Dear Editor,

In 2008 old age pensioners were receiving $6,000 per month. The government made numerous promises and finally added $300. For 2009, the pension now stands at $6,300 per month.

What is the salary of a minister of the government?  What is the salary of the President? And the Prime Minister? They work in office for only five to ten years. The pensioners laboured for over forty years and this nation’s politicians represent them by giving them $6,300 per month. Shame or pride?

I met one member of parliament who was telling me and some foreign relatives of mine that the politicians are now paying $15,000 per month to old age pensioners in Guyana. I was told that the cost of minding (rearing) a dog that a big politician has costs over $10,000 per month. Is a dog more valuable in Guyana than an old age pensioner?

The old age pensioners were smartly betrayed by their political leaders. The workers today are worse off now than when the British ruled them. Compare the salary of a member of parliament before 1963 and the salary they now pay themselves. Also compare the buying power of the $15.00 pension then to that of today.

I will not vote again for these politicians.

Yours faithfully,
William Van Brook