Dear Editor,
The PPP/C government’s initial 100 days in President Ali’s second term have revealed a troubling divergence between its “We Care” campaign rhetoric and the harsh reality faced by the Guyanese people. The national agenda is not defined by decisive action on urgent crises, but by a relentless torrent of unverified reports, grand illusions, and punitive governance, signaling a government fighting shadows of its own making while citizens’ concrete needs remain shamefully unmet.
The most explicit pledges of care—the very foundation of the promised compassionate administration—remain largely unhonoured, leaving the most vulnerable in limbo.
• Pensioners in Limbo: No enacted increase to Old Age Pensions, shattering explicit promises of financial relief for our elders.
• Grants That Never Came: The promised Immediate Cash Grants remain a phantom, offering no buffer against debilitating economic hardship.
• A Sour Christmas: The promise of a “Bright Christmas” was broken; no official implementation of Year-End Salary Increases and Bonuses for public servants materialized.
• The Crushing Cost of Living: The escalating economic crisis continues unabated, with no effective, visible measures implemented to curb its suffocating impact on households.
• A Constitutional Crisis Festers: The lingering, protracted non-election of the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) is a Constitutional Crisis without a clear, consensus-driven strategy, undermining the foundation of our democracy.
• A Nation Un-informed: Amid serious rumours of war and external threats, there is a profound failure to provide a clear, unified, and calming national security strategy.
Instead of addressing immediate infrastructure and service deficits, the government is busy spinning tales of unrealistically scaled projects and technological leaps that contrast sharply with the current national capacity.
• Industrial Scale Gas Monetization (lofty vision): Proposed on an unachievable timeline, this is prioritized while the current electricity grid cannot even satisfy basic status quo needs. This is a failure to prioritize tenable industrial scale over basic stability.
• 100 MW Data Centre (pipe dream): This is proposed while hospitals and schools face frequent power outages. This is a failure to prioritize basic service delivery over advanced technology.
• Luxury Marina Visions: These are pushed forward even as regulatory oversight is weak, inviting challenges with compliance and environmental impact. This is a failure to prioritize robust regulatory reform over unmanaged luxury development.
• Robotic Surgery Promises: These are made while the system cannot consistently secure essential, regular maintenance medications for citizens. This is a failure to prioritize fundamental pharmaceutical supply over futuristic health tech.
In the absence of tangible deliverables, the public space has been saturated with politically charged whispers, vanity projects, and arbitrary, heavy-handed measures that create a smokescreen obscuring governmental inaction.
• Vanity & Patronage: The naming of a new bridge in a crass act of glorification after a sitting official; whispers of contracts flowing exclusively to “families, friends, and favourites.”
• Political Theatre: Endless rumours surrounding the election of the Leader of the Opposition and the scheduling of Parliament, highlighting political gridlock over governance.
Punitive over progressive measures:
• Creation of several harsh, arbitrary revenue-focused measures—such as a $75,000 fine for window tint or revoking licenses over unpaid tickets—instead of policies that uplift or incentivize compliance.
• Issuing warnings to fraudulent drivers’ licence holders while overlooking the facilitators who committed system-gaming fraud and unjustly enriched themselves.
• Institutional & International Impositions: Unconfirmed tales of new qualification rules for police, potential extraditions, and fears of more international sanctions.
• The Biometric Harvesting without Law: The mandatory harvesting of biometric data from citizens without the legal commencement of the governing act.
• Commissioners in Absentia: The absence of a functioning Data Protection Commission, lacking both a Commissioner and accompanying staff, compromising citizen privacy and data security.
The Defining Failure: The Suppressed Census (2022)
The deliberate withholding of the 2022 National Population and Housing Census report is the defining act of sabotage against national planning and accountability in these 100 days. This is an act of profound bad governance:
• Contradiction: It directly negates the government’s own pledge of “data-driven decision-making.”
• Electoral Undermining: It damages electoral credibility, a concern already flagged by international observers.
• Resource Misallocation: It guarantees the misallocation of resources, ensuring communities remain underfunded and critical services are misdirected.
The first 100 days have set a profoundly troubling precedent. Guyanese were promised a government that cares, but are experiencing one that is preoccupied with consolidation, distraction, and delay. The path from here will determine whether this term will be remembered for its concrete achievements for the people, or for its enduring legacy of shadows and whispers. The time for action, for compassion, and for credible governance is now, before the rumours harden into an undeniable record of failure.