Dear Editor,
Our Motto says it all. We’re One People, One Nation, One Destiny. A land of six peoples. Yet, we face challenges in forging a united nation. A Guyanese Nation. Challenges like while our economy is performing well this still needs to translate into real social improvements for the vast majority of our people.
Yes, the PPP/C Government has this plan to reduce the price of electricity with the hope that manufacturing will take-off. I hope it works so that many more jobs will be created so that people can see improvements in their lives. Improvements like affordable stable electricity supply. Like clean continuous water. Like better sanitation. Like better educated and healthy Guyanese people.
Once a remedy is found for our social situation our political problems will be practically non-existent. That’s not to say that everything will be okay. There will still be new challenges. But least we forget, we are a nation that have already overcome challenges. For example, some of our ancestors overcame slavery; some of our ancestors overcame indentureship.
We’ve overcome economic hardship, political and social instability. This has made the Guyanese Nation into a more resilient people. Yes, some of us chose to migrate abroad for better economic, political and social stability. Many of us who have done so still think of Guyana as our homeland. Even before oil was discovered we were getting involved in local developments.
I live in the UK. I personally believe that the PPP/C idea of development is not what Guyana needs because it is spending billions of US dollars to get electricity which in the end will need to be subsidised to be cheap. As well as, the manufacturing jobs will only be concentrated in a few areas causing population drift to those areas. When we need to be looking to getting manufacturing jobs in every region and into the towns and villages in Guyana. Not just one or two areas. They will have to build new houses and infrastructure in those areas costing billions of dollars while the rest of the country gets neglected. As well as, the plan that the PPP/C Government has is outdated. I say this because it relied on wages not rising by much. But the cost of living has increased. The challenge for the PPP/C Government is to reduce the cost of living.