“Is remanding a 15-year-old boy to prison because he showed his middle finger [and] the unemployment rate of young people in this country youth development?”
During a roadside meeting in Meadowbrook on Wednesday evening 20-year-old Alliance For Change (AFC) representative Alicia Hermanstyne said she would like President Bharrat Jagdeo to answer that question.
Hermanstyne, one of six persons who spoke to the small gathering of onlookers in the vicinity of Jackson Street and Meadowbrook Drive, stated her disgust as a woman at the way Jagdeo treated his wife Varshni Singh a few years back.
The Berbician also highlighted the fact that she attained eleven passes during her sitting at CSEC and is still unable to obtain a proper job.
As a youth, she stated that the current government is always boasting about youth development in Guyana but yet she hasn’t seen this manifesting itself, and she also contended that only 50% of the technical institute graduates are able to gain employment.
Hermanstyne then encouraged the crowd and those listening at home to “stand up for what [you] think is right. We have enough issues we are facing today to give AFC a chance.”
She also noted that both the main opposition and the ruling party were given the chance to develop Guyana.
“And we are still one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere, after Haiti, and they’re only that way because of the natural disasters,” she said.
Chairperson for the meeting Steve Wright Benjamin observed that in a PPP/C advertisement presidential candidate Donald Ramotar “speaks of how much better Guyana will become” if the party is returned to power, but Benjamin paraphrased Einstein’s definition for madness saying, “we cannot change a problem by using the same way of thinking that caused it.” But this is exactly what the ruling party wants Guyana to do, Benjamin added.
He said further that the government wants the people “to give them five more years to solve the problem of bad governance, of the squalor, of crime…what they want us to do is to apply the same way of thinking…
“We have to change our way of thinking and decide that no longer will we sit by and allow our scripts to be written,” he urged.
Gerhard Ramsaroop, another speaker at the meeting, spoke mainly on the AFC’s plan for Guyana were it placed in government. He stated that the AFC “has done its research [and] engaged the experts.”
He emphasized that with the AFC in power VAT can be reduced from 16%, the PAYE threshold would be raised, income tax will be reduced from 33% to 25%, and promised that “all these things will be reviewed every year.
Ramsaroop went on to cite cases that indicated how taxpayers money was being squandered, noting that “Odinga Lumumba, an advisor to our president, earns $669,000 a month… Gail Teixeira gets an obscene salary of $880,000 a month.”
These, he said, are topped by the president himself. “Since 2009 the AFC has been on the topic… when the president awarded himself an obscene pension package, which is valued in excess of $3 million a month; it is made up of $1.1 million cash. And now you have all the perks and benefits; an unlimited amount of vehicles, of technical and clerical, personal staff, security, free light bill,” he continued.
And referring to Jagdeo’s house at Pradoville Two, he said, “From seeing the mansion you would know that that light bill would exceed $300,000 a month. Imagine what you will have to be paying for, because remember that the president is only 47 years old and he will be enjoying this for the rest of his life from the 29th of November.” This, Ramsaroop said, has got to be stopped and the only way to do so is for persons to rally behind the AFC.
He concluded by speaking briefly on the computer industry and the employment factor. “We will not do as the PPP does… the barber shop deals [where] hundreds of millions of dollars go to the importation of computers a year. AFC will only buy computers that are locally assembled, and so when that money is injected into the local industry, it will create jobs for young people.” In one last appeal to the people of Meadowbrook, Ramsaroop promised that the AFC will also provide internships for students 16 years old and older to work in the public and private sectors. “We will give tax incentives to the private companies for every intern that they take in. That way our young people will gain experience while they’re studying. And chances are when they do so well, a job will be waiting for them come graduation.”
Among the other speakers were attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes, Kojo McPherson, Darrell Rahim and Dr Richard Van West Charles, a former health minister in the PNC government who recently joined the AFC campaign, saying it was the only party that has moved away from race politics.
