Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter on behalf of the thousands of Guyanese who are the forgotten majority that are drowning in poverty and don’t know where the next meal is coming from. As the social scientist will say, they are the silent majority and do not know how to make their voices be heard. They are only relevant during election time when the politicians will need their votes.
Editor, don’t get me wrong, this is no government bashing, all I am saying is that the government is not getting its priorities right. Yes, you need infrastructure development, but you cannot spend most of the oil wealth in that sector alone and the people are starving. As the saying goes, “while the grass is green, the cow is starving”. And the problem lies in the very high cost of living where wages, salaries and pensions cannot keep up with this runaway train.
The price of a basket of goods and food items has doubled and tripled in some cases compared to two years ago, whilst wages, salaries and pensions remain embarrassingly low. And that is the crux of the matter, people cannot survive with the high cost of living. So the question is, what can the government do? To begin with, increase wages, salaries and pensions substantially and provide a monthly subsidy cheque to the most needy in society, like low wage workers, single parents and pensioners. Something similar to the food stamps of the USA.
This monthly subsidy cheque must be only used to buy food items from a supermarket. Trust me government, if you can only implement these two measures that I outlined above, then you are on your way to be re-elected at the next elections. Don’t spend all the oil money on the contractors and businessmen alone, share some with the poor people of this country.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus
