Dear Editor,
I am responding to the letter, in your newspaper, captioned: “Senior citizens can hope” published on January 3, 2024”. My experience, as a pensioner, is none of the politicians care enough about our elderly; a section of our society that is the foundation of our country’s future. We are here because of our elders, not the other way round. Pensioners of today – their parents and grandparents have built what we now call Guyana. Without them, their sweat and blood, we would not have a country that most of us are proud to be called Guyanese. Guyana has produced some world class professionals, in nearly all areas of life, wherever they lived or worked – they have excelled.
At the age of 65, most citizens are active – mentally and physically -but they are treated with contempt and made to feel as if they don’t belong to our society. There are no special accommodations for them in the boats, the buses or public services. I experienced how bus drivers crammed the buses and no safety entering or exiting the speed boats. The disrespect starts with politicians or more directly, the party in power at the moment. Astonish-ingly, public servants are forced to retire at the age of 55 years; when they are at a peek of their lives; when they have accumulated years of skills, knowledge and experience. All of that intellectual property goes to waste and there is no system in place to retain it or sustain it. It is a colossal waste – a loss to our society.
The Ali-Jagdeo adminstration needs to think “long and hard” about the extension of the statutory retirement age to 65 and beyond. In most European countries, the statutory retirement age is 65 years and there is a huge battle to extend it beyond 65 years. The incumbent administration is worried, quite rightly, about the huge shortage of skilled labour, in the canefields, in the farms and in other areas of life, but yet, it has not considered allowing people to work up to 65 years and beyond. Not only must it extend the age of retirement, but there must be a strategic approach of “how to transfer the skills, knowledge and experience” to the young workforce. There must be a conscious effort to pass on the knowledge, skills and experiences to the youths. There has to be a plan and that has to be done across the board.
This administration boasts, every day, about Guyana being “the fastest growing economy in the world”; with a population of less than one million. But what does that mean in reality? I don’t see a strategic plan that involves the overwhelming majority of people in this economy. The plans are haphazard and patchy; there is no coherence. It is like living, like most people, from day to day. President Ali said that he wants to “make Guyana, another Dubai”. He talks about “One Guyana”. But these are Stalinist slogans that can only be realistic, if all the citizens are positively consulted and actively involved in the production process. Ali must know that a significant section of our people feel isolated and marginalised. A large section of the African Guyanese feel, as if they are “second class citizens” and that the Indian people are treated better than them. That is not an unfounded allegation. I have experienced this type of discrimination and marginalisation carried out by functionaries in the ruling party, who are in charge of the distribution of cash relief, grants and food hampers. I have had to write to the Region 3 Chairman, Mr. Inshan Ayube, regarding the distribution of Food Hampers during the Christmas season. He did not respond to my note to him.
I have no doubt that President Ali wants to have a better Guyana for all Guyanese, but he has to “stamp his foot down” on his party acolytes, who have moved away from the People’s Progressive Party’s core values of treating all Guyanese, as equal citizens.
Sincerely,
M. Jinnah Rahman
Pensioner
