PPPC must come clean that they now restore free UG education they banned 33 years ago

I watch and listen to the daily diet of shameless dishonesty coming from the PPPC head honchos trumpeting with a straight face, their main election campaign slogan of free education at the University of Guyana (UG), no doubt to deceive our youths that this is somehow a new PPPC virtuous initiative, when, the truth is that it was this very same PPPC which so uncaringly abolished free UG education in 1994, before the majority of our population was born.

As if that is not enough, they pile upon their chicanery accusing the APNU/AFC Coalition of increasing UG fees – the same fees that would have never existed, had the PPPC not abolished the free education in the first place, and unmercifully maintained it for 28 years of their Governance out of the last 33 years, especially during their last five years when awash in oil money with  which they preferably enriched their families, friends and cronies. Nevertheless, now elections time, they are being forced to fix their wrong with reinstatement of free UG education, as they manifest the fireman’s syndrome of setting a fire and then seek praise and reward for outing it.

Thanks to the uncanny vision of former President Forbes Burnham, the nation’s co-founder and President, free education from kindergarten through university was introduced in 1976, and enjoyed for 18 years before the PPPC made it their highest priority to gleefully abolish it in 1994 as soon as they took office.  

This free education initiated by Burnham, laid the foundation for Guyana’s development with a high-quality education afforded to all Guyanese regardless of financial means. Tens of thousands of Guyanese including almost all of the top brass in the PPPC benefitted from it, most notably, 2nd VP Jagdeo who enjoyed the extras of a much more costly special sojourn to Moscow.

Therefore, it is nothing but bald-faced hypocrisy, ungratefulness, selfishness and heartlessness for these same PPPC leaders to deny tens of thousands of poor Guyanese the opportunity to bring themselves and their generations out of poverty. This PPPC riddance of free education also inflicted severe stifling of the nation’s economy over the past 33 years; but now they attempt to hoodwink you into believing that they initiated free UG education because they love you, so as get your votes.  They could have at least introduced it in 2021 not to make it look so bad!

The above makes clear that the PPPC does not care a hoot about free UG education and forced to restore it, only because of their desperation for your votes. The above further exposes the PPPC’s backwardness and ignorance of the new post 2008 global financial crisis paradigm that education, and not infrastructure, is the main pillar of a nation’s sustainable development, particularly in Guyana’s case when oil is gone in only about 20 years from now.

To boot, it is most ludicrous that Guyana spends 60% of its entire budget on infrastructure, wasting 40% of it on gross incompetence and alleged corruption, while half of its population lives in poverty, and while disgracefully paying teachers who are the vanguard of our education system, two to three times less than the salaries in the Caribbean. 

Even more unknowledgeable to the PPPC is the fact that the rule of law stands as the second strongest pillar ahead of infrastructure in this new paradigm for national development and attracting foreign investments; but unfortunately, added to the education failures under the PPPC, Guyana is ranked 76th out of 142 countries by the World Justice Project, with a pitifully failing rule of law index score of 50 out of 100.

Respectfully,

Dr. Vincent Adams