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President Irfaan Ali, last Friday, launched the 1000 Men One Guyana Initiative. According to Ali the “‘Men on Mission’ (MOM) initiative is a movement aimed at impressing upon men the importance of responsibility, being role models and demonstrating a collective will to shoulder a progressive system to support Guyana’s developing society.”
But Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs Roysdale Forde, SC, said MOM is the child of the ill-thought out and proven, failed ‘one Guyana’ -a shout that is empty, fake, devoid of inclusivity, identifiable and measurable objectives.”
For instance, he said, there has been no increase in salaries so that men can take care of their families. “Increased salaries would permit them to save, provide for their children.” When men find it difficult to do these it diminishes their manhood and contributes to social ills like excessive drinking, being away from home, and conflicts within the home occasioned by stress, the inability to fulfill family responsibilities, and feelings of hopelessness, he argued.
Forde, who also has parliamentary responsibility for labour, said the President must show the nation his plan for the creation of jobs rather than being content to outsource Guyana’s development to foreigners. Where are the jobs, he asked?
“The MOM initiative is long on talk and short on substance” said the shadow minister. “It is a public relations device to conceal the failure of the government to address the social and economic inequalities in the country.”
Going further, the parliamentarian said the rampant and out of control Police Force that wantonly kills, maims and arrests men, particularly African Guyanese men across the country, particularly those men who they do not deem as supporters, exposes the bad policies of the Ali regime. “Is this the MOM or mum the president is talking about?”
Forde said the Government must explain their failure to develop policies and programmes that would empower men, to ensure all have a fair distribution of the oil resources across the country. Initiatives to deprive men not only of their self-worth but opportunities to take care of themselves and families are not sound policies, he proclaimed.
Unmistakably, MOM sounds more like a slogan, copied from somewhere, without any thought given to what it should entail and devoid of any serious thinking and research to guide policies that would lead to meaningful empowerment, declared the shadow minister.
“Whilst the Government persists with its flounce about men on mission, the same Government obliterated the mission of men who were benefitting from the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly -Guyana (IDPADA-G) which were being expended to improve the lives of men.” The government withdrew the subvention from September without providing an explanation.
Turning attention to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) Forde said the refusal of the administration to invest resources in NIS and the absence of the creation of a social safety net serve as further indications of the harebrained MOM initiative. “They haven’t given any thought to this important aspect of social development and the ordinary people.” In the 2020 fiscal year, NIS had a GY$1.7 billion deficit.
The shadow minister emphatically stated persons need look no further than around them to know the president has failed the country, has failed men, because his policies do not address the core issues affecting men and families.
