We are now divided by more than race, we are exploited by class distinctions

Jun 24, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to President Ali, the General Secretary to the PPP Party and his Advisors, the likes of Dr. Persaud and our friends, Gerry, Kit and Harry.

The state media continues its propaganda blitz and as recently as Wednesday in a stoutly worded Editorial in the State controlled publicly funded newspaper. It claimed that the PPP has fulfilled all of its 2020 manifesto promises including the thousands of new job opportunities. Further, they keep reminding us that the PNC led Coalition put thousands of workers in the Sugar Industry and Hinterland programmes on the breadline. The assumption is that all those persons have been retrained and are now gainfully employed.

In preparation for the real objective, not new to the PPP master plan is to prepare the groundwork to bring in migrant workers. We know from where and why.  It is a Master Plan. It is a sinister plan to change the demographics of our country.so that using an old, unhealthy, and destructive policy; it is to use the old imperial trick of divide and rule while elite dominates with billions in their pockets. Not new, but a tool to drive a wedge between good Guyanese. To divide particularly young people who wish to live together in love, peace and harmony. This strategy must be exposed and frustrated.  It is also an attempt to avoid the reality that the Government has failed to ease the burden on the backs of ordinary folks, from the Rupununi to the Coast.

For brevity, I ask the PPP hierarchy to explain why in this fantastic and fastest growing economy, the following facts exist:-

(1) The cost of living is rising and many ordinary workers cannot provide a balanced, nutritious daily meal for themselves and children (See letter from Lincoln Lewis of the TUC published recently).

How can a parent earning a government wage of GY$100,000 per month provide the basics for one, two or three children, food, clothing and shelter, while their friends now boast of spending GY$100,000 in an hour, gambling, frolicking and paying air fares to indulge in their depraved pernicious proclivities?

(2) Why is it that these large sums from our natural resources remain in the hands of friends who get all the contracts and earn, (did I say earn?), I mean obtain over 80+ percent of these sums announced for infrastructural works, bridges, buildings,  roads etc.

The analysis by Nigel Hughes in response to the acquisition of us being an apartheid state is instructive.

(3) In the recent report we boast about the great advances in the health centre. Massive sums were expended on drugs and medicine by the Government and some of questionable quality and efficacy. Many times, essential drugs are not available in the public system and have to be sourced from the private sector at great cost to citizens and yet other drugs, if we are to stay alive, must be obtained from external sources.

Editor, it would be interesting if you can obtain a response from the appropriate Ministers so that we can begin the journey to explore the truth of existing circumstances in Guyana and spare citizens this propaganda bombardment. There is little hope of any society being unified, being vital unless it is underpinned on the pillars of truth and the rectitude of its leaders.

Dear Editor, Dear President, the above sentence allows us to ask about the whereabouts of the erstwhile tenant of our Vice President, Mr. Sue; and has Sue been sued as was Pompously Publicly Proclaimed?

The irony of our situation as we observed during the just concluded Local Government Elections is that citizens, young and old are struck by this bogey-man of race. An analysis will show that what is emerging in Guyana is the existence of a class society where the ruling elite is superintending over the widening of the gap between the wealthy and the poor. The poor consist of the Amerindians, East Indians, and Africans. This generation must therefore move away from this destructive race-card and recognize that we are into a society divided by class. The poor and underprivileged must therefore combine their hearts and heads to put a break in this slide into the slippery chasms.

The descendants of our Amerindians, the descendants of enslaved Africans and the descendants of indentured Indians who toiled on our plantations must recognize that if we are to share equally and justly the abundance that is now available, we must call a spade a spade. It is the existence of a modern-day oligarchy whose attitude is similar to that of ‘Massa,’ whose craft was divide and rule.    Guyanese open your eyes and recognize that we must never again be the victims of a new Massa in disguise utilizing tricks of the trade, practised in Africa and Asia for many generations.

The challenge in Guyana today is that the operatives of the system care little as they build on the suspicions that existed shortly after Emancipation in 1838. This generation must forge a unity based on a thorough knowledge of our history, never ignoring the suffering humiliation of slavery, never ignoring the sacrifice and practice of deferred gratification by the immigrants who came from India, never ignoring the treatment meted out to our indigenous people, never ignoring how the Europeans used them as headhunters during slavery. Today, we must turn our several experiences into collective sacred doctrines, the basis for a giant step forward.

By the way Mr. President, many of us, ordinary folks, since you are also responsible for Finance, ask you to explain that in this situation where each oil block approved is bringing in to our coffers billions of US dollars regularly, why it is we are boasting of borrowing money to execute projects and at the same time, we are informed that the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) held in the United States is increasing regularly.

Explain this, so that ordinary folks can understand what is going on with this largesse, why not put in place the policy adumbrated by a Former President that Education including books and payment of all examination fees should be free from kindergarten to university. Mind you, if you put in place such a laudable programme, now that funds are available, you need not mention the name of the persons whose idea this was in the first place. The families who would benefit wouldn’t care two hoots about whose idea it was.

Remember beyond that we came in different ships and canoes, some thousands of years ago, others, many decades, but today with the Creator’s greatest kindness and mercies but with the machinations of evil forces, we find ourselves in one boat and must paddle in unison to the drum  beats of the sambula,  congo,  tassa, and the tanguu. If the President is serious and sincere, he must hold the hands of the peoples’ elected representatives, all of them and initiate this journey to glory.

Sincerely,

Hamilton Green

Elder

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• distinctions, Dr. Persaud, friends, Gerry, Kit and Harry

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