Be careful what you wish for

Jun 11, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Over the past few years, a handful of PNC & AFC critics, along with some “independents”, have been ceaselessly attacking the government. Often with wild, unsubstantiated accusations and wishing for the government to fall.

One of the favourite charges is that the government discriminates against Afro-Guyanese. Despite the several challenges to provide evidence, they fail to produce any. However, they continue to repeat the false charges.

Another group keeps telling us that things are so bad that people are starving. Reading those articles, a person unfamiliar with Guyana’s situation may believe that all Guyanese are hungry, ill-housed and ill-clothed. The reality is much different. There has not been another five-year period compared to this one where so much work has been done. Indeed, the country appears to be a huge construction site. We are now putting in the infrastructure to launch our economy to greater heights. These were all badly needed and essential to our progress.

Unemployment is down to its lowest in living memory. Just ask anyone who has some work to do, for example, building a small house or a bridge, and the first thing you will hear is that “I can’t get people to work.”

The government has made tremendous strides in providing education, health, housing, and water facilities to the masses. The electricity situation has improved by leaps and bounds. Yes, we still get a few blackouts, but not because of a lack of generation, but because of the company planting new poles or due to some accident or another which dislodges a pole or so.

Our agriculture sector (except sugar) has been growing rapidly.

A few days ago, we heard that we are the only country in the world that can provide and is providing all the food that we need. Compliments to our hard-working farmers – I salute our agricultural workers on this great achievement.

That is just one of the indicators which shows how far we have come. The young people of today would be surprised to learn that from the mid-1970s until the beginning of the 1990s, Guyanese had to stand in long lines for several hours to get very basic food items. Guyanese travelling home from Caribbean countries and North America were often laughed at because of what they were buying to bring home. These included such things as bread, sardines, corn beef, potatoes, onions, toilet paper, etc.

Those who complain today about foreign currency have forgotten that in that same period, when travelling abroad, a Guyanese could only take fifteen US dollars (US$15) with her or him. Moreover, to get that one had to spend a day or more lining up at the Bank of Guyana.

The anti-PPP propagandist seems to have forgotten that our education system was so destroyed that we had the lowest pass rate in the Caribbean. The University of Guyana, at one stage during the 1980s, had to close its doors because of the conditions of the toilets on campus.

They have conveniently forgotten that the health situation had deteriorated to such an extent that rats were interfering with patients at our Public Hospitals. It was reported in the press in the early 1990s that a rat had eaten a child’s hand at our main hospital.

Those who complain about our economy should recall that when the PPP/C assumed office in 1992, the GDP per capita was just around US$ 300. Shockingly, when the PNC came to office in 1964, the figure was almost the same. Our country was stagnant.

The PNC was also very brutal in dealing with opposition protests. They murdered Jagan Ramesar and Bholanaught Parmanand in 1973; Walter Rodney and Ohine Koame (Neville Jacobs) and others who were opposed to the PNC dictatorship. Workers and Trade Unionists were tear-gassed, once while in a cell at Linden and generally harassed. Public meetings by opposition parties were violently broken up by PNC thugs.

It is apposite to note that the PNC had a glorious opportunity to correct its past mistakes. It did not. Instead, they began to blatantly enrich themselves. Recall that one of the first acts was to give themselves a 50% increase in salaries and allowances. They were involved in transactions that were outlandish, for example, the renting of a house in Albouystown to serve as a medical bond to the tune of twelve million dollars per month! In every area, we had reversals of progress.

It would be no exaggeration to state that over the last five years, every aspect of Guyanese lives has been enhanced. This generation has come a very far way compared to their parents and grandparents. So, I would like to tell those memoryless critics, some of whom are my friends, to be careful what you wish for!

Sincerely,

Donald Ramotar

Former President of Guyana 

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• Donald Ramotar, Former President of Guyana, Guyana Development, PNC/AFC

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