by Randy Gopaul
The government of Guyana is out of its depth. For years, it has fueled an unchecked infrastructure boom riddled with corruption, favoritism, and outright incompetence. Now that the tide of failure is too strong to hold back, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is desperately calling on citizens to “speak out” against the very failures his government has created.
Let’s be clear: this is not a government that listens. This is a government that publicly humiliates its critics, punishes dissent, and rewards its friends and family with lucrative contracts, many of which have to be redone at taxpayers’ expense. Yet, now that roads are crumbling, hospitals are delayed, bridges are collapsing, and the stench of mismanagement is undeniable, the PPP suddenly wants citizens to “help” by pointing out shoddy infrastructure work.
This is laughable, hypocritical, and insulting.
The PPP government boasts about 40,000 contracts across the country, yet conveniently forgets to mention that a shocking number of these projects are riddled with overruns, substandard work, and outright fraud.
- Roads are paving today, crumbling tomorrow.
- Bridges are built, then rebuilt, then rebuilt again—each time at a higher price.
- Schools and hospitals are contracted to party-linked businessmen, who rake in millions while Guyanese get incomplete or poorly built structures.
- The same contractors who fail repeatedly continue getting new contracts, as long as they are close to the ruling party.
Now, Jagdeo tells the public, “Speak up!” The same government that actively silences critics, blacklists those who question authority, and attacks its own citizens in the media is now trying to shift blame onto the people.
The irony is beyond rich. This is the same PPP government that:
- Berates citizens who express dissatisfaction with its governance.
- Uses state resources to attack and discredit journalists and activists who highlight corruption.
- Refuses to hold party-linked businessmen accountable for disastrous projects.
- Threatens and intimidates contractors who refuse to play by their corrupt rules.
And yet, in the face of its own incompetence, the government suddenly wants citizens to be the watchdogs?
This isn’t about “transparency.” It’s a pathetic attempt to shift blame. The PPP knows that the system it created, one where corruption is rewarded and accountability is nonexistent, is falling apart. It cannot control the sheer scale of its mismanagement, so it now calls on citizens to do what it has paid engineers, inspectors, and regulators to do all along.
Let’s not be fooled. This is not a sign of a government “listening”, it is a government in crisis. The corruption is too blatant, the failures too obvious, and the consequences too severe for even the PPP to cover up anymore.
Jagdeo’s plea for citizens to post pictures and call out bad work is an admission of failure. It is a desperate attempt to evade responsibility for a broken system that the PPP has enabled and profited from.
But Guyanese should ask, why should we do the government’s job? Why should we “report” the corruption and incompetence that the PPP itself has created, protected, and benefited from?
It’s not the people who need to speak up—, t’s the government that needs to be held accountable. And if Jagdeo really wants to hear the truth, here it is:
- You built this mess. You own it. You can’t escape it.
- The citizens won’t clean up your corruption.
- The PPP’s infrastructure disaster is not a failure of oversight, it is a failure of leadership.
And no amount of deflection, empty promises, or staged press conferences will change that.
