Dear Editor,
In the nineteen eighties when the Janata Party ruled India, the country recorded impressive growth rates on a sustained basis. It was lauded in international circles and was even seen as a challenge to China. With the party’s impressive record, and confident of victory at the polls, it entered the elections with the slogan, “India Shining”, it lost the election. Shell shocked, and on analysis, it found that while India may have been shining, the sunshine did riot filter through to the masses. In Guyana the situation is not dissimilar. Our working class may now be worse off than they were at the beginning of the current Government’s tenure. The three elections from 2011 saw the PPP securing a majority once and losing the other two. The margins of victory and defeats in each were by a single seat.
Despite all the misgivings of Mr. Norton, the next election is going to be a cliffhanger. Our changing demographics have traditionally been against the PPP and there is nothing to suggest a change in the foreseeable future. A barometer of how citizens view their homeland lies in the country’s rate of migration. An editorial in the Stabroek News some time ago had reported that Guyana’s rate of migration relative to its population puts it among the first ten countries in the world. Our president needs to be less ubiquitous and more contemplative, unless like his two predecessors he intends to be a one term president.
Sincerely,
Mohamed Khan
