The PPP is incapable of providing security for the citizens

DEAR EDITOR, Youth unemployment in Guyana has reached crisis proportions and is now socially unsustainable. In 2013, unemployment among the youths 16 to 30 years old was approximately 38 per cent. This is an appalling waste of a labour force in its prime years. In addition, there is a direct link between crime and unemployment of youths in Guyana, as most of us know very well. But the PPP is in denial. The cost of crime is enormous. Too many innocent and hard-working citizens have lost their lives and properties at the hands of criminals, and the regime seems oblivious to their plight. In economic terms, crime discourages production and the much needed investment to develop the country. The consequential cost of security is a major burden on the country, on every business and household. Various studies have shown that more than 74 per cent of residents in Georgetown do not feel safe at night. The same is true for many in the rural communities and yet the inhumane PPP regime has not done anything to ease their pain. Injuries caused by violence are estimated to cost the healthcare system 15 per cent of its annual budget. The human suffering resulting from crime is immeasurable. It is not possible to put a monetary value on a human life. The murder rate in Guyana is outrageously high and out of control, despite some half-hearted efforts by the police to reduce crime. And the armed robbery rate in the country is much higher that the Police bogus results. Having the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Guyana will not solve crime unless the government is prepared to cooperate fully with the entity and change the extradition laws to make it easier for the drug barons to be extradited to the US. Establishing the SWAT team will not reduce crime unless the regime is prepared to pay its security forces decent and livable wages so that they will not be tempted to take bribe to make ends meet. It is estimated that one in five Guyanese has been a victim of crime in the last two years. Most of the perpetrators of violent crime are males aged 15 to 29 years old, the vast majority who are sucked into criminal activities as a means of survival and are not hardcore criminals but high school drop-outs. The Ministry of Education has failed them by not having an after-school programme across the country for high school drop-outs. This particular group has been marginalized by the PPP for the last two decades. They are hopeless and will do anything including joining the “murder for hire gangs” in order to survive. They are typically jobless and not enrolled in a school or training institution. The PPP regime must implement a crime prevention programme that involves tackling youth unemployment, because the most effective antidote to crime is creating opportunities for the youths to find jobs. The minority PPP regime must provide direct employment opportunities by launching a large-scale meaningful public sector employment programme for the youths. It must ensure that the macroeconomic policies it pursues are designed to create employment for the youths in general and not just for friends and relatives of the party members. It must doggedly promote an economic environment that generates good paying jobs, especially in small, medium and micro enterprises. Creating employment opportunities for the youths is only one part of the equation. The complementary part of the equation is ensuring that youths have the skills to fill those jobs. Approximately 90 per cent of the unattached youths, most of whom are high school drop-outs, have no skills. They are what the late Sir Arthur Lewis, the Caribbean Nobel Prize-winning economist once called the “unemployable.” Education and training of the youths are vital to the development of Guyana, reduction of crime, and improve the living standards of the poor and the powerless. Is the government aware of this? Yes. Has it done anything to improve the situation? No. We want to tell the PPP regime that cosmetic and/or band aid solutions will not solve crime in Guyana. The number of “uneducated” youths leaving the school system has to be reduced. For those who have left the school system but are still uneducated, there must be more opportunities for vocational and skills training. Given the huge financial resources being squandered and stolen by corrupt officials in the administration, the solution is for the PPP regime to provide much more funding for the youths. This requires innovative thinking which is devoid of this corrupt cabal. Today, a large percentage of youths in the urban centres carry some kind of weapon for protection or to rob someone against the background of inadequate security and lack of police protection, which makes it impossible to have a safe environment. We want to call on the PPP to provide better security to the citizens. But honestly, it is incapable of doing so. Asquith Rose and Harish Singh