In oil-rich Guyana, where public servants struggle to earn a livable wage, pensioners fight to survive and the healthcare system remains in crisis, the proposed Former Presidents’ Benefits Bill is an affront to the people. It exposes a political culture in which those occupying the highest offices appear more concerned with securing their own interests than improving the lives of the citizens they were elected to serve.
This nation must reject President Irfaan Ali’s move to secure unlimited access to public money and resources for himself when he leaves office in 2031, while his predecessors appear content to remain silent as the national coffers are opened to accommodate the political elite. They all seem comfortable living as “fat cats” while ordinary Guyanese struggle to make ends meet.
How do these men sleep at nights? How do they reconcile their lives of luxury with the pervasive poverty and deprivation outside their front doors? Workers cannot earn enough to live decently, pensioners struggle to survive and families are unable to access basic healthcare.
The timing makes this proposal even more offensive. Last week, Ali announced that public servants would be paid under an agreement that expired in 2025. Ali is not only trampling on the right to collective bargaining but he expects workers to accept an expired agreement while former presidents, who have already received tax-free income, substantial compensation and State-funded benefits, stand to secure even more.
Former presidents are public servants, not masters of the people. Holding the highest office does not confer ownership of the State or its treasury. There is no justification for legislation that guarantees them unlimited access to public funds, medical services, personnel, utilities and other national resources while ordinary citizens struggle to obtain basic services.
The contradiction is particularly glaring in an oil-rich country. Guyana’s natural-resource wealth is being promoted as the foundation of national development, yet workers, pensioners and vulnerable citizens continue to plead for a decent standard of living. Those entrusted with managing the nation’s wealth are looking after themselves while the people who own those resources are left waiting for meaningful improvements.
The bill must not simply be deferred. Whether its postponement resulted from good sense or the volatility of the present political environment is beside the point. It must be withdrawn. It must be scrapped.
Public office is a responsibility, not a lifetime entitlement. Elected officials deserve fair compensation and legitimate retirement benefits earned through service. A pension is a right but unlimited access to the public purse is not. No one should be entitled to convert previous public office into a permanent claim on the nation’s resources.
The inequality becomes even more disturbing when healthcare is considered. How can former presidents have the means to fly abroad for medical treatment while citizens who cannot or do not wish to travel are denied comparable care at home, even though Guyana has the resources to provide it?
The nation will recall that one former president, suffering from diarrhoea, travelled to Miami at the State’s expense for diagnosis and treatment. Meanwhile, ordinary Guyanese suffering from the same condition often have to search their yards for bush remedies or resort to inadequate alternatives. That contrast is an indictment of a system in which access to quality healthcare is determined by one’s position rather than one’s needs.
We are building hospitals, but buildings alone do not constitute healthcare. Patients need qualified and well-paid medical professionals, essential medicines, modern equipment and effective treatment. There is legitimate concern that major infrastructure projects have become vehicles for channelling public money to friends and party comrades while the quality of healthcare remains neglected. These claims are not without merit.
A government is elected by the people, financed by the people and entrusted with the people’s resources. It has no moral authority to treat the treasury as a personal inheritance or public service as an opportunity to enrich a political elite and their families.
Workers did not spend generations building this country so that its wealth could become a retirement package for a select few. Pensioners did not contribute throughout their working lives to be told that the State has unlimited resources for former presidents but insufficient capacity to provide decent healthcare and a livable income.
Good sense must prevail.
