THE expressions of relief from worried policyholders said it all on Thursday when President Bharrat Jagdeo rolled out the rescue plan for the distressed Clico Life and General Insurance (South America) firm.

Despite assurances from the government that it was moving to cushion the impact from the Clico collapse early last year, many were gripped by anxiety about their investments for about a year-and-a-half while the matter dragged through the courts.

Those doubts have now been dispelled with the announcement by the President that 11,290 active Clico policyholders will have their policies fully covered.

The applause and the very visible expressions of relief that accompanied the announcement of the plan, and the answers Mr. Jagdeo gave to questions posed at the meeting at the National Cultural Centre in Georgetown, showed just how gravely concerned many people were.

It was the recognition of the human face to this issue, as President Jagdeo put it, that clearly touched most of those at the meeting who welcomed the assurances by the government that their worries were being addressed.

The government could have stayed away from the Clico matter and left the policyholders to fend as best as they could, but it did not.

As the President noted: “There are people whose lives had to be put on hold because they don’t have access to their money. [There are] people who can’t build their homes because they were saving up to [do this]…people who cannot buy basic necessities, furnish their house, take a trip, pay school fees.”

“Some of these people who write in the papers, they don’t see that. For them it is all about numbers and politics,” he rightly remarked.

It is all too easy for political activists to criticise and hurl attacks and many do so hoping to score political points, without offering any constructive suggestions, recommendations or alternatives.

Some are so intent on negativity that the sourness and bitterness is etched in their faces and it is difficult to imagine them smiling, their faces creased with laughter.

In the Clico affair, the government should be commended for going all out to come up with a rescue plan for the harried policyholders and it should be spared the antics of those who criticise for the sake of criticising.

In this regard, the President’s forthrightness is understandable.
“I don’t have any apology to make to anyone in this country for meeting people…I think it is part of my job. And so, I promise you that I will continue to work with the Central Bank to ensure that these promises are kept,” he stated at the meeting.

The task now should be to ensure the promises are kept to end the trauma the Clico policyholders have had to endure for so long.

It could not have been easy for the government to inject $3.6 billion to reimburse holders of policies other than long term insurance, including those with investment policies and pension funds, although some of these will be capped to a ceiling of $30 million per policyholder.

But it has done so, in addition to the other steps the President announced, and now there are many, including ordinary folks, who can sleep much easier.

And in the end, such simple things are what really matter in life.