Dear Editor,
Let’s stop pretending. What is happening in Guyana today is not development — it is domination, repackaged and rebranded by a new class of elites who have learned that power in this country is not about service but control. We have replaced foreign masters with local ones who speak our accents, wave our flags, and still treat the majority of us as pawns in their wealth building experiment.
We are living in the age of the new empire — an empire built not by British plantocracy, but by a plutocracy of local politicians, contractors, and businessmen feeding off our oil and gold economy while half the country struggles to eat. The same colonial logic that kept our ancestors in chains now keeps our communities in poverty. It is built on dependency, fear, and a carefully managed illusion that this is the best we can do.
Every gala, every private ball, every glittering “fancy people” photo splashed across social media is a taunt — a display of wealth extracted from public resources that belong to the working class, the single mothers, the vendors, the teachers, the nurses and the pensioners who keep this country running. In a resource rich nation where more than 50% of citizens live below the poverty line, poverty is not mere mismanagement. Poverty is a direct construct of policy.
The rot runs deep. We now have a state where loyalty outweighs integrity, where accountability is mocked, and where the same names keep circulating through political appointments, business deals, and government contracts. When corruption becomes culture, injustice becomes normal. And this normal is stifling our hopes and aspirations.
Even worse is how many have been conditioned to accept silence as safety. To question power is seen as disloyalty. To demand better is framed as ungratefulness. But we cannot let fear dictate our future. The same system that keeps us poor keeps us divided — racially, politically, and psychologically — because division is the easiest way to rule without resistance.
Let’s call it what it is: psychological warfare. When a government uses propaganda, patronage, and privilege to make citizens doubt their own worth, it is not leadership. It is manipulation. It is colonial control in national colours. We are meant to stay distracted, begging while they build empires in our name.
This is not the independence our foreparents fought for. Independence is not a slogan to be repeated on national holidays — it is a daily act of reclamation. It means refusing to let politicians and profiteers turn our resources into their private ATM. It means demanding consequences for those accused of misconduct and corruption, no matter how high their office. It means believing that Guyana belongs to us — every one of us — not just the politically connected or the socially elite.
If we continue down this path, our children will inherit an empty state wrapped in the illusion of prosperity — an empire rebuilt on our silence. But silence is what sustains oppression. So let’s break it. Let’s organize, question, and resist the normalization of poverty in a country overflowing with natural wealth.
The empire never really rode off on their horses, but returned in their chauffeur driven SUV’s. And simply learned to dance in white suits. But the people can still reclaim their power — if we remember that freedom is not given; it is demanded.