Overtly, Guyana currently has a new socio-political paradigm being promoted and seemingly aspired to by Government functionaries, with ‘social cohesion’ being one of the primary planks on which the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) campaigned pre-election in 2011 and 2015.
Subsequent to their attaining office, however, a new reality has been discerned, which is the discernment of a seemingly rampant vendetta against perceived People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) supporters, especially in the entrepreneurial– socio-economic sectors, tantamount to economic genocide.
Without considering – seemingly without caring, about the absolute devastation in the lives and actual descent into utter poverty of tens of thousands who are being, and will be affected by the downscaling and eventual closure of the sugar industry, the coalition Government, against all the pleadings and advice of experts in the field, that the socio-economic fallout will not only negatively impact the communities which were established around the sugar estates, but will also drastically affect the socio-economic dynamics of the entire country, they are relentlessly forging ahead with their dastardly plans, regardless.
The rice sector has been taking a battering, as has the entire agricultural sector, with no alleviation foreseen in the immediate or long-term future. Given the fact that under the PPP/C Administration, Guyana had achieved the MDG in food security, this is indeed an unfortunate situation, trending toward the empty market shelves of yesteryear.
Pre-2011 elections and subsequently in 2015, the coalition partners encouraged the electorate to “Vote for Righteousness”, promising accountability, transparency and a stamping-out of endemic (sic!) corruption in Government. Well, they achieved their objective, even if questionably so, and their record is there for the world to judge them – by their actions. Space does not permit the rehashing of the innumerable corrupt, even at times criminal actions that have been blatantly committed by officials of the current Government, but their two-year maladministration of the country has taken public accountability of the nation’s spending to a new low.
Their rhetoric of pre-election promises – parroting the PPP/C mantra “Sugar is too big to fail” and promising “00 a bag for paddy” were merely bait to catch the votes of the traditional PPP support bases, and they succeeded immeasurably.
The approximately 33 per cent decline in the timber industry is also playing havoc with the socio-economic survival of hinterland communities, so to even the most impartial eye Amerindians and Indians seem to be suffering under a multiplicity of discriminatory strategies and policies by the current regime.
The Red House imbroglio; the GECOM impasse; ‘bondgate’; sole-sourcing; contracts awarded to friends, financiers and relatives are merely the tip of the iceberg of what easily looks like blatant discrimination and corruption. The travails of the people are continuing and growing, with VAT on education and its ancillary prerequisites, the parking meter fiasco, et al, the lawlessness of this people-unfriendly Government seemingly has no limit and its taxation policies have absolutely no sanity.
From financial and economic experts to the ordinary man in the street, there have been numerous complaints that the Government is visionless and bankrupt of ideas for development.
David Granger, whether it is acceptable to some and unacceptable to others, is President of the Republic of Guyana, with responsibility and a mandate to deliver optimum service to all the people of this country, irrespective of whether they voted for him or not, so as to enhance their lives and secure their livelihoods, with equity and justice.
As President, he needs to address the concerns of the victims of the skewed and destructive policies of his government.
