Dear Editor,
Things appear to be getting a little testy in government quarters in the 2017 Budget quarrels. Good sense and decorum inhibits me from affixing the stamp of ‘debate’ to what amount to verbal fusillades. Now once sober people are becoming frayed at the edges.
There he was, the archangel himself, the man in charge of all the fabled wealth of this country waxing impatient and hectoring distressed citizens to “get busy” and move away from the contentious VAT proposals. I submit to Mr Trotman that those same concerned objecting and objectionable citizens already know what it means to “get busy”. They have had to “get busy” by worrying about daily meals on the table (if they have such a thing), which neither reach three in number and are far from being square ones. Sometimes, they are more like morsels, despite all the effort and struggle to “get busy” in this great Guyanese survival stakes.
Of late, they have had to “get busy” and calculate the still unknown, but sure to be increased, costs associated with education. They are anxious about books and school fees and all the ancillary appurtenances associated with 21st century learning. And they have had no choice but to “get busy” in considering the reach and implications of the budget’s embedded tax proposals in other areas. I further submit to my once learned friend, Minister Trotman, that amidst his surprising and stinging call to “get busy” there is something palpable now present in the Guyanese air: it is fear and uncertainty. Neither is traceable to global warming. It is a fear that is best summed up in this manner: “Wha wee gon do now?” and “How wee gon mek out?”
But the Minister of Natural Resources (a rich portfolio that may have troubled his stomach lining) is not alone in racing away from a once avowed servant-leader model. To be sure that call to get busy lacks consideration, is devoid of listening, and is saturated with shades of the distance and degradation that was once heaped upon the hapless in this country for decades. Now another comrade of Mr Trotman, rushes forward to insult the Guyanese public. Listen to her.
“Mr Speaker, if anybody wishes to go to a private hospital, it means you have money…” That nugget of timeless wisdom is from the Minister in the Ministry of Communities; I shudder for the communities that depend on the graces and benevolence of Ms Valerie Adams-Patterson.
For the enlightenment of the Minister, there are many poor people who have to borrow and beg for assistance from others to be able to go to private medical institutions. There are many who are subsidized by relations in the diaspora. These people, to a significant extent, do not have money. But they are fearful (there is that hard piercing word again) of the GPHC. For they very well could have had a traumatic experience; or know of close people who did; or the professionals at the GPHC could have referred them to a private facility. Now the Minister’s pointed reference to cosmetic surgery is well taken, but the Minister knows full well that cosmetic surgery a la prior beneficiaries does not even feature, and should not feature when the poor and struggling are involved. All too often it is a matter of life and death.
The critical Minister should also be familiar with the fact that the same public hospital that is found so comforting (and it can be) has been bypassed by political luminaries in this country for the longest while. They always seem to end up elsewhere. I daresay that that impressively compelling record will be extended, be it new government or old one.
Thus, I ask: should struggling citizens be penalized for aspiring to a different standard and higher quality (hopefully) of medical attention at another place? And should being able to visit a private hospital serve as indisputable evidence of “you have money,” ergo pay the VAT and shut up or “get busy?” Is it appropriate to stick it to the people so ruthlessly, so thoughtlessly?
If this government wants to get really serious about tax revenues, then it ought to get confrontational with a self-serving and obsequious private sector, and collect the billions of leakage that deplete the treasury annually. That is much more constructive than harassing and verbally abusing regular tax-paying and tax abiding citizens.
Once again, in the tempests developing over the 2017 Budget, the customary lack of respect and appreciation for Guyanese surface in the scornful dismissal of their hopes and fears, from those who should care and comfort. I wonder about this, and then I remember that the elections are over, so there is no use for those voters once courted.
Now I know that it is only nineteen months since that fateful political rearrangement, but I feel as though the PPP is still at the helm and up to its usual malevolence. It could be them, except that the names and faces are different.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
