Life could be very short in Guyana. Everyday newspaper reports − of babies burnt to death in fires, bodies floating in canals, miners murdered in the hinterland, passengers drowned in riverboat collisions, pedestrians crushed in road accidents, women killed by partners, workers falling to their death on building sites and suspects shot dead by the police – all lower people’s quality of life.
Defining ‘quality of life’ as people’s perception of their position in life “…in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns”, former President David Granger expressed the view on the programme – The Public Interest – that the personal quality of life of many Guyanese is actually declining despite the increasing national petroleum revenue received by the state over the past forty months.
Violent crimes – including robbery under arms, robbery with violence and robbery with aggravation – constituted 75 per cent of serious crimes in 2022 and are pushing educated persons to emigrate at an estimated rate of 89 per cent, one of the highest rates in the world. Violent crimes are most prevalent in the most heavily-populated Nos. 4, 5 and 6 Regions on the coastland; at least one serious crime is reported daily in Nos. 1, 7, 8 and 9 Regions in the hinterland.
Attacks by Venezuelan gangs – called sindicatos – in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Region (No. 7) occasionally recur while the Defence and Police Forces, increasingly, are immersed on misconceived municipal missions on the coastland. Terrifyingly, the murder rate has been rising – from 131 in 2021 up to 138 in 2023. Two persons are murdered, and five women are raped, every week; 182 women were raped during the first eleven months of 2023.
Mr. Granger cited the US State Department’s Report on Human Rights Practices released in March 2023 to highlight dangerous abuses including “potentially unlawful killings by police and mistreatment of suspects and detainees by the security forces.” Police killings − of Peter Headley, in May 2021; Orin Boston, in September 2021; Deanraj Singh, in May 2022 and Quindon Bacchus, in June 2022 − demonstrated the State’s disregard for human life and rights. Six men ‘died’ in police holding cells in the last four years.
He decried the persistence of deaths – especially of new-born babies, patients, pregnant mothers, the elderly and other vulnerable persons – in the public health system. Vector-borne diseases – Dengue, Filaria and Malaria – plague the country and Malaria continues to be a leading causes of death. The World Health Organization report pointed out that Guyana represents about 3 per cent of Malaria cases in the Americas. Eleven persons died, and 239 were hospitalized, of Dengue in 2023.
The former President claimed that the PPPC’s mindset of ‘totalistic’ control of public administration at the national, regional, municipal and neighbourhood levels strangles local democracy and suffocates civil society. The ‘one Guyana’ mantra has become a ‘one party’ mandate that is eroding people’s ‘quality of life’ in the context of their expectations and entitlements. Guyanese deserve ‘a good life’ but they are not getting it.