In many ways, it’s really nothing more than the nature of the beast. It’s traditional. A New Year’s Day message comes with the territory of being a leader. Also, at the beginning of a year, it would be the very thing to offer hope, wouldn’t it? The only question that ought to arise out of that is whether that offer should be limited to what one can actually deliver on. As it turns out, it’s not that simple. As has been seen time and again, the practice is to be expansive.
In Guyana, a New Year’s Day address is in reality not quite the promise it masquerades as. It is in fact a political speech; more of ‘what you should believe’ than what will actually occur. As a case in point, President Irfaan Ali’s 2024 New Year’s Day speech promises Guyanese cost-of-living interventions, improved traffic laws to curb crashes and fatalities, and moves towards the implementation of free university education. The first two are definitely doable, if the correct actions are taken. The third he definitively said would start in 2025 and therefore mention of it at this point was more of a trailer for a future attraction.
Outside of the above, the President was quoted as saying: “We will also be addressing in a very frontal way, the issues of mental health, suicide; advancing measures to increase disposable income; supporting the building of consortiums to further enable our people to benefit from the opportunities here; manufacturing and industrial development expansion, supporting through incentivizing investment in manufacturing and industrial development; more community investment aimed at creating community safe spaces, community security, community livelihood, community empowerment.” No real specifics there, but perhaps the people can file these promises away and see how and if they pan out.
In addition, commitments were made to spend more money on sugar production and defence. There was also a recap of measures instituted going back to 2020, a reminder of how well the economy is doing and the boasts of coming investments. Disappointingly, there was no mention of any direct intercession into the twin epidemics of gender-based violence and femicide, although there was a rash of the latter towards the end of the year and the former is an ongoing scourge desperately in need of greater attention.
Noticeably, President Ali refrained from the usage of most of the catchwords and phrases that punctuated his past New Year’s addresses. There was no mention of a ‘year of recovery’, ‘stepping on the accelerator’, ‘shared prosperity’, ‘post-2030 state’ or anything similar. Even his ubiquitous ‘One Guyana’ was conspicuous by its absence. However, it seems he could not resist flowery language entirely, offering: “development is sweeping across our country like a breath of fresh air”, “putting more money into the pockets of our people” and “the fruits of our collective efforts are beginning to ripen”.
To his credit, President Ali painfully highlighted some of the major adversities that buffeted the country in 2023: the Mahdia school dormitory fire; the fatal Guyana Defence Force helicopter crash and Nicolas Maduro’s desperate acceleration of Venezuela’s machinations with regard to our Essequibo. With regard to the first two mentioned, he spoke with reverence of our collective grief and about the last, lauded the outpouring of patriotism and solidarity, singling out the opposition for their support.
Unfortunately, past promises like 2021’s: “we must not remain a rich country of poor people…” and “the standard of living and the quality of life must be lifted for all,” continue to fail to materialise. As a variation on this, President Ali vowed in this year’s address that “workers will continue to benefit from increases in their wages and salaries, augmenting the other measures, which we will take to enhance household disposable incomes.” Given that the government’s pattern has been to announce an arbitrary pay increase towards the end of the year (a 6.5% across-the-board pay hike for all public sector workers was awarded on December 8), one cannot help but wonder just how, when, or if ever, this will be accomplished.
Meanwhile, the working poor will no doubt be waiting expectantly for the cost-of-living interventions that ought to cushion spikes in prices. Transformation in healthcare, including mental health, which the President deliberately mentioned, certainly does not translate to building new hospitals, but improving the actual care available at existing public medical institutions. A strategy to achieve this would be unquestionably welcomed by those whose pockets are so bereft following a visit to the market that they cannot afford private healthcare or the cost of medication.
Finally, references to new roads, highways, bridges and other infrastructure were almost overkill. One would have to be blind not to see the much-touted ‘urban renewal’ sprouting all around. The problem is that to people struggling to survive from payday to payday, this merely serves as a reminder of how little they have and how no one seems to care. So-called development matters not when one’s weekly basket of goods falls far short of staving off hunger and every day is simply more of the same.
