The changing face of Guyana

Jun 29, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
It is no exaggeration to say that we live today in a Guyana that is vastly different from what obtained during the pre-1992 period.  For one thing we are today a democratic country. People are free to choose which from among the competing political parties they want to administer the affairs of state.
Gone are the days when the country was a laughing stock in the Caribbean and the rest of the world. Guyanese were looked down upon by their Caribbean counterparts because of the stigma of rigged elections and undemocratic rule. Political posturing at the international level by the then PNC government did very little to erase the widely-held perception of a failed state. It was not until the late 1980s that international pressure was brought to bear on the PNC regime to democratize the political system. This, along with growing resistance by the Guyanese people over deteriorating conditions of life, forced the PNC to agree to free and fair elections which were convincingly won by the PPP/Civic alliance.
Regardless of what some people may wish to say about our politics today, one indisputable fact is that our body-politic today is healthy and dynamic as never before. We now have a situation where the combined opposition parties are in control of the Parliament and the major party, the PPP/C is in control of the Executive by virtue of having won the plurality in the November 2011 elections. This has given rise to a fair amount of tension and stress in the body-politic among the major political players.
The PPP/C administration, unaccustomed to interference by the parliamentary opposition in the execution of its national development plan, has to now expend lots of its energies in trying to convince the opposition parties as to the efficacy and benefits that its programs, both capital and recurrent, could bring to the Guyanese people, even though the projects hardly need justification having regard to the manifest benefits that will accrue to the population when they come on stream. I refer specifically to the hydro-electricity and the Cheddi Jagan Airport expansion projects which could be regarded as transformative projects.
Politics, it is said, is concentrated economics. Without the correct political perspective and vision, no country can move forward. The current administration has always subscribed to a vision and philosophy of social justice where the benefits of development must spread to the population as a whole. This philosophy has found expression in the manner in which all national budgets presented by the PPP/C administration are configured. There is a clear bias in terms of spending on the social sectors, more particularly in the areas of education, health, housing and water.
All of the aforementioned sectors impact directly on the quality of life of the Guyanese people. Our children today are doing much better at school today than at any time before and the performance of our children at local and regional examinations are getting better and better with each passing year. The University of Guyana is producing more and more graduates in almost every discipline offered. The doctor to patient ratio has improved steadily over the years, thanks to generous scholarship offerings by the Cuban government in the field of medicine, which is supplemented by medical graduates from our own university and that of friendly countries such as China and India.
The same is true of professional nurses and nursing assistants who are posted to health facilities throughout the country, thereby increasing significantly the nurse to patient ratio. There is absolutely no doubt that the “critical mass” approach of the administration in the development of our human resources is today paying dividends. This is manifesting itself in better student performance at examinations and a much more literate and healthy population.
Contrary to what is sometimes being peddled by some people, some with obvious political biases, Guyana is not faced with an education crisis. The statistics on student performance is showing an overall improvement at both the CXC and NGSA examinations. Perhaps more significant is the fact that there is a much better spread of the results, in which rural and hinterland schools are becoming increasingly competitive at examinations.
There are some who credit this enhanced student performance to after-school lessons and to the emergence of private schools both at the primary and at the secondary levels. While these may be contributory factors, they in no way diminish the central role played by the Education Ministry in terms of providing the correct policy prescriptions for all schools to follow, especially in terms of curricula development and in the area of pedagogic skills, so vital for effective teaching and learning.
The fact is that we are seeing the creation in Guyana of a stronger, knowledge-based economy, where the impact of information and communication technology is being increasingly felt. This is good for Guyana as it becomes more and more integrated into the mainstream of global economics and politics. We now live in what is referred to as the information age in which our ability to access, interpret and transmit information will determine how far and how fast we advance along the road of progress and prosperity.
Hydar Ally

 

 

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