Not a day goes by when I walk around this country and do not hear the cries of the ordinary man, woman and child how costly it is to live in oil rich Guyana. In the world’s fastest growing economy and richest per capita, there is the stark reminder from the World Bank that half the population live in poverty. For the remaining half, not considered among the poor, many supplement their lifestyle thanks to the benevolence of overseas loved ones.
Workers are deprived of a livable wage when the country can afford to pay. The same holds true for a decent pension and expanded social safety net for the elderly. Many of the young population who have not resigned themselves to settle for menial jobs or handouts are looking for the fastest route to migrate.
A country that can afford to pay its children’s university education, consistent with their constitutional right to free education, witnesses a rapacious and self-serving regime continuing to place the burden of fee-paying on the people. Everywhere you look around, rather than see faces of joy in this oil and gas producing economy, there are faces of distraught.
Why must we in this economy have young children begging or being forced to carry trays, selling knicks knacks to supplement the family’s income? Only a depraved government would not accept its failure to ensure equitable participation of the nation’s wealth for all its people. What is even more egregious is that all of those in office today came from poor and humble backgrounds yet they are devoid of conscience and empathy.
The $45, 000 cash grant being delivered to every school age child is a scam and opportunity to siphon off the nation’s money. $45,000 is infinitesimal in meeting the needs of any child throughout a school year, yet the Jagdeo/Ali regime is hoping when they throw peanuts at the people, they must be grateful for the morsel.
The resources and wealth of this nation belong to all the people, not a few. The few placed in positions of authority are there on the people’s power, paid by the people and must govern in the interest of all the people. We must refuse to settle for less when the Constitution of Guyana clearly establishes the nation state for all the people and mandates a political system of inclusionary democracy.
Under the constitution none is lesser than the other and we must reject the positions of inferiority or notions that one can only have what’s rightly theirs when a particular political party is in office.
Under the Constitution, the Opposition is part of Government and it is not by accident the position, Leader of the Opposition is mentioned under the Executive. We can and must no longer wait for a change for better to happen, but rather fight to effect the change in our circumstances now. God forbid, if the Opposition never gets the presidency must the other half of society languish in poverty, alienation and marginalisation? In this oil and gas economy, were the current regime in the opposition they would not accept being politically and economically marginalised.
The argument that the political party that holds the presidency must go into the opposition for things to get better is nonsense. For while the grass is growing the horse is starving. And lest we forget, power concedes nothing without demand. It is a social and political travesty the majority in this nation are being made to feel they are not controllers of their destiny, that they must grovel or accept deprivation until the political tides turn. This is not what progressive societies and ambitious people are made of.
Whilst a role and function of the Opposition is to replace the Government, in their current position, they have an obligation to society to continuously hold the Government accountable. We cannot continue the complacency or slumber as persons from afar come and reap our national resources and cart them away. It is time to change course.
