Dear Editor,
An Open Letter to the Nation: Our Youth are a National Asset, Not a Political Casualty. As another class of graduates faces a system of closed doors, we propose a concrete solution to harness their talent and prevent a generational loss. The choice is clear: invest in our youth now, or lose them forever.
We begin by echoing your own words, Mr. President, spoken to the bright-eyed graduates of the University of Guyana: “The future will be built by you.” This statement was meant to be a beacon of hope, a passing of the torch. Yet, for the thousands of young Guyanese who constitute that “you,” these words feel less like an invitation and more like a cruel irony. They stand at the gate of national progress, degrees in hand, only to find it guarded by the old sentinels of nepotism and party paramountcy.
We, the youth, are not merely disappointed; we are the ultimate casualties of a system that preaches potential while practicing exclusion. When we see cabinet positions and senior public roles recycled among a familiar cohort of party loyalists and retirees, the message is unequivocal: “Your time is not now. Your qualifications are secondary to your connections.” This is not just a political issue; it is a national emergency in the making.
The consequence of this continued exclusion is not merely a sense of despondency. It is the irreversible loss of our most valuable national resource: our intellectual capital. When ambitious, educated, and passionate young minds are denied a stake in their own country’s future, they will seek it elsewhere. We are on the precipice of a catastrophic brain drain, where the very architects you need to build Guyana’s future will be building the futures of Trinidad, Canada, and the United States.
Therefore, we move beyond critique to propose a solution. We call on your administration to immediately collaborate with the private sector to design and fund a robust National Youth Transformation Initiative (NYTI).
This would not be another government internship. We envision a comprehensive public-private work program that strategically absorbs young talent into the heart of our nation’s growth. Imagine:
- Placements within critical sectors like digital governance, sustainable energy, infrastructure project management, and agri-tech.
- Partnerships with major international and local corporations, co-funding roles that offer real responsibility and a pathway to permanent leadership positions.
- Mentorship that pairs young graduates with experienced professionals, not as a replacement for merit-based hiring, but as a bridge to it.
This initiative would be a powerful signal that your rhetoric has meaning. It would demonstrate a genuine commitment to channeling the energy and innovation of our youth into the “ongoing transformation” you speak of. It is a pragmatic alternative to the tomfoolery of closed-door appointments.
Mr. President, the gate must open. The choice is stark: we can either create a framework that harnesses this incredible youthful energy for national development, or we will watch it depart our shores, leaving behind a void that no recycled appointee can ever fill. Let us not look back in a decade and wonder where all the talented graduates went. Let us act now to ensure they are right here, building the Guyana they were promised.
Sincerely,
Hemdutt Kumar
