Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 14, 2014 Letters
Dear Editor,
This week, The Kaieteur News (December 8th), carried an article headlined with a quote from APNU’s Joseph Harmon which read: ‘Guyana’s national wealth cannot be lived off by a few persons’. The article went on to state that APNU is calling for ‘equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth in the future’, presumably under an APNU led government.
Such a bold call caught my eye, and forever hopeful, I read the article only to find the same empty rhetoric we are so familiar with. No discussion of political ideology or policies, just more of that dialectical absurdity, which has both the government and opposition constantly reminding us of how incapable the other is of leading Guyana out of the abyss in which it is mired, while failing to present any viable resolution themselves. The truth is neither the government nor the opposition can get us out of the mess we are in.
I certainly have no argument with Mr Harmon regarding the urgent need for a redistribution of the nation’s wealth. However, neither APNU nor the AFC are capable of delivering on this promise, because they both adhere to neo-liberalism, an ideology and economic model that does not allow for an equitable distribution of wealth. I challenge any of Guyana’s politicians, from any party, to point to one country in the Global South which has followed the neo-liberal capitalist agenda, and managed to reduce the gap between rich and poor. There are no successful examples they can point to. And yet this is the same model followed by both the PPP government and the Opposition parties. Everywhere this economic model has been implemented, the gap between have and have-nots has widened.
This is old news. Many years ago, Forbes Burnham referred to the IMF program, which is rooted in the neo-liberal model, as a ‘prescription for riots’. Burnham had the courage to resist and defend Guyana’s right to political and economic self-determination.
Our present day politicians are cowards. Every minute we find them in meetings with representatives of the so-called ABC countries, frightened to make a move without the nod of their masters. All of them remain in line with the Washington consensus, a tired and failed set of economic policies that the rest of South America has rejected. None of them are prepared to carry out the kind of radical transformation necessary to redistribute the national wealth.
Both government and opposition are making all kinds of promises in the lead up to elections – promises they know they can’t and won’t keep. Misleading the people is a terrible thing. Mr. Harmon is correct when he states that Guyana’s national wealth benefits only a few. The majority of people live in poverty. It is not an exaggeration to say that thousands of our youth are at risk. They are malnourished and either mis-educated or uneducated. The public healthcare system is a disgrace and many lives are lost unnecessarily. Guyana has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the region.
A Catholic priest, Father Dennis LeBlanc, who runs a counseling service in the US, was in Guyana last year to do some voluntary work and had this to say: ‘the filth, squalor, poverty and disregard for human life made me embarrassed to be a human being.’ He has traveled all over the world but said that Guyana is the ‘worst, miasmic-stained country’ he has ever seen and described his trip to Guyana as a ‘sad and depressing experience’.
It is certainly time for a redistribution of wealth and power, the question is who amongst us is up to the task?
Gerald A. Perreira
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