Dear Editor,
I couldn’t agree more with Abiola Inniss’s letter ‘Preventing graduates in arrears from travelling contravenes the constitution’ (SN, August 3). I know of many who graduated from the University of Guyana since 2000, and could not find a well-paid job to maintain themselves and their families, so how on earth are they going to pay back their loan? I am a supporter of this government; in fact I helped to campaign for their win, but considering the way in which some of the ministers are operating, I don’t see the government lasting more than 5 years; they are treading on the wrong ground. First of all, the travel ban is an assault on freedom of movement which is enshrined in the constitution; whoever is advising the Minister of Finance and the President on these moves is putting the final nail in their coffin come 2020.
The PPP must be smiling in a corner when they see these kinds of dictatorship moves. Let’s take the example of a student working for $80,000 a month who has a family to maintain and bills to pay, how are they going to pay the loan? These students sacrificed for 5 years to acquire a degree; most of them had to pay a monthly rent, and their parents had to buy clothes and food to maintain them until they finished university. I do agree that government gave them the loan to study with the intention of keeping them here to help develop the country, but the bottom line is that after gaining their degrees they couldn’t get a job, and many of them had no other alternative but to seek greener pastures overseas where there is more scope.
These same students in return are now sending back foreign currency to keep the Guyana economy afloat; through remittances the economy has grown. Can this new government say if it has reduced vested interests and unjust privileges? And can it say if it has destroyed the greatest bastion of privilege and injustice, namely the monopoly of education and culture by an elitist few? When will we unleash the brain power of the children of the poor? The rights and privacy of these students have been mocked and cynically violated by a clique which had the gall to publish their names and prevent them from leaving their country of birth.
These students are being treated like criminals; what kind of decent-minded person would try to humiliate, harass and intimidate them without a second thought?At this rate the government is scaring away its brightest minds; those who are studying and working outside will not come back here, and at the end of the day Guyana is the one which will be the biggest loser.
I hope someone in authority is looking at these things, and will correct them. I have come to the conclusion that this government is in a serious financial crisis, which is why it is trying to rake in every single penny from the students. I wouldn’t like to see this government fail because it’s our only hope for a better Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
