Govt. grinding Guyanese into the dust

Aug 22, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – We used to advise the aggressive traders and salespeople in Wall Street’s warzones that ‘since they believe in this instrument so much, they must put their money where their mouths are.’  What could be better proof of one’s commitment to a cause, belief in an undertaking, product?  This was exactly what Chartered Accountant and attorney-at-law, Mr. Chris Ram did in the instance of two denied and distraught NIS pensioners: he did not just put his own money into their hands as a substitute relief measure, he made it into a monthly obligation.  That is, until something gives, be it the government or the NIS. Time for another question: why is the Guyana Government always openly given to crushing Guyanese?  I speak not of dissenters or conscientious objectors.  Perhaps, the ubiquitous and industrious Attorney General, Mr. Mohabir, could ponder that question, allow it to sink into his conscience, if there is still one.

Mr. Zainul Haniff and Ms. Julia Clarke, two Guyanese older than I, should not have had to deal with the permanent national ordeal that is the NIS.  The NIS has squeezed the benefits once received by the chronically ill, diabetics (and others). The NIS has been creative and aggressive in trimming what is due to expectant Guyanese workers, who range from the disabled to the elderly to the genuinely eligible. Question number three: what is the NIS good for, if not only as a funding mechanism for the schemes of top political grafters and their sweetheart cronies with their sweetheart secret projects?  It is always a seemingly different set of Guyanese, an exclusive club, who has the freest access to most of the lucrative advantages of this country.  May I be allowed a fourth question: is this set of untouchables, near invisible, always suspiciously rich an inseparable part of President Ali’s masquerade called ‘One Guyana?’ Meaning, waan fuh wee, and waan fuh dem?

In the situation of Mr. Haniff, there is no call for any sweetheart arrangement, some special concession.  This worker qualifies for an NIS pension.  Should he support his claim with videos of turning up for duty day after day, collecting a paycheck, and with the evidence of NIS deductions imprinted?  He submitted the latter to the NIS, had those used as part of his advocacy by Attorney Ram, and on which basis the court issued its order.  Yet he is subjected to this travesty of justice, which is now a crying shame on a national scale.  Literally.  Why is the NIS in its administrative and bureaucratic wisdom denying and stonewalling this Guyanese?  In thinking of Mr. Haniff’s predicament, and the unassailable proof(s) he tendered, I wonder that if AG Nandlall had used those same unyielding standards as the NIS as part of his interpretations and conclusions, what would have been the fate of some of his senior party comrades.

Regarding Ms. Clarke, she is short by 11 contributions.  Short she is, admittedly; but by a mere 11 contributions and not 111.  After a lifetime of toil, and now at 73, she is subject to the inflexible and, in effect, what amounts to the punitive for her life calendar.  Hence, I agree with Mr. Ram that a sliding scale regime would be most helpful to Guyanese trapped, like Ms. Julia Clarke, in what is a lifetime sentence of no NIS pension. For fairness, people like me who didn’t put in any considerable length of work time here should be barred.  I like the minimum threshold of 500 contributions.  And if 10 years local work would risk hurting the NIS’s viability, then make it 600 contributions.  When a state agency is carved out with such rigid lines, an attorney general that is so adamant, and a government so doggedly (and doggish) against its own citizens, it doesn’t surprise that so many citizens are hurting so badly. Media coverage originating in Mr. Ram’s office captured the pain of Mr. Haniff and Ms. Clarke. The former depends on friends and family to manage his month, while the latter stares into the void of medical demands, with more looking likely. They are a sizable minority in this country. This is what ridicules President Ali (is nah like we ain do nuthin…) and VP Jagdeo (luk how much wee duh…).  I think that somebody did them something.  I am glad that Mr. Chris Ram did what he did for Mr. Haniff and Ms. Clarke.  It should help in some ways that mean something.

Now, if President Ali and former president Jagdeo could look at their own monthly $3M pay package and follow suit. Other former presidents have their own choice to make.  There would be no need for the NIS.  To push matters to their natural conclusion, there may be no further need for this tricky, dangerous, and devastating apparatus called a government in Guyana.  look at what it has done to Guyanese.  Look at what most of the members of this PPP Government have done for themselves, and by many loaded containers from the overflowing treasure house of national goodies.  Finally, Guyanese should look at themselves and where they have been forced into, then do the comparison.  It is time for my last question: of what good has been the government?  Time to dust myself off for I took an uncharacteristic slide on that one: of what good has been the government of Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo when Guyanese live in an economic graveyard long before breathing their last?

(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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• Attorney-at-Law, Chartered Accountant, Mr. Chris Ram, Wall Street’s, warzones

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