Let’s send the PPP and its hollow promises a message

Jul 04, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As we approach general elections we should examine the stewardship of the incumbent party. Five years ago, as they did 19 years ago, the PPP entered a contract with the Guyanese people to form a government and manage our country. As part of the contract, we were promised infrastructure development, public security, improvements in education, an end to blackouts, adequate potable water supply, and jobs for the unemployed. Along with these specific guarantees, the PPP also made some specific promises. Guyana would be a self-reliant society, no longer dependent on overseas governments and International agencies for funding. In 2010, economic activity would be more geographically widespread in Guyana. A significant proportion of our citizens would have left the coastland, and would be occupying the hinterland areas. The exodus to the interior would have been facilitated by economic incentives which would have been provided for investors in those areas since 2001, and by a network of roads connecting interior villages and settlements to each other and the coastland.
2010 was also the year by which the PPP promised that the judiciary would have been transformed. Appointed through a process in which all major political parties participated, Guyanese judges and magistrates would not only be independent, but would be better equipped to administer justice fearlessly and professionally. There were more good promises: a complete highway linking Linden by way of Mabura-Kurupukari, Annai-Good Hope and Lethem to Brazil across the Takutu River; a paved road from Kwakwani to Orealla; a two lane road northward from Orealla to Moleson Creek; a two lane road between Itabali and Eteringbang; and a bridge across the Cuyuni River to link the Guyanese road system with that of Venezuela. There was also to be a modern highway linking Kwakwani, Ituni, Linden, Rockstone, Anarika, Allsop Point and Bartica and crossing the Essequibo River by a bridge in the vicinity of Kokerite Island. Add to that more roads and a high span bridge across the Demerara River and a second Berbice River bridge at Everton. Bridges and causeways linking the Essequibo Islands, and a second Essequibo River bridge at Monkey Jump.
By 2010, GUYSUCO would have had a refinery, and would have been supplying the Caribbean with refined sugars. The rice industry would have been diversified to produce rice flakes, cereals and rice straw for feed. Inland fishing for food and aquarium fish for export, significant expansion to the trawling fleet and processing plant, expansion of cold storage facilities, and the transfer of government lands for aquaculture activities. By 2010, levels of poverty in Guyana, in both rural and urban areas, would have been reduced considerably, if not completely eradicated. This most important objective would have been attained primarily because of the rapid growth of the economy in the first decade of the 21st century.  Also by 2010, there would have been clear and indisputable evidence that the racial problems that bedevil our country would have been vanquished to a large extent. This would have come about due to equitable geographic distribution of economic activity, and participatory systems of governance. African and Amerindian Guyanese claims for utilization and titling of ancestral lands would have been resolved. The Amerindians of 2010 would have had better health care, education, and poverty would be virtually eradicated in their areas. Their land disputes would have been resolved, and their lands would have been demarcated and legally transferred to them.
Mr. Editor, these are but a few of the many things promised to us by the PPP five years ago when they asked us to entrust them with the reins of government yet again. This was part of the sales pitch that the Jagdeo regime used to sway an apathetic electorate to give them yet another five years. Guyana would be transformed to a South American paradise. The police would be retrained and better equipped, crime would be brought under control, and we would all be rich. These nuggets are from the PPP’s own National Development Strategy. It is noteworthy that the framers of that document said that this was their view of what Guyana would look like in the year 2010, and, “It is our view that if we have erred in our assessment we have erred on the side of caution and conservatism.”
After 19 continuous years, the PPP is once again asking what remains of their party faithful as well as the people of Guyana to give them five more years. The party and their advocates want us all to believe that they are the only people capable of managing our affairs. Some of the same broken promises of the last 19 years will resurface, and the old scare tactics have already returned thanks to President Jagdeo.
Mr. Editor, my grandmother used to say “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” We have been fooled and made fools of too often. This year, let’s send the PPP and their hollow promises a message: let us end one party rule in Guyana by supporting A Partnership For National Unity (APNU).
Mark Archer

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