Dear Editor,
WHEN irresponsible politicians spew barefaced lies to deceive the people of Guyana, we need to expose their dishonesty and hypocrisy for all to see. In his recent tirade on social media, the disgraceful Leader of the Opposition took aim, in a very personal way, at the man he and the PNC fear most… The Honourable Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.

Last Sunday at Babu Jaan, Jagdeo was critical of former Mayor Hamilton Green, for suggesting that Forbes Burnham, not Cheddi Jagan was the real “Father of the Nation.”

Of course, Hammie would like us to forget that Burnham’s legacy is carved in stone as the man who raped the constitution by rigging every general election in which he participated and who’s policies bankrupted the nation, causing tremendous hardship on our people.

Even knowing this to be true, Aubrey Norton shamelessly defended the myth that Burnham was a great leader, and proceeded to glorify 28 years of tyranny under the PNC. Thankfully, we live in an era when lies and distortions can easily be exposed with a few clicks on the internet, and while I wouldn’t waste precious space here debunking the obvious, there are two topics that need exposure.

And so I present the facts here that no one can dispute. At Babu Jaan, General Secretary Jagdeo informed the massive crowd that the Guyanese people will soon benefit from 12 state-of-the-art hospitals and seven additional schools equipped with computer labs.

Now, any normal person with the interest of our people at heart would rejoice and commend this young Ali administration on such a magnificent achievement in just two and a half years. Any normal person, that is, except Aubrey Norton, who has never acknowledged anything the PPP/C government has done to transform the lives of Guyanese, including his own supporters, so he quickly labelled these projects, “a scheme for corruption.”

Norton said, “Now you’re talking about building 12 hospitals. You have to first improve the health system. Hospitals don’t make a health system work, it’s the human resource in there and the systems to deliver in health…”

Now let’s examine how the PNC managed the nation’s healthcare system while they were in office. The following extract was taken from the 1992 World Bank Report, and reflects the dismal conditions in the healthcare sector prior to 1992 when the PNC was in office.

The World Bank, which has been critical of the PPP from time to time, is a world- renowned financial institution that provides loans and grants to governments of low and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.

In this report, the World Bank reported the following conditions that existed in the health and education sectors under the PNC government:
“13.73. The quality of health care provided in Guyana has declined markedly over the past decade. Although government allocation to the sector dropped sharply over this period, high levels of inefficiency, the fragmented organization of the sector, an inability to identify and prioritize objectives, and the limited coordination between the relevant agencies has greatly contributed to this decline.

“The deterioration in care has been most severe in smaller urban and rural areas where health facilities are severely understaffed, and lack even the most basic drugs and diagnostic equipment.”

“13.74 The health referral system in Guyana was designed to include five different levels of facility. However, the extremely poor quality of care offered at lower levels of the referral system has caused patients to bypass these services and seek care directly from the Georgetown Public Hospital, the highest referral level. The breakdown of the referral system has greatly increased inequities; it is the poor and rural population who have access to the poorest quality facilities and who are least able to afford the costs of travel to Georgetown to obtain better care. The consequences of these inequalities are reflected in the low health indicators reported in poorer and more rural regions such as regions 9, 8, and 5.

“13.76 From the late 1960s, government has provided fully subsidized public health care to all citizens. In an effort to equalize access to health care across all groups, the government severely restricted the development of the private sector and prohibited public employees from working outside public facilities. Resource constraints, however, have meant that the government has been unable to fulfil its objective of providing high-quality, free health care to all its citizens. Funding and manpower shortages have led to sharp declines in the quality of service offered and the government has been forced to relax constraints on private sector activity.”

The Infant Mortality Rate in 1991 was 46.799 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 25.120 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, a decline of 53.68% from 1991. [To be continued]

Yours respectfully,
Harry Gill