Dear Editor,
IT IS well chronicled, despite dishonest denials by the PPP/C, that Afro-Guyanese Communities were criminally neglected by the party’s government, during its twenty-three years in government. And this was because of the fact of race, aligned with the perception that they were not politically supportive of the PPP/C. Nowhere was this political scorched-earth policy carried than in many communities along the Demerara– Mahaica corridor of Region Four.

This policy of institutionalised racism is unlike the socio-economic development programme and practice of the present David Granger Coalition Government, which transcends such narrow and vindictive politics, ensuring that all of Guyana benefits. However, it was Minister of Health Volda Lawrence whose revelation of statistics with regards the allocation of budgetary resources to this particular region highlights the shameful treatment and willful neglect of this particular geographical swathe and its citizens.

The thing with statistics is that they in themselves must tell a story, graphically supporting whatever contention is put forward. And those given by Minister Lawrence do illustrate why Region Four communities suffered the way they did. For instance, the $192M allocated in 2012 for infrastructure by a vindictive and uncaring PPP/C government explains why most communities and their citizens within this region had to contend with either ramshackle social structures/absence of vital social infrastructure such as bridges and culverts; shameful roadways that became a veritable nightmare for travelling vehicles and pedestrians, particularly during the rainy seasons; weed-filled canals that became a harbinger for reptiles; silted drains that bred mosquitoes for tormenting communities and their residents, especially at nights; and the absence of proper illumination, such as street lighting at nights that did not lend for the safety of communities. Even an increase to 228M in 2014 did not alleviate the harshness of the neglect which was so evident when vising many areas of Region Four.

Though no figures were given by the Minister for 2016, those offered for 2017 and 2019, $502M and $605M respectively, do indeed reflect significant increases that would have impacted greatly in enhancing the environment of many of the geographical areas of this region, in terms of bridges, culverts and roads. There is no community within this region that has not experienced some form of socio-economic development/improvement, whether in the form of roads, lighting, or water.

Of very great significance has been the installation of potable water, available for the very first time in areas, commencing along the Soesdyke Highway, inclusive of Kuru Kururu, Sophia, D’Urban Backlands Squatting Area, TucVille Terrace Squatting Area, and many other communities which may not be government supporters. In fact, being able to make potable water accessible to so many communities in regions across Guyana has been one of the biggest socio-development successes of the coalition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government. As a result of this seminal intervention by the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI), the lives of thousands of Guyanese have now been made easier.

A further examination of the allocation for health in this the biggest populated part of Guyana explains why the Georgetown Centre of the State Health Services had been always overwhelmed by citizens from other areas seeking medical assistance. For example, the paltry sum of $251M for 2011 gives weight to this well-known scenario. But persons came to the Centre because of the lack of modern technology that should have been present at the main medical centres along the coastal way, and other basic medical interventions, which the former PPP/C regime, never saw fit to make available to citizens.
No doubt, health services within the general region’s state health system, since 2015, has improved, though it is a work still in progress, with the aim of affording citizens’ quality medical assistance and health care at medical facilities, close to their place of abode, or within their region. The sum of $504M allocated in 2015; $1.1B in 2016, and $1.3b in 2019, underlines a better level of medical services satisfaction now experienced by citizens. For example, the vital medical technology piece, the ultra sound, is now available at all the main health centres throughout Region Four, and accessible without cost to those who have been recommended for its use. Many years ago, it was perceived as a novel medical device, beyond the means of those who could not have afforded its use at private medical institutions. This medical device has added to the State Health system’s diagnostic capabilities, apart from the now almost mandatory laboratory screening which most persons are given, in terms of determining their physical status.

Any government which professes care and concern for the governed, will make available vital social services such as infrastructure and health care; for these are among the two most enduring support systems of daily life for citizens. Their absence lends to a degraded life quality, often with varied mental, physical, and even spiritual consequences for so many. It has been testimony for an entirely two decades and more, a regime that made available such critical social amenities, on the basis of ethnicity and party affiliation, with entire communities suffering such type of vindictive governance.

Sophia, that is currently being gradually TRANSFORMED into a habitable, modern community with sidewalks, asphalted roads, playfields, social centres, Night School and a soon to be built medical centre, is testimony to this brand of governance, not by spite. The David Granger-led administration has continued to govern in the interest of ALL. For him, governance is about embracing every community in every region, and its citizens in Guyana.

Regards,
Mark DaCosta