Dear Editor,
The APNU+AFC administration has to be mindful it does not continue sending the signal that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing or decisions are being made without due diligence. The issue being referred to is the matter of seeking to recoup loans given to students to study at the University of Guyana. It has been reported that the Minister of Finance has proposed the government may undertake the unconstitutional act of restricting free movement of citizens, in and out of Guyana, as a measure to have them repay the loans.
Subsequent to the Minister of Finance’s statement, the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with the Minister within the Ministry of the Presidency with responsibility for Citizenship made known that they are unaware of any such plan. Following these two men, the President announced that the administration will not place any restriction of movement on borrowers and to do so is illegal.
The business of government is managed by time-honoured principles, established rules and laws, not gut feelings. To entertain the idea of imposing restrictions on people to move, without examining the legal implication such would cause should not have happened. The Guyana Constitution is the nation’s supreme law and every government official, moreso the elected representatives, should take the needed time to acquaint themselves with this instrument.
The Guyana Constitution had within free education from nursery to university. Free education at university level was only excised from the constitution with constitutional reform. This means that in relation to students who were made to sign for loans during this period when public education was constitutionally free from nursery to university, neither the State-owned university nor Government of Guyana can hold these persons accountable for an act, which was clearly in violation of the supreme law. The constitution is explicit that any act that contravenes it is null and void.
The introduction of fee-paying at the university started under the PPP/C administration when the constitution spoke about free education from nursery to university. Today, members of the PPP/C are very vocal in making known their knowledge of the Constitution yet when these persons were in office they ruthlessly trampled this instrument. The APNU+AFC administration must not make the same mistakes. When the rule of law is disregarded anarchy reigns.
There is another element to this matter, which is that of the socio-economic factor. In a society, according to World Bank and Caribbean Development Bank reports, where more than 85 percent of the tertiary graduates are leaving the country, approximately 40 percent of the young are unemployed, and national un-employment is at 21 percent. We have problems on our hands.
Workers have not enjoyed real wage (i.e. after factoring in inflation and what can be bought now as against previously) increases for quite some time. There are university graduates who have had to resort to semi-skilled jobs and subsistence business in order to provide for themselves and family. And those who could leave have left.
It means that outside of ensuring the Constitution is not violated, in its present form and considering when student loans were introduced, that the government has to look at this matter through holistic and sober lens. This must include recognition of the reality that among the student population are those who in accessing advanced education did so because they saw it as a stepping stone for better, yet betterment seems elusive.
Any repayment strategy must also factor in that the Government of Guyana has failed to create the enabling environment to retain its people and provide employment and economic opportunities for them to thrive. Going forward Government must also consider examining fee-paying in various forms of national service.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
