Certainly the timing is politically convenient, but announcements cannot substitute for results. You cannot continually tell Guyanese how much money you are putting into their hands while ignoring how much of that money is being taken back at the supermarket, at the fuel pump, on transportation and through the ordinary expenses of maintaining a household.
You did acknowledge in August that βNo amount of grant will address it.β you were right. A cash grant cannot, by itself, correct an economy in which the cost of living continues to outrun the earnings of working families.
Let us examine the figures rather than the political presentation. According to the Bureau of Statistics, food prices increased by 7.5% between September 2024 and September 2025. In the following twelve months, they increased by a further 3.8%. That means food prices are not returning to where they were; they are rising on top of an already elevated price level. The food price index moved from 226.64 in September 2025 to 235.33 in September 2026. In the same twelve-month period, transport and communication increased by 4.2%, miscellaneous goods and services by 6.7%, education and related services by 4.5%, and medical care by 2.4%. These are not made up numbers, they are real. They represent the additional dollars a mother must find for groceries, a pensioner must find for transportation, and a working family must find to keep its household functioning.
Your government cannot point to a small monthly decline in some food prices and declare victory while the cumulative cost of living remains high.
Guyanese are still waiting to impact and see the tangibles of your Government’s many cost of living measures. I said this last week, maintaining zero-rated VAT on essential items, removing excise tax on fuel, supporting agricultural production, among other interventions are measures worth pursuing. Direct farmer-to-consumer markets can help reduce excessive markups. However, the question is not how many measures you can announce. The question is whether they are sufficiently widespread, sustained and effective to bring meaningful relief to the average household.
A farmers’ market held periodically cannot replace a properly functioning national food distribution system. Nor can it help a family who has no affordable transport to reach it. Where is the measurable reduction in the average household’s weekly grocery bill? Where is the published assessment of the impact of these interventions on the prices of basic food items across the regions?
President Ali, you cannot speak about reducing the cost of living without confronting the wider household economy. Food is only one part of the problem. Transportation and communication have increased by 4.2%, while education and related services have increased by 4.5%. Electricity, housing, healthcare, school expenses and the cost of travelling to work all compete for the same limited household income.
A public servant earning a salary, a market vendor, a pensioner and a single parent cannot pay their bills with announcements. They need their income to stretch further. That is why the call for no less than a 25% increase in public-sector wages and improved social support. These are not unreasonable. It is a necessary response to the reality facing Guyanese families daily.
President Ali, here is where the priorities of your Government become particularly difficult to defend. At a time when ordinary citizens are being told to appreciate grants and modest relief, the Government is pursuing legislation that would restore uncapped lifetime benefits and facilities for you, including utilities, household staff, medical treatment, security, state-maintained vehicles and first-class overseas travel allowances. I recognise that when you leave office, you deserve dignity and reasonable provision after serving in the highest office. That is not the argument. The argument is whether public expenditure should be unlimited when your Government has not demonstrated that the needs of ordinary Guyanese are being adequately met.
There must be fairness, financial discipline and accountability in the use of public resources. A country cannot preach restraint to its citizens while legislating privilege without meaningful limits.
President Ali, the wealth of this country must translate into a better standard of living, not merely a longer list of Government announcements and a more comfortable arrangement for yourself, when you leave high office. Guyanese are not asking for charity. They are asking for a fair return from a country blessed with extraordinary natural resources. They want food they can afford, wages that can sustain a family, reliable transportation, affordable utilities and public services that work.
The test of your leadership is not how generously your Government can provide for when you leave office, but how effectively it improves the lives of those who must work every day to keep this country going. That is the standard by which you and your Government must be judged.
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