Dear Editor,
A question is increasingly being asked in churches, at social gatherings, in local watering holes and around family dinner tables: What is the PPP Government’s ulterior motive regarding the Linden Highway?
Region Ten has had a highway serving its residents for more than 55 years. The road, opened in 1968/69 and constructed by B.B. McCormick & Sons, was built through the efforts of the late Prime Minister Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, engineer the late Phillip A.D. Allsopp and others.
The highway once had two distinct colours, providing visibility and making it easier for motorists to navigate at night. Today, however, much of that safety has been compromised. Under the PPP Government, the road has been left dangerously dark, despite the substantial increase in cars, trucks and heavy-duty machinery using it day and night.
Broken-down vehicles are frequently left along the roadway without adequate warning lights. Reflective signage is lacking, street lighting is inadequate, and police patrols are insufficient. What should be a modern, properly maintained highway has become a dangerous stretch of road, with speeding vehicles, poorly marked hazards and wandering animals posing serious threats to motorists.
With the country receiving substantial revenues from the oil industry, why has the government failed to prioritise the safety and modernisation of this vital roadway? Why must Lindeners and residents living along the highway continue to risk their lives travelling a route that should be properly illuminated, monitored and maintained?
What does the Minister responsible have planned for Linden? Are residents expected to accept a highway that increasingly resembles a dark tunnel of danger? We love our lives, and we did not sign up to become casualties of government neglect.
I repeat the call already made: the minister must ensure that the Linden Highway is properly illuminated and policed like a major national roadway. Four lives have already been lost. How many more must be sacrificed before decisive action is taken?
The government’s disregard for the concerns of ordinary working people extends beyond road safety. Given Guyana’s enormous financial inflows from the oil industry, citizens should not continue to struggle under poverty-level wages and inadequate salary increases.
The PPP Government is operating increasingly like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where “some animals are more equal than others.” While certain politically connected individuals, whom I regard as little more than party loyalists and news carriers, reportedly earn more than G$700,000 monthly, hardworking public servants and other workers are left struggling with a 10 per cent salary increase.
This is not merely an economic issue. It raises serious questions about inequality, political favouritism and whether sections of the population are being deliberately left behind and kept in economic dependence.
I call on President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to end this modern-day exploitation of working people. The national minimum wage should be no less than US$750 monthly. Even that would be modest given the country’s oil wealth, but it would represent a starting point towards a more dignified standard of living.
There must also be an end to the practice of employing workers on so-called ten-day arrangements without the protections and benefits to which they are entitled. Guyana’s labour laws provide for a 40-hour working week, with additional hours attracting overtime provisions. Workers must not be denied their rights through arrangements designed to circumvent labour protections.
Guyana’s oil wealth must serve its people, not simply those who enjoy political access and privilege. The people of Linden deserve a safe highway, workers deserve fair wages, and every citizen deserves dignity and equal treatment.
Yours truly,
Gavin Marks
