Dear Editor,
Nobel-prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen have admitted that GDP does not capture the human condition and urged the creation of different tools to gauge the well-being of nations. Yet we have the finance gurus of the PPP who continue to be obsessed with using GDP growth rate to spout a human development illusion. All has not been well with the workers since the great flood of 2005 and the GDP numbers do not capture such facts.
For whom is the GDP growing?
Certainly not for the 75 per cent of the public servants who were promised $52 dollars a day or more by the PPP with their yearly diet of crumbs. The people are aware that their government is not working to provide opportunities for them to live in dignity, so what do they do in reaction to this oppression? They sabotage any efforts to increase productivity. Nothing gets done in the public service these days without fried-rice money.
In addition to the fried rice money, the public also have to face lethargy and undue delays. This is not an acceptable practice but what should a mother who has to buy milk for her baby do with the $47,000 she gets every month? Rent alone is $20,000, basic food is $20,000 and we have not even catered for GPL or transportation costs.
That is why public servants have to trade in cosmetic products, cassava balls, chewing gum, etc, on government’s time as a side business, because they do not have enough money to buy milk for their babies. What are their options? That is why I am a firm advocate for 10 per cent now as a pre-condition to any collective bargaining talks – let the people see real dollars now rather than the illusionary carrot of money later. The workers truly and honestly deserve ever single cent of the 10 per cent.
I want to remind the nation that in 1999 and 2000 when the Armstrong Commission awarded the workers 31.6 per cent and 26.6 per cent as wage increases, inflation was less than when the workers got the usual diet of 5 per cent in 2007 and 2008. So those experts who continue to pontificate about this inflation ‘bogeyman’ clearly do not know what they are talking about. The Bank of Guyana has a well-managed monetary policy that can track and attack inflation in an effective manner as they did in 1999 and 2000. So the PPP is only flagging a red herring.
I am convinced beyond a doubt that the nation can afford 10 per cent without any material impact on inflation. But the Ministry of Finance has to tighten on the excesses on the capital projects.
Why this mean-spiritedness from the PPP in relation to the workers? The PPP always found funds to pump into the pockets of the Fip Motilalls of the world, so why not the workers?
As I said earlier, 10 per cent for the workers is not going to radically transform their living conditions, but it will make a difference for all including the business community.
I am now wondering of Dr Roger Luncheon supports paying only 5 per cent to the workers. History will be harsh on all of those who continue to abuse the workers. Just observe what is happening in India today against the corrupt forces and it speaks volumes. People all over the world will rise up against corruption and oppression and it shall also happen in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
