Dear Editor,
THERE was a letter from a Brian Nobrega (Aug. 12, 2025, SN) who said, “With over $3 trillion more allocated than during the coalition years, one would expect that the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Guyanese would have improved significantly. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Today, Guyanese are burdened by a skyrocketing cost of living… much of it has been poured into infrastructure and concrete projects. While development is important, it should not come at the cost of people’s well-being. Let us demand leadership that puts the people first. Let us fight for policies that lift up the poor, empower the middle class, and close the gap between the rich and the struggling.”

This is the kind of false conclusion we hear from people who don’t think deeply. Investing in infrastructure benefits all people – schools, scholarships, hospitals, water treatment plants, roads, playgrounds, house lots, agriculture, bridges are for people to have a better quality of life.
So, when you criticise our enormous investments in infrastructure, you are actually complimenting the government. It’s not a complaint. What Mr. Nobrega is calling for is already being done by the PPP Government.

What he meant to say is we must increase the minimum wage by higher percentages also, since that’s how some people measure progress. We can expect the PPP to do more in their second term given their huge successes in the first term of President Ali.

When the PPP took over in 2020, everything needed fixing everywhere – from hospitals, to schools, to bridges, drainage and irrigation, water treatment, markets, government buildings, mud roads needed to be replaced with proper roads, etc. Everything needed to be fixed. So, we had thousands of new roads built all over the country.

In my village of Whim, all the streets got fixed. Nobody has to walk in mud to get out of the village to the public road. This is a good thing that improves our quality of life. The multitudes of roads all over Guyana make travel easier, quicker, and the roads are “highways to happiness” as the United Force envisaged long ago.
When I travel along the Heroes Highway, Ogle to Eccles Highway, and Eccles to Craig Highway, or the Schoonord to Crane Highway, it shows our modernisation in progress. My foreign relatives are amazed at the enormous progress they see when they come to Guyana.

When you see all the big houses in the Diamond/Providence area, the huge warehouses along the Heroes Highway, you can’t believe you are in Guyana. Just amazing transformation!
So, one has to be very dishonest to say Guyana has not improved or quality of life has not improved. The focus on infrastructure was the right thing to do, and even more is needed.

The other major quality of life issues that the government has addressed and which deserve high praise and recognition are the equal access to housing and equal access to post-secondary education at no cost.
Every person, every family dreams of owning their own homes. A home is a “big ticket” item. Given the competitive housing market now where homes and lots are astronomically expensive, home ownership would be out of reach without the government’s most successful housing programme – a model in CARICOM and the Third World.

House lots for all is a dream come true and the government has worked tirelessly to open up lands and reduce the backlog of applications. Everyone who received a house lot since 2020 should consider this a great blessing from the current government as they vote on September 1.
Similarly, education is the great equaliser that takes us out of poverty, and gives anyone the opportunity to better themselves and improve their lot in life. For the thousands of graduates who benefitted from loan forgiveness, training and degrees through the GOAL programme or UG, consider this a great blessing as you vote on September 1.

So free education increases the quality of life for those who benefited. This is focusing on people. The other great blessing is all the brand new modern, American-type hospitals and refurbished clinics that have been built. Hospitals help us to have good health and a better quality of life too.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate