Dear Editor,
I write to express my deep concern about President Irfaan Ali’s recent announcement at the International Building Expo on June 26, 2026, that Guyana will construct more than 300 homes in Jamaica as part of that country’s hurricane recovery efforts. While humanitarian assistance is a noble gesture, this announcement feels hollow when thousands of Guyanese families remain without adequate housing in their own country.
What makes this worse is that Guyanese citizens are being asked to pay $2.6 million for a houselot in the middle of former cane fields that sit so low that it will take another $1 million just to fill the land to bring it to a minimum standard to withstand flooding. That is nearly $4 million before you even start building. Most Guyanese cannot afford that.
President Ali boasts that “we are known for keeping our promises.” But what about the promises made to the people of Guyana in 2020 and again in 2025 during the elections campaigns? For years, the government has spoken of ambitious housing programmes, yet the backlog remains staggering. When you finally get the call, you are told to pay $400,000 within 48 hours, then find another $900,000 within a month to pay down on the land, or else it is redistributed to someone else. Then you have six months to find the remaining $1.3 million. If you cannot meet this schedule, you lose the land. This system is designed to benefit those who already have money, not ordinary Guyanese.
Families continue to live in overcrowded conditions. Young couples cannot afford their own homes. The waiting list for affordable housing grows longer each year. Yet somehow Guyana has the resources to build houses for another country where the poor are richer than the poor in Guyana, where 50% of our people are classified as poor. Something is wrong with this picture.
This brings to mind a broader historical pattern. During the Cold War, the United States poured enormous resources into rebuilding Germany through the Marshall Plan. Today, Germany boasts infrastructure (roads, railways, bridges, and public transit), that is demonstrably superior to what you find in the United States. I know this because I live in the United Kingdom and have traveled extensively through Germany and the United States. America invested billions abroad while its own infrastructure crumbled. Bridges collapsed. Roads deteriorated. Public transit systems fell into disrepair. The lesson is clear: when a nation prioritises foreign assistance over domestic development, it ultimately weakens itself.
Guyana is now repeating this same mistake. We are building houses in Jamaica while our own people wait. We are sending engineers and resources abroad while our own roads, drainage systems, and public services remain inadequate. I have seen with my own eyes that many national roads, water systems, electricity systems, and even houses in Jamaica are far superior to what we have in Guyana. Let us be honest about that.
To me, this is about one man trying to build his tattered legacy as he sets up his international career at the expense of the Guyanese people. If President Ali wants to build houses in Jamaica, why not use his personal funds? He is rich enough.
President Ali speaks of a “modern Guyana,” but for whom? For the people of Jamaica? For foreign investors? Look what he has allowed Massy and ANSA to do in Guyana. I will ask a very basic question: do you think Mattai’s or Survival can even dream of opening a cake shop in Trinidad and Tobago? The non-tariff barriers in the twin islands would frustrate them so much that they would turn back on their first flight into that country. Everyone protects their home base in the region except Guyana.
What I would say is this: this state of selling out the land and resources of our country would not have happened under former President Granger. Call him what you want, but he was a Guyanese nationalist who properly understood the value of nationhood. He understood that you protect your own first. He would never have allowed our resources to flow outward while our own people suffered.
I want the Guyanese public to reflect on these simple questions. What about the single mother in Georgetown who cannot afford a home? Who is helping her? What about the family in the interior living in a shack? Who is helping them? What about the young couple who have been saving for years with no prospect of homeownership? Who is helping them?
Let me be clear: I am not opposed to Guyana offering assistance to neighbours in need. Solidarity is a Caribbean value. But solidarity must begin at home. A nation that cannot house its own people has no business building houses for others. That is not solidarity. That is negligence.
The government must explain why Guyanese resources are being used to construct homes in Jamaica while the housing backlog in Guyana remains unaddressed. Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? Where is the commitment to the Guyanese people?
President Ali should focus on delivering for the people who elected him. Build houses in Guyana first. Address the backlog in Guyana first. Fulfil the promises made to Guyanese families first. Then, and only then, should we look outward.
Yours faithfully,
Surujdai Juglall
Discussion