Mr. David Granger! Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan! You have to start taking away people’s Drivers Licenses! The carnage on the roadways continues to mount. And there seems to be no abatement in sight. Many folks, especially visitors, returning Guyanese, or those from the rural areas, are morbidly afraid to drive on our roads. There is this sick and deadly notion that “If you can drive in Guyana, you can drive anywhere else in the world”. Given the prevalence of accidents and deaths on our roadways, the United Republican Party (URP) would like to proffer a few suggestions. For starters, we think that the police are still inclined to taking bribes from errant motorists and there is no end in sight for this behavior. This is learnt behavior. The current administration has been paying themselves some $300,000 extra per month. And their argument is that it they don’t pay themselves this exorbitant amount of money, they are likely to thief. So this additional hundreds of thousands of dollars is to reduce their likelihood of stealing. The police officers (and the criminals, which matter we will address at another time), understand EXACTLY what the politicians mean. What the Granger administration means, is that if you are not properly awarded for your honest labor, it is likely that you will steal. So what we are seeing on the roadways is a largely lawless driving population, propelled and empowered by the notion that all it takes to continue in their dangerous was, is a bribe to any police who intercepts them. And the police will take the bribe because the unethical precedent for subsidizing one’s income has been set by the new administration. The URP would like to make the following recommendation in an effort to reduce traffic accidents. We are suggesting that a Drivers License point-system be immediately introduced. This is standard in all developed countries. The process is simple and effective. All Drivers Licenses are assigned 100 points. Comparatively, all traffic violations are assigned a negative (minus) point value. For instance, 1. Driving past pedestrians while they are on the pedestrian crossing, – minus 30 points 2. Blowing your horn in a quiet zone, – minus 10 points 3. Driving while above the alcohol limit, – minus 70 points 4. Driving through a red light, – minus 30 points 5. Speeding in a congested area, – minus 20 points 6. Causing an accident while over the alcohol limit, – minus 80 points, etc. Additionally, there should be cases where the law allows for a person’s Drivers License to be suspended or indeed, forfeited, for certain kinds of traffic violations, such as causing death while over the alcohol limit. Also, the drivers Licenses of repeat violators of the traffic laws, should be suspended or forfeited. Of course, a precipitous monetary penalty is attached to all the violations. If the Honorable Minister Ramjattan and the Granger administration are indeed concerned about the loss of life and limb on the Guyana roadways, we should see the immediate implementation of some form of these suggestions. What the URP and every Guyanese citizen know, however, is that we will not see any swift implementation of any drastic, commonsensical approach to road safety because many of the Mini busses (whose drivers are some of the worse perpetrators of road accidents), are owned by commissioned military officers and politicians, or people with political contacts. Police officers also depend on “bribes” to supplement their income. These are primarily the reasons for the systemic and endemic lawless road-culture. However, if the Drivers License point-system is implemented and drivers become aware that they can lose their driving privileges, some of them will begin to drive with that realization in mind. And while some police officers will accept bribes and allow some drivers to flaunt the laws, there are other officers (thank God!), who will issue the citations and the deadly driving culture will gradually change for the better. Notwithstanding or limited resources, the United Republican Party stands ready to assist the administration in the implementation of this worthwhile, commonsensical concept. We are offering our support in an effort of helping to save the lives of our fellow Guyanese and to assist in making driving on the Guyana roads more tolerable.
The mental health professionals in Guyana are scratching their heads to understand and explain why more people in Guyana want to kill themselves than in any other country in the world; Guyana has the highest per capita suicide in the world. Guyana is not the poorest nation in the world although it is the second poorest behind Haiti in the Western hemisphere. Nevertheless, it has a higher suicide rate than Haiti. Of course 28 years of PNC misrule and 23 years of PPP have reaped havoc on the economy of the country. And we are listed as among the poorest nations although in terms of resources we probably rank among the top twenty five. So why do we have the highest suicide rate? Is ethnicity a factor? Guyana has an ethnic and religious mixture akin to several other nations, such as Trinidad and Suriname right here in the Caribbean. And they do not have comparable suicide rate like Guyana. Theirs is significantly lower. We all have similar abnormal issues like high crime rates and political issues and some other abnormalities of a dysfunctional society. But we in Guyana want to die more than anyone else in any other country. So ethnicity could not be a factor although Indians have a higher rate of suicide than other groups. The United Republican Party (URP) would like to suggest that our prevailing lack of political hopelessness is compounding our suicidal problem. So gverment must address feelings of hopelessness. A dearth of hopelessness and dead-end expectations has gripped this nation for many years and this could have contributed to rising suicide over the last several decades. Those who could flee are fleeing in droves, while those who are unable to satisfy the qualifications for migration are left in the economic and political squalor that our leaders have created for us. These realities further compound any other reasons that exist for our suicidal depression. Many rather die than live in the depression. The corruption of PNC under Burnham and Hoyte and of PPP under Jagdeo and Ramotar decimated the psyche of the Guyanese populace. The negativity, cronyism and blatant thievery, coupled with the pervasive crime and lawlessness made life in Guyana very difficult. The masses were tired and they voted for a change. But there is disappointment and rising hopelessness. Now Granger and his crew have come in. And would you know they have made a bad situation worse. The economic situation (an additional stress on the minds of those with suicidal tendencies), steadily grows from bad to worse. Additionally, the President is recorded as saying that his government is not particularly concerned with the plight of the rice farmers or youths (Two of the groups with the highest suicide rates). More recently, the Government seems to be enjoying the constant battle between themselves and the Public servants and the teachers. It is as if these current political leaders are on a mission to frustrate workers and other citizens of Guyana. Looking around, many have been terminated from their jobs by the government. Also, vendors have been moved from their place of business. Many vendors are now out of a job. More young persons are unemployed since the change of government. The effects of crime are more severely being felt (the government says that crime is down but the population thinks otherwise). Duties and taxes have all gone up. Exports are significantly down and the small man backtrack hustle has been decidedly interrupted by the GRA officials now station at the unofficial ports of entry. Everywhere one turns, one sees a country steeped in stagnation. People are now asking folks in the Diaspora to send remittances so that they could drink and party. The night spots are now being frequented and bursting at the seams by more and more folks who are not even bothered about meeting their more pressing commitments. Correspondingly, we are experiencing a raise in alcohol related suicides. Yet this government seems oblivious and unwilling to implement any policy that is outside of their miniature boxes. The professionals and statisticians are desperately trying to dissect the reasons for Guyana’s unexplainable high suicide rate. However, while they do, the URP would like to ask those doing the research to look into whether or not the continued hopeless – inflicted on the Guyanese people by their successive Governments – is not playing a major part on our high levels of depression. In addressing the growing and pervasive suicide problem in Guyana, President Granger once said, “Happy people don’t commit suicide.” The United Republican Party has concluded that the members of his government will therefore never commit suicide. The President has fattened the purses of his Minister to guarantee that they remain happy for a long time. However, thanks to their policies, coupled with their incompetence, they can expect the suicide numbers to remain high among the rest of us.