Dear Editor,
The APNU+AFC regime has of late taken several actions that are obviously ill-advised and have severely impacted the poor class of people in our country.
According to several media reports, the Georgetown M&CC removed vendors from Robb Street, between Alexander and Bourda streets without notice. These vendors have plied their trade in this area for many years and this is their sole source of income for themselves and their families.
Many of these vendors are single mothers, hustling hard to put food on the table for their children.
The President and several ministers are on record as stating that the regime is not responsible for finding jobs for the people. The President urged them to become entrepreneurs and create their own jobs.
The Bourda Market vendors did not have to be so advised. Most of them have been vending their goods for years. They are self-employed and some even create employment for other persons.
At the time of going to press, it was reported that the City Council backed down due to the militant protests of the vendors.
The small entrepreneurs are feeling the brunt of the regime’s heavy-handed policies.
A case in point is the dilemma a young farmer at Strathavon, East Coast Demerara experienced at the heavy hands of the regime.
Hamekarran Narine, like other cash crop farmers, planted his crops on an unused plot of the government reserve. (Cash crop farming is done with the understanding that if the government wants the land, they can have it after the harvest).
For some reason, Narine was singled out and his garden was weeded down. Some two thousand bearing bora plants was destroyed by a stone-hearted administration. The poor man was not even allowed to reap his crop. When he protested this dastardly action, he was allegedly told to ‘go and thief.’ This gentleman has a wife and three children to provide for.
These are not stories in isolation. These actions are a continuation of a regime fixated with order. It is a reflection of the militarization of the state.
Order at all cost.
It does not matter if employment is not available. It does not matter that the government is doing nothing to encourage employment. Those self-employed persons are being uprooted.
The President and his ministers’ words are sounding very hollow when they speak of people creating their own jobs. When this is done, these ‘jobs’ are being taken away in the most vicious manner.
These vindictive actions will also exacerbate the serious social problems we are currently facing.
Every day, we read in the press of multiple robberies taking place throughout Guyana. These actions will further fuel the criminal spiral in our country.
Guyana is sinking in a sea of incompetence and corruption.
The working class is being stifled and entrepreneurship is being destroyed.
The regime is leading us back to a time of grave economic crisis and a collapsing social sector.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
