Anna Correia
Everyone is good at something and the Coalition’s forte is the art of punishing the Guyanese people. Contractionary fiscal policies and austerity measures, unabashed corruption, ethnic and political discrimination, witch-hunting, disproportional tax increases, suppression of social welfare programmes and the accumulation of multi-billion dollar loans all form part of the arsenal unleashed on Guyanese by the Coalition. The result includes the contraction of the economy by half, a growing trade deficit, the crumbling of traditional income earning sectors, thousands of job losses, the loss of local and foreign investors, a foreign currency crisis, the decay of the manufacturing sector, the increase in crime, the depreciation of local currency and a growing societal malaise.
The people who feel it the most are those in the countryside, in the Hinterland, where life was already rudimentary for modest and low-income families, especially in Amerindian villages. Now, as economic stagnation stifles the country, the situation has worsened for Hinterland inhabitants who depend as much on financial influx from transactions with coast-landers, as on local village economy. And as if this wasn’t enough to burden us, the increase in bureaucracy has also added to our lot of daily frustration.
Amerindians, especially in the Rupununi, are fed-up of the absurd exigencies imposed by the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Ministry and other government agencies to handle basic administrative tasks. These include procedures for birth certificates, pensioners and other welfare entitlements. Even the authority Toshaos once held and which enabled them to uplift and deliver pension books to villagers, has been removed. The process now involves a government official travelling to Amerindian villages to deliver pension books. However, if pensioners are absent from the village centre to tend to other business such as farming (as is often the case), the pension books are returned to Georgetown. Pensioners would then have to travel to the city to uplift same, regardless of the exorbitant travel expenses incurred. In the past pensioners could also, for logistical and financial reasons, collect their entitlements every quarter, as compared to the monthly procedure now imposed by the Government.
Perhaps if this bureaucracy was justified by efficient and enhanced State services, the people would complain less. However, even well-established programmes, such as the School Uniform Programme, are dysfunctional. Reports have confirmed that there are shortages in the amount of textile delivered to Hinterland Schools and that often, stocks do not match the requisite colours for school uniforms.
And this bureaucracy adds to the weight of business slow-down in Amerindian villages and Lethem. Popular businesses known to supply Amerindian villages and even the neighbouring Marudi mining district, are now reluctant to conduct hire-purchase transactions. A known chicken feed supplier from Lethem has seen the demand coming from Amerindian villages slashed by half, subsequently decreasing the frequency of transporting supplies to neighbouring Amerindian villages (a service which is generally gratuitous and serves as transportation for complimentary goods). Even a Chinese businessman from Lethem has had to sell out his business and move.
But to top it all, the already depressing state of public health services in the Hinterland is about seen to take a turn for the worse, with the latest directives issued by the Finance Ministry’s “jordanomics”. Now, government contracted doctors are being stripped of their gratuity, vacation and duty-free benefits and have seen their “On-Call” allowances taxed by up to 40%. Doctors work long shifts and are under strain due to the shortage of drugs but also because hospitals suffer chronic understaffing and lack basic life-saving equipment, especially in Lethem. The salaries of doctors in Guyana are already lower than that of the regional average, including for specialists such as gynaecologists and surgeons. Subsequently, the risk of suffering a haemorrhaging of trained doctors to other countries is real.
As a result, there is much talk about leaving the country at the end of their contracts and some doctors have already began to migrate to neighbouring countries such as Jamaica and Canada, while others prefer to invest in private practices. Aspiring young people might be dissuaded from engaging in medical studies to later serve their country, the quality of health care will degrade and our dependence on foreign professionals will increase.
Amerindians, already confronted with financial hardships and the shortage of drugs and trained medical professionals in the Hinterland, will be the first to suffer the consequences of the Coalition’s inhumane policies.
