We just concluded the reading of the national budget. It is evident there is not only a disconnect between the budget framers and the needs and desires of citizens but also the absence of understanding there needs to be a strategic plan to address problems that exist at our frontiers.
For instance, two areas deserving of urgent attention that could benefit pensioners, the unemployed and the frontiers of this country, were ignored.
Let us look at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) which can be better utilised as a means of wealth redistribution as it relates to delivering assistance in the form of an appropriate pension that responds to the cost of living and delivering Unemployment Benefit. The welfare of NIS, to make it financially viable and adaptable to 21st Century reality continues to be ignored. NIS has historically been a political football of the PPP and today the party continues in like manner using the organisation for political purposes resulting in the abuse and mismanagement of its Fund.
Every citizen, including those who praise the budget, would like to have direct benefit from the exploitation of oil and gas. Such desire is a right because these are our natural resources and every citizen is entitled to benefit from them. It is our birthright. We should have already had a proper and accountable system in place for paying cash transfer using money from the oil and gas fund. But it is obvious the framers of the budget believe the masses are not deserving to benefit directly from these resources in an orderly and equitable manner.
On the frontier issue, the most pressing one is Venezuela laying claim to the Essequibo in a strident and aggressive manner. Yet there seems to be no comprehensive and structured approach in repelling Venezuela. Buying military hardware and depending on foreign intervention to take us out of this quagmire is not a strategy but symptomatic of a government that has thrown its arms up and abrogated its responsibility to the nation. It reeks of subjugation and dependency that we cannot even think, plan and carve out a niche for ourselves. We cannot be a sovereign nation accepting an underdog role.
Recent report about a boat capsizing with children, who are Venezuelans, but attending school in Guyana is cause for concern and brings home forcedly the regime’s cavalier approach and lack of understanding of the extant issues confronting us.
By now this nation should have seen a policy develop to people Essequibo with more Guyanese. The regime could have started this process with those persons who are being paid $40,000 and $60,000 a month for marking their presence at a government building for 10 days within the month. This $40,000/60,000 policy is contemptuous of Guyanese because it is not designed with the intent of using the intellectual and/or physical capacity of citizens productively but designed to strip persons of their dignity and create a government-supported culture of mendicancy.
A programme should have also been put in place to strengthen the hinterland communities and provide avenues to facilitate easy movement of goods and services such as food, fuel, education, health and everything in Guyana rather than being dependent on the border communities in Venezuela. Unless a system is put in place to provide for our hinterland communities there will be constant incursions into Guyana by Venezuelan troops and civilians.
The nation deserves a comprehensive programme to train Guyanese in various disciplines according to need, interest and/or talent. Training centres should be established throughout the Essequibo region. In the absence of a vision to populate the area and create a form of defence, the regime is demonstrating it has little or no interest in the region beyond allowing exploitation of the resources within.
The Chinese Landing debacle is a prime example of how the Jagdeo/Ali regime is prepared not to make decisions in the interest of the indigenous community but playing games to deny these very persons and their communities the right to the minerals that exist within their boundaries.
Lessons could be learned from the accelerated bombing in Gaza that has the potential to obliterate Palestine, as a state, as touted by some to be propelled by greed of politicians, oil companies and a few Western governments. Members of the international community have expressed that the consequence of this is that lives, families and the rights of indigenous communities (Palestinians) to their livelihood, safety, security and permanency in their land come a distant second.
Guyana’s resources could become the centre for external control and exploitation if the political leaders, on both sides, fail to work with social partners, civil society and other groups to craft protective and defensive strategies. In the face of local and external threats Guyanese must demand the Government deliver for them. It is to our individual and collective interest to acknowledge our destiny is intertwined and what affects one invariably affects all.
We cannot continue to live in a system where the divide and rule policy is constantly being perpetrated. The 2024 budget did not prioritise the need to empower and protect the people and build a stronger and fortified nation; it focused on widening a system to transfer the nation’s wealth and resources to the political elites and their cohorts. This is not a comfortable place to be.
