Dear Editor,
The January 1 Stabroek News, in its article titled “President announces launch of development decade”, referred to caretaker President David Granger New Year’s address. From the article, we learnt that the President and his Administration which have lost the legitimacy to govern, envisage that Guyana, by 2030, will become a “modern state”.
According to the President, an Administration led by him will, alas, deliver the now-worn out ‘Good Life’. That Administration, he said, would be “…eradicating extreme poverty…” a goal, we believe, that is shared by all Guyanese. Mr Granger went on to say that “the ultimate measure of the good life is happy communities, happy households and happy people”. The President is known for his lofty ambitions. However, translating that talk to reality is where the Granger Administration has faltered and utterly failed time and again.
The President and his Administration, who will seek re-election in a few weeks’ time, will seek to convince voters that given another chance, they will deliver not only the ‘Good Life’ but a ‘modern state’ and that they will end poverty in Guyana. But can we really and sincerely believe what Mr Granger and posse are saying and will repeat, we are sure, several times during the elections campaign.
Mr Granger says he will eradicate poverty. But let’s consider what he has done to the sugar industry. In less than five years, he has put 7000 Guyanese out of work and tens of thousands of his fellow countrymen, women and children closer to or beyond the poverty line. But to rub salt in that deep wound, Mr Granger has turned his back on these people who are probably in the most miserable time of their lives. Not once has he found the time to even interact with this group of now hard-pressed Guyanese.
Even his own colleague, Minister Jaipaul Sharma, on a post on his Facebook page disclosed that during the Christmas Season, with the assistance of several companies and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation, he provided hampers to communities of the shuttered Wales Estate. Minister Sharma wrote “the aim was at bringing joy to children and their parents especially during the festive season. This was not a political exercise but one of caring for our less fortunate in society and to build hope and relationships by fostering social cohesion amongst villagers and their children”.
In an article published by online news outfit INews on December 25, 2019, titled “Christmas in the sugar belt”, the Guyanese public learnt that in the communities surrounding Rose Hall Estate “there have been drastic changes in several villages in East Canje… the impact the closure has had and is continuing to have on the lives of those who live in the sugar belt is most evident”.
According to that article “the environment here is dead” as “…there is literally nothing to do”. One woman told the news agency that “we don’t have Christmas here in Canje”, she went on to say “I used to work at the estate and my husband and both of us get sent home. He left and he gone in the bush and since February…he hasn’t returned”.
At Wales, the INews disclosed “children are not looking forward to the holidays because of the fact that there may not be a present for them”. These are hardly “happy communities, happy households and happy people” which Mr Granger promises to deliver. In fact, the INews correctly pointed out that Christmas there, which was “once an elaborate celebration is now another regular day where the worry is finding the next meal and keeping your job”.
While that disheartening situation was unfolding, Mr Granger told the Guyanese nation in his Christmas 2019 message that “Christmas is a time to strengthen the bonds of fraternity, friendship and family-hood. It is a time for family reunions and for spreading cheer by exchanging gifts, visiting friends, attending church, sending greeting cards, singing carols and sharing dinners within the home and community”. We agree with the President but, again, reality is very much divorced from his fiction.
So, while Mr Granger will come again with fancy talk, big promises and grandiose plans, the reality is that his time in office has exacerbated than alleviated hardship in the country. His very decisions have pushed more into poverty and misery. His policies have burdened the Guyanese people with a growing cost-of-living while he and team live the Good Life.
Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU
