Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 24, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Any analysis on the breakdown of public service by the PPP Government has to be done in the context of demography. The per capita methodology is a scientific guide to understanding how countries operate. If a country with 100 persons endures a murder every day and another with fifty persons sees a murder every day, you cannot judge them by the murders committed each day.
The land with the less population is far more violent. Using this methodology, Guyana is the most mysterious country in the world. In France, Britain, Mexico, Indonesia, Italy, there are very small villages where the population is greater than the total numbers living in Guyana. In the US, China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, very tiny enclaves have more people than the entire population of Guyana.
When you look at the horrible public service delivery it becomes an insolvable puzzle, given our country’s demography. For simplicity sake, let’s put Guyana’s population at 800,000. Of this figure, a whopping 33 percent is fifteen years and under. They have no business at the Land Registry, the Deeds Registry, Lands and Surveys Department, NIS, GPL, GWI, Births and Deaths Registry, the GRA, UG among others.
The age group 1-35, takes in a whopping 62. Using a calculator, you can then arrive at the adult population between ages 45-70. It is tiny compared to world standards. Yet since the PPP came to power, public service in this country is shockingly horrific. How many persons in a population of 800,000 and given the breakdown I just used, are NIS pensioners, that is, over sixty? The figure is too small for NIS to have such poor delivery to its pensioners.
Using my calculations of Guyana’s demography, how many people have legitimate business at the Deeds Registry, Lands and Surveys and the Land Registry, that results in daily confusion among hundreds of citizens? Pay a visit to these places since the PPP came into power, since Mr. Jagdeo became our youngest head of state/government, and you will see absolutely no changes in service delivery.
The lines at public institutions are unbearably long, documents cannot be found and there is always a shortage of staff. I say without fear of contradiction, this sordid mess obtains in every realm of public service by the Government of Guyana. Go to the GRA to renew your driver’s licence and you will see for yourself that Guyana does not exist in the modern world.
How many persons in our small population of 800,000 have titles to land that would cause Lands and Surveys to be the horror movie that it is? Let us say of that 800,000, it is 200,000. Can’t a government in a modern world with fantastic technology provide service to 200,000 without the massive confusion you see each day at Lands and Surveys?
Let us say that the confusion needed time to sort itself out. What happened under the twelve years of Mr. Jagdeo? What is happening since Mr. Ramotar came to power three years ago?
If for the past ten years, you have been receiving 300 returned Guyanese from medical training in Cuba, then why is the Georgetown Hospital the nightmare that it is? I honestly do not believe that the Cuban-trained doctors are competent. That is my opinion. And once I have money they will not treat me, my family and my close friends. But let us leave that for another column. Why with all these returnees, the patient numbers remain in their thousands and the average waiting time to see a doctor at A&E is seven hours?
Is it a mystery? I don’t think it is. The key to understanding this madness is insensitive and incompetent governance. I agree with Lincoln Lewis that those we trust may turn out to be just as undemocratic as the PPP, but I cannot see any other political party being as incompetent as the PPP when in power. The answer is that the PPP is not interested, even at the barest of levels, in providing Guyana with satisfactory public service.
The University of Guyana has about five thousand students. That makes it one of the smallest in the world, yet UG cannot get its records for both students and staff right. The tiny space that houses the Exams division has been like that since UG opened at Turkeyen more than forty-two years ago with its permanent quota of four staff. The explanation is simple – starve the public service of staff and technology and you kill public service delivery. I honestly believe Guyana can only survive if there is regime change. I believe this deep in my heart.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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