The reality for many Guyanese is completely different from what APNU+AFC Coalition leader, David Granger peddles, and considering the two possible reasons for this state of affairs still leaves the people of the country on the losing end. This is according to Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, during his Thursday (December 5, 2019) news conference, where he said, “Either it is dissociative amnesia or this is a political ploy because he has nothing to campaign on… either way the people of this country are getting shafted.”
Granger, earlier this week, on Sunday (December 1, 2019), during a televised interview, was pressed on the APNU+AFC Coalition’s record in office. He said, “The last four and a half years have put the country of a path of human development and this is the report we have gotten. Salaries have improved. Pensions have improved. The working people are now more comfortable than ever before. The tax threshold has been raised. We have seen changes in those four towns, in terms of infrastructure. We have seen improvement on the performance of children in schools. We have seen, I would say, all round improvement in the quality of life. People are more satisfied now than they were 10 years ago easily.”
Jagdeo called attention to the fallacies in his comments and stressed that the Guyanese people will not be misled, having seen the quality of their lives deteriorate. The Parliamentary Opposition has highlighted the increased cost of living, loss of welfare and other hardships that have been imposed on Guyanese under the stewardship of the APNU+AFC Coalition. Notably, the increase in cost of living – expenditures on basics – was confirmed by the 2018 Annual Report released by the Bank of Guyana, which is the last available statistical report on this issue.
The report said, “The domestic basket of food cost increased by 3.0 percent, which reflected higher prices of fruits, meat, fish & eggs, alcoholic beverages & intoxicants and milk & milk products by 10.9 percent, 8.2 percent, 4.2 percent and 2.3 percent respectively. It added that there were also increases in the transportation and communications category, which registered an increase of 1.9 percent relative to 1.1 percent decline at end-Dec 2017.
“The sub-category of operation/ personal transport (tyres, gas, parts & repairs) increased by 9.8 percent compared to an 8.3 percent decline at end-Dec 2017,” the report said. The Bank of Guyana report stated too that other price indices that registered increases were medical care and health services, as well as miscellaneous good and services by 2.1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
These facts were ignored by Granger when he was questioned about the APNU+AFC Coalition’s record of delivering for the Guyanese people.
