Dear Editor,
This is what a staunch PPP supporter said to me when I asked him about flooded roads, roads washing away, stellings floating away, bridges buckling, wharves collapsing, kokers falling apart. The statement implies something every Guyanese already knows: the PNC did build some roads, bridges and stellings initially, but failed miserably to maintain them or to continue to build them. For those of you who do not know me, I equally dislike the PNC, PPP, AFC, WPA and every other political masquerader and charlatan ripping off or that has ever ripped off this nation. I love Guyana and the Guyanese people. I have an extremely unflattering view of politicians and political parties in Guyana. So I asked this individual if he realized that the abject PNC departed office some 18 years ago and that the PPP has been in power since 1992. The reason for my question is simple: this is not about the PNC any more. This is about basic competence, integrity and efficacy. The kind that is expected of every government regardless of what the previous government did or did not do. The fact that the PNC failed to build or maintain a road has nothing to do with the fact that the PPP builds a new road, bridge or stelling and the same washes away, collapses or floats away. One government’s rank failure was failing to do something in the first place or to maintain it after it is done while the other is doing something but doing it in a manner that leads to a waste of taxpayers’ dollars and that saddles taxpayers with even more debt.
At the end of the day, the people of this nation are left with the same tragic results. A road that is built but washes away is in the same position as no road being there or an ill-maintained road being there in the first place. When that road is rebuilt it means the people of this nation have paid twice for that road. What is worse is if that road was built on corruption, waste, mismanagement, incompetence, inefficiency, nepotism, bureaucratic overflow or pilferage. It means a road that should cost 1 dollar suddenly costs 2 dollars. The Guyanese people pay that extra malfeasance and negligence premium to a select few who enjoy the spoils. Then that road washes away. Because public pressure is raging about the quality of the road, the road must be rebuilt better and it now costs 4 dollars. A road that should cost 1 dollar becomes a road costing 6 dollars. The Guyanese public is expected to pay for this extra 5 dollars or 500% premium.
How do the Guyanese people pay? Think GRA collecting more taxes than ever before from their pay cheques. Think VAT. Think all that money the family is sending from overseas being grabbed from their hands by the taxman. Think government borrowing heavily from the World Bank and IMF and from all those foreign governments and other multilateral institutions. These foreign entities have to be repaid. With interest. If they aren’t repaid, the debt becomes a debt on the people of this country. See the PNC’s US$2.1 billion at departure from office for reference. Who’s getting this extra 5 dollars? I suggest people ask their government representative this question. But remember this: the Guyanese people are paying for these roads, bridges, stellings, factories, bridges, etc. Not the government. Even when they float, wash away or collapse.
So, they should go ahead and ask for more money from overseas relatives to pay those rising food prices. Or better yet, get out there and slave away and work longer hours in the canefields, factories, government offices and in rumshops across this beautiful land of ours for a pittance so they could pay more taxes and take care of that debt owed to those guys living in North America and Europe sitting in their air-conditioned offices and sipping their specially blended coffees.
By the way, they hardly know about Guyanese workers and the fact that they had to scrounge for a meal today or sat up all night to watch a sick child because they could not afford to take her to the hospital.
Or that every day a worker might have to walk 3 miles along that new 5 dollar road in the blazing sun to go to a school without teachers or to go to a job that pays barely enough to eat.
Or that he/she hardly sees the shiny new 5 dollar stelling because they are consumed with hunger from missing a meal just so they could have enough to pay the fare to catch the ferry to see a loved one. It is time to wake up. It is time to graduate from the reflexive mentality that has been conned into us by politicians seeking their own self-aggrandizement and start thinking again. It is time Truth becomes God. If in our own homes, we sacrifice, share and cooperate to ensure we save and help each other, why should we not demand this from our politicians? It is time we stop defining the actions of a government by the failed actions of a previous government. Doing so enables the current government to resort to lower standards. If a road should only cost 1 dollar it should be built for only 1 dollar, nothing more. If the previous administration built the same road for 6 dollars, that administration failed the people of the nation and ripped them off. That is not justification for the current administration to build the same road for 6 dollars or 5 dollars or anything above 1 dollar. Similarly, if the road should be of a certain quality and it fails, the issue is not one of the actions of a previous administration that vacated office some 18 years ago but of those who built the road now.
It is time Guyanese start showing some maturity. This country cannot continue to build its infrastructure with these prohibitive negligence, malfeasance and hidden costs. Somebody will have to pay dearly for it eventually.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Maxwell
