Dear Editor,
Thanks to the government and SN Guyanese know what they already knew, or should already have known (“Gov’t sets out registration requirements for $100,000 handout” -SN Nov 22, 2024). Certainly, it is helpful to be informed, reminded, that a valid identification document would be necessary. But that, however, is a restatement of the obvious. How else can it be? It does not provide anything new, anything that is helpful to cash-squeezed and expectant Guyanese. Since SN and/or the PPP Government laid out in alphabetical order its requirements, it is proper that I do the same, regarding what is missing and goes beyond the $100,000 cash handout policy (the what?). Timely information about the procedural rollout would be helpful. I recommend the following to be shared: A) Where is this registration going to take place? Do eligible Guyanese have to gather and lineup in various places? B) Do public servants and pensioners, those already in the ‘system’, have to register to collect? Or are they excluded? C) When is this registration happening? Within a specific period of time and what are the hours? D) What happens after? Is there a waiting period to collect? E) What is the form of payment of this grant/handout? Check or cash. What about direct deposit?
To make my position clear: all hiccups and delays and disputes are quietly shoved aside, the hundred big ones from the PPP Government are a good thing for needy, badly scarred Guyanese. They need it, they have many uses for it, with some left over. Uses, that is. Yet, here Guyanese are, going on over a month later, and they are hanging. By a thread. For a word. For cash. It might be political and leadership striptease for the government, but few are the Guyanese who are entertained. Or titillated. After the number of weeks that have elapsed from the hour of the president’s announcement, why are there still more questions than answers? Why are there still so many questions? Why any question at all? Instead of rising to full stretch like some fast bowler at the end of his (or her) run up, and deliver a hardball, the kind and gentle approach is tried. A slower ball, if that is allowed.
The government knows what the questions are, where the voids are. Why not, therefore, move with alacrity and authority and blow away the mists? When there is an information vacuum, efforts are made to fill the vacant spaces. Now that may not fully qualify as physics, but it does have some political physics about it. The kinetic energy is there, and the heat spreads. It is what leads to rumors, scaremongering, information tampering, and what is malicious and mischievous. Should anyone harbour the thought that I am looking for something through what the mildness of what I write, let this be said. Their ignorance impairs both their eyesight and their idea of what the basic duties of citizens are. Or, in the plaintive hum of Ray Charles: they (you) don’t know me. The cash grant announcement is mesmerizing for Guyanese who need it the most. There really ought to have been some collecting by now. Be done with half measures. Be forthcoming with all the details. And, the cash, of course.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
