Guyana is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. Well, that is not entirely true. Ever since it found oil it has become known as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Everywhere one meets a Guyanese there is the proclamation that “you people are rich.”
The treasury is bulging but the people are far from rich. Indeed, there are the super-rich who are either senior government employees or who are closely aligned to the government. There are the government Ministers who own luxury apartments.
There are those who secure contracts at the expense of the more qualified. That would not have been so bad had these people sought to share the wealth by employing Guyanese. Instead, as though operating on a signal from the government, they actually employ foreign labour.
They bring people from East Asia and countries far removed from Guyana. At the same time the preponderance of people who come from across the border are easily keeping out the locals.
There has been video evidence of Guyanese being left on the sidelines while the contractors employ Venezuelans by the hundreds. A clear example is the gas to energy project at Wales.
The contractor is the United States-based Venezuela company Lindsayca. Speak Spanish and gain employment. The average Guyanese does not stand a chance.
Then there are the various road constructions. For anyone to conclude that there is no racism in Guyana would be to fool oneself. The road contracts have been going to a particular group of people. These people obviously believe in the policy of to each his own.
The Chinese road contractors have no problem employing Chinese workers, many of whom are imported. It is the same with Guyanese contractors of East Indian ancestry.
People in foreign lands would ask about contractors of African ancestry. The answer rests in the fact that many of them simply folded because they were either not gaining contracts or because they were deliberately overlooked.
Courtney Benn Contracting Services is just one. This company built a section of Broad Street, Georgetown. Decades later this piece of road is still standing as the day it was constructed. This company has not been granted another road contract since.
Ivor Allen is another contractor who seems to have been pushed into oblivion. He was given a lot on the now forgotten Amaila Falls road after Fip Motilall, a man handpicked by the PPP government, failed to complete the project.
Since then numerous roads have been built but none of these Black contractors has been able to secure a smidgen. And they have more equipment than some of those being awarded road-building contracts. This neglect is the result of a studied policy. It has to be.
More roads should mean easier land communication. Not so in Guyana. More roads translate into more accidents, many of them fatal. The police say that they are trying.
In the developed world there are many roads and many cars. But there are fewer accidents because there is discipline. The speeds are high but each driver is cognizant of the other. A car signals that it wants to enter a lane; the approaching driver slows without thinking.
Vehicles entering tunnels from a variety of roads alternate. One is let in then the car proceeds. There is order.
There is no such courtesy or order on the streets of Guyana. A faulty traffic light is the scene of confusion since every driver wants to forge ahead
New York city has a preponderance of bridges across rivers. These bridges accommodate thousands of vehicles, both light and heavy, daily. Never has a vehicle rolled back having failed to negotiate the high span. The same cannot be said about the land of my birth.
The situation is due to the government’s inability to plan for successful development. President Irfaan Ali is reported to have said that his government plans as it moves ahead. Gone are the multi-year development plans.
How can one explain the rampant poverty in the land? There is no plan to alleviate poverty. There is no plan to help reduce the high incidence of cost of living. There is also no plan for improved wages and salaries.
Law and order only exists when the perpetrator is not a known supporter of the government. There is now the case of a man who blew the lid on a sex racket at a house on West Bank Demerara. This man, an ardent supporter of the PPP, reported to the police on the case of missing girls being found in this house.
They were said to have been drugged then sexually assaulted. Many are underage.
According to the reports the police did nothing so the man opted to expose the shenanigans on social media. He has been arrested under the cybercrime legislation. The reason for the police inaction is that the perpetrators are moneyed members and supporters of the PPP.
There are no regulatory bodies to support the established organisations. There is no Public Service Commission so public servants are not protected. The reason is that they operate under conditions of fear.
The president refuses to accede to decisions by some of these committees. He never confirmed the Chancellor and the Chief Justice despite the necessary approval being given.
We also have a court that seems to be afraid to hand down decisions that run counter to the desire of the government. Dr Terrence Campbell is still awaiting the ruling following his challenge of the use of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF). That ruling is nearly one year overdue having been promised months ago.
On Wednesday Vincent Alexander got a ruling on the IDPADA-G matter some three years after it was to have been handed down. The government had unilaterally withheld the subvention.
The court ordered that the subvention be paid but only for the remaining three months of 2022. The other subventions have been halted.
Small wonder that people say that the government is an oligarchy.
