Ramotar needs to define his own vision

Dec 08, 2013 Editorial

The second anniversary of the swearing-in of President Donald Ramotar passed almost unnoticed earlier this week. Indeed there was not even an acknowledgment of the anniversary from the President himself who was present and spoke at one major national event.
The Constitution of Guyana allows for presidential elections every five years and re-election only once after. President Ramotar is in now in his third year of a first term. Even one of the most fervent supporters of the PPP/C, pollster Vishnu Bisram, has been sounding fears that the PPP/C can lose the plurality and therefore President Ramotar may not enjoy a second term, assuming that he would wish re-election at the next elections, whenever they are called.
This paper does not wish to engage in such speculation at this stage; there are far too many variables that would require extensive analysis. What we wish to do is examine the Ramotar Presidency to date and how it has defined the man himself, and as a precursor of his legacy, whenever that time comes. The fairest way of doing so is to assess him by the standards and promises which he and his PPP/C promised in the 2011 Manifesto.
The next PPP/Civic Government, the manifesto boasted, aims to achieve a modern Guyana, where rights and freedoms are enhanced, where individual and national wellbeing is secured. In reality, security for everyone one, whether in the home or on the streets, has deteriorated, as has the judicial system to the extent that a man is caught on camera shooting at another and walks free.
Too many of our youths, products of a dysfunctional social and educational system, are being killed in highly questionable circumstances; too many guns are at large, a consequence of a corrupt licensing system and the suspected smuggling of guns into the country.
We were promised a nation that is united in spirit and in purpose, and a nation whose long heralded potential is fulfilled.Instead the wishes of the electorate have been translated into gridlock where nothing gets done and stalemate is the order of the day. The Constitution whose continuing flaws were so grimly exposed by Ramotar’s malevolent predecessor remains untouched and continues to be violated, albeit in a less vulgar manner.
The Manifesto promised to “ensure, within one year of the 2011 general elections, that local government elections are held.” Two years on, this fundamental value of the Constitution, remains as elusive as ever. We are left with many of the local organs of democracy without a functioning governing body, even as the capital city wallows in filth.
Fortunately, the economy has remained buoyant, helped in no small measure by high gold prices and the Petrocaribe Agreement with Venezuela. Our exchange rate has remained stable and the rate of inflation modest. But the spectre of blacklisting of the country for its failure to have internationally approved money-laundering prevention legislation hangs like a darkening shadow over the immediate future of the country.
But perhaps President Ramotar’s biggest failure was to embrace, blindly, the prestige projects of Jagdeo which were conceived to enrich the few at the expense of the rest of the people. The demise of the disastrous Amaila Falls Hydroelectricity Project was sealed by an act of God after the deception of the Privatisation Unit. The NIS is another fiasco which no amount of band aid will cure.
Instead of putting money into the education system, the Administration sold the very profitable shares in GT&T to invest in a Casino and Hotel with a private partner whose identity has yet not been disclosed.
This newspaper does not believe that Mr. Ramotar’s presidency is doomed. He can redeem himself if he acts and acts decisively. We remind him of the words he used at his inauguration when he said that it was now time to “cast aside the partisan cloak” and “put on national garb”. He “invited Guyanese from all our political parties and all or civic and religious groups” to engage in the further development of the country over the next five years.
He needs to start by defining and articulating his own vision for Guyana, not Jagdeo’s. He needs to embrace an economic policy for the country as a whole not the few plutocrats. He needs to deal with the corruption within his own party and government rather than hurl abuse at those who point out corruption. He needs to surround himself with persons of integrity and competence, not sycophants.
And he needs to start now.

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Ramotar needs to define his own vision

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