Dear Editor,
Please permit me a space in your letters columns to express my dissatisfaction with the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Government, more so one of its main partners, the AFC. One of the themes of the now Government during the campaign were “Jobs for young people and youth empowerment”, a promise that is yet to be realised and to date the Government has not come up with a comprehensive plan and strategy to create employment. We all know the equation, unemployment = crime. President Granger and his Cabinet need to come up with a comprehensive economic plan to work with Private Sector and foreign investors to get this economy going and create jobs for the Guyanese youths. Nine out of ten youths will tell you how frustrated they are and how financially challenging it has become under the Granger-led Administration, an administration that promised “The Good life For All”. We are yet to see qualified youths placed in key positions in the Ministries, Government agencies and on State boards. How will our young people get the relevant experience if they are denied these opportunities. Now back to my reason why I am dissatisfied with the AFC.
I recently made contact with a prominent member of the AFC, Aseef Balmacoon, just to see how he was doing only to learn that things weren’t so well with him. Aseef Balmacoon is a name and face that was featured in all the newspapers and election posters for the APNU/AFC in 2015. He is a youth activist and was a national candidate in 2011 and 2015. This is a young man who campaigned for the AFC and the Coalition, who spoke at several rallies and community meetings. He had the responsibility to oversee 161 ballot boxes and polling stations. To this day, Aseef Balmacoon is unemployed; his party the AFC nor the coalition Government hasn’t help him with a job, is this how we thank our young people who risked their lives to stand against the PPP and help to put the coalition in power? If the Government can treat one of its own in such a manner, I can only imagine how they will treat the rest of the Guyanese youth. I, therefore, call on President Granger and Raphael Trotman, the now leader of the AFC, to correct this injustice against Aseef Balmacoon.
Sincerely,
A Thomas
