KN October 31). We extend a word of thanks to former Minister Gopaul for speaking to truth, for sharing what is the stark reality of Guyanese, be they of the worker ranks, or the nonworking. Dr. Gopaul was honest enough to share what he got straight from the horse’s mouth during a recent trade union address: “I have heard the phrase from workers that “we are a rich country with many poor people around.”

Indeed, this conveys accurately the reality of local workers, but it also echoes that of parents with children who don’t have enough, pensioners who scrape to manage, and the unemployed and disabled, and otherwise distressed, all struggling to make ends meet. It is the universal cry of Guyanese today in what is a fabulously rich oil producing nation with less than a million people. How can this be? Why is this so? Where are Leaders in the Government? What are they doing, planning to do, to give Guyanese who need any ease that they can get?

We must be frank in answering those questions that can’t be swept under the rug. Guyanese have a PPP/C Government that is as one with the rich private sector, which dreams up its own concessions to profit the super elite at the top. Guyanese live with a PPP/C Government that is about the smoke and mirrors of extremely costly infrastructural projects, which benefit the already mentioned loaded, and well taken care of, private sector, and permits possibly unbelievable political corruptions. Guyanese have learned from watching a PPP/C Government in action, of a ruling group that is about the plasters and poultices of presidential handouts that peel off all too quickly. The inevitable long-term human condition is the ‘hopelessness, poverty and desperation’ that take hold in the minds of suffering citizens.

It is heartening that Dr. Gopaul, as a Union Leader, can capture the feelings that now saturate the existence of Guyanese trapped in this ironic set of circumstances of a country of proven world class riches, but of all these hungry, hopeless citizens making up its population. Workers and families forced to do without basics form the masses of people, and in a society where the younger age group is such a significant portion of the national demographic, this does not bode well for the tranquility and stability of this society. In a troubled nation like Guyana, these are the very underpinnings, hopelessness, poverty, and desperation, that can contribute to tipping a restless, unhappy society past the breaking point.

The key word employed by Dr. Gopaul, as we see it, is the ‘desperation’ of citizens. It is a loaded word that has led to the unraveling of what holds societies together, as history has often shown. Or to put differently, when citizens are forced to the brink of desperation, because the environment is so grim and unappealing and unrewarding that there is nothing left to lose. When men and women of any country or community are driven to desperation, with destitution coming first, this means that they are past the point of reasoning, beyond listening, and they take matters into their own hands. Or they become readily available and willing pawns in the hands of schemers and plotters, usually with their own ambitious priorities. We hope that Leaders in the PPP/C Government would pause and listen. Guyanese need help. Guyanese see plentiful riches being shared. Guyanese workers and families know that they are being left out and left to their own devices. This is a recipe for disaster.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not this newspaper.)

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PPP men finding their conscience

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