Can the President say he really did a good job?

Dear Editor,
The Department of Public Information (DPI), in an excerpt from President David Granger’s interview on November 1 with Kaieteur Radio, quoted the President to say “My legacy is written on the faces of the people of this country and I’m very happy that I have been accepted as their President. I go to communities and they realise we have been doing a good job”.

While the President is obviously entitled to his opinion, it is hard not to wonder whether his feet were firmly on the ground when he spoke.
While the President’s contribution, and ultimate legacy, can be assessed from several points-of-view, how can he, with all seriousness and a straight face, pat himself and Administration on the back for a job apparently well done? Just consider the President’s and his Government’s concern for the nation’s sugar workers.

In the era of the Granger Administration, the President and his cohorts have chosen, without hesitation or even a seeming second glance, to put some 7000 sugar workers on the breadline. It has been described as the single largest retrenchment in our post-independence history.

How can the President be “…very happy…” when thousands of Guyanese, his fellow countrymen and women, right at this very time, have a hard, if not difficult, time to live a normal life. Just consider 13-year-old Devina Budwah of Wales who is quoted as saying “I really want to go back to school, but sugar plantation close down…when I was in school, I always wanted to become a nurse, the estate is closed now, so my dream is fall apart”.

Think about how many Devinas there are now and how their dreams to become nurses, doctor, lawyers, other professionals, some even aspiring to be President, have now fallen apart.
How can he “…as their President” say his Government has “…been doing a good job” when Guyanese like Avinash Singh, who, according to a September 30, 2018 Inews article, doesn’t “…want to wake up in the night and your kids tell you that they are hungry and you don’t have anything to give them”. There are fathers and mothers, right now, in the same situation as Avinash.
Or, bear in mind, how many are like Bindmattie Hardatt Mala who, according to the September 29, 2018 edition of Stabroek News is forced to eat one meal per day. This is the real situation for many.  Then there are some like Stephanie Adams who takes “…a blind to part off the house…”. She told the Stabroek News that“…we na get money to do nothing, we na get water and light”.

These are the real cries of Guyanese who have been placed in a miserable life by the Granger Administration. These are people who have given their lives and efforts to Guyana and for their contributions, they are forgotten, cast aside and simply ignored.

As Granger blows his trumpet, the late Andaiye with Eusi Kwayana and Moses Bhagwan in the Stabroek News of January 8, 2018, summed it up appropriately when they deemed the Government’s sugar policy as “…disastrous… callous, foolish, ill-advised and economically unfeasible”. Mr Christopher Ram, in a December 19, 2018 Inews report, said the Government’s actions were “…callous and… cruel”.

Today, the President, who has chosen to surround himself with a battalion of security personnel, erects barricades around him and employs a host of extraordinary security measures, really should not try to rewrite or misrepresent the facts and ignore the reality.

There has hardly been anything close to a “…good job” by the Granger Administration with regards to sugar and many other areas of national life.

Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU