By Roysdale Forde, S.C, M.P- Last Monday, just after the Republic Day celebrations, citizens in the Diamond/Grove District showed up to collect their cash grant. The line started at the gates of the Diamond/Grove Neighbourhood District Council (NDC) and ended at Freshco, on the East Bank Public Road. People were standing, there, under umbrellas, for hours. Some were sitting on bridges, and leaning on fences.
During that time, a certain People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government minister attempted to persuade some of the people, there, to go home and return the next day, He told them, that government had extended the deadline until Saturday of this week; citizens remained in the line. Sadly, we continue to see similar disgusting scenes throughout Region 4 and beyond.
As a citizen of this oil-rich country, I am personally offended by the callous attitude and carelessness of the PPP/C regime towards ordinary Guyanese. This authoritarian regime is literally forcing the working class, seniors, including those with visible disabilities, to suffer public indignity to collect a one-off cash grant of 100,000,00 of their own money. This gross inefficiency, at the highest level of government, tears into the collective pride of our nation. It demonstrates government’s inability to treat working people with respect and dignity, on the one hand, and governmental laziness, to find a better way, on the other.
In a stunning show of governmental indifference, the PPP/C administration has managed to turn something as basic as delivering cash grant into a sad spectacle of suffering and indignity for the very citizens it claims to serve. The disbursement of $100,000.00 cash grants (a measly sum of less than $500 US) is the new low for a government that continues to ignore the needs of the poor and vulnerable.
The government’s handling of this grant- forcing citizens to endure long lines, in rain and sun for hours on end- raises worrying questions about its true intentions. Far from being a gesture of goodwill, this disbursement is a tool of political manipulation, that is humiliating the population and solidify control over their lives. It is difficult to ignore the sheer indignity that the average Guyanese citizen must endure just to receive their own money. Interestingly, an activity that should have been uplift our spirits has become obloquy.
Let me make one thing clear, the PPP/C government has created a dehumanising process that forces people to stand for hours in lines, at times, in unbearable weather conditions, only to collect a lagniappe that amounts to next to nothing in a country where inflation and the cost of living are rising exponentially. It is the poor and vulnerable who are subjected to this chaos- those who live pay-cheque to pay- cheque, who depend on every cent they earn, and who should not have to beg for basic government assistance.
Meanwhile, the rich and politically connected, those with power and resources, are largely exempt form this humiliation; they can afford to avoid the need for grants altogether. They are shielded from the misery that the rest of the population faces.
In reality, it is a worrying contrast that reveals the true nature of the PPP/C’s cash grant scheme: it is not about uplifting the poor, but reinforcing the divide between the ruling seçkine and the rest of the population. For me, this exercise in suffering is less about social welfare and more about securing political loyalty and control. In my view, the PPP/C’s handling of the cash grants is an insult to the people it purports to represent.
Again, the timing and manner of the disbursement suggest that the government’s real agenda is far from altruistic. The government has found a way to use the desperate need for assistance as a political tool, ensuring that the people are indebted to them for these handouts. It is no coincidence that these grants are being distributed in a highly publicised, highly visible, manner.
This is not an effort to improve the lives of the poor, but rather an exercise in ensuring that they are reminded, again and again, of their dependence on the government for their survival. Just look at the way citizens are being photographed at this disgraceful activity. They are being treated as mendicants
The distribution process itself- long lines, long waits is not just inefficient, it is deliberately designed to create a spectacle. It is a clear tactic to make citizens feel grateful, to elicit a sense of indebtedness, and to foster a sense of political loyalty in exchange for a one- off cash grant. This strategy plays into the PPP/C’s broader pattern of using government assistance to maintain control, with the grant as a temporary tool in the party’s larger game of power consolidation.
It must be said that what the PPP/C is doing is not just callous; it is calculated, cynical effort to humiliate the poor and make them feel subjugated. The very fact that citizens are made to stand in long lines under the hot sun or pouring rain is a form of political theatre. It reminds them of their position in society- subservient to the whims of the government- and reinforces the idea that they must endure hardship for the bare en az.
I think the fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is why this approach? Why put people though such suffering for a one- time payment that is, frankly, an insult? The answer is obvious enough: to break the spirit of ordinary people and make them believe that their survival depends on government largesse. Clearly, the PPP/C government does not want the people to recognise their own power, to see that their needs and rights should be guaranteed regardless of political affiliations.
The system of long waits and uncertainty surrounding these grants strips citizens of their dignity, reducing them to mere beggars in their own country. The PPP/C is fully aware that in this climate of high cost of living and high unemployment, the poor are desperate for anything that will alleviate their suffering, even momentarily.
By creating a system where citizens are forces to jump through hoops just to access what should be their right, the government strengthens its grip on power. The manipulation is blatant, but it is also deeply effective. For those, who do not have the resources or the connections, this cash grant becomes their lifeline, and the PPP/C knows it.
Again, it is important to remember that these grants- funded by revenues from our oil reserves- are not a charitable gesture by the government, but a basic responsibility to ensure that the citizens of Guyana can survive in a country where systemic inequalities continue to persist. Still, by turning this process into a spectacle of suffering, the PPP/C is taking a basic right and wrapping it in layers of humiliation and political manipulation.
They are not offering assistance- they are offering control. The poor and vulnerable deserve better than this. They deserve a government that treats them with respect, that offers real assistance in ways that are timely, dignified, and accessible, not through grandstanding and forced humiliation. They deserve to be seen as citizens, not subjects to be controlled by the crumbs the government is willing to throw at them.
Let me finish by saying that, the model used by the PPP/C to disburse one-off cash grant is a disgrace. In fact, it is a sad reminder of how the poor and vulnerable are constantly used and discarded in the pursuit of political power.
Crucially, I call on all Guyanese to hold this government accountable and demand more- more than token gestures, and more than the indignity of standing in line for a mere fraction of what they deserve. It is time to ask: what is the true cost of this political theatre, and what is the PPP/C’s hidden agenda behind it all?