A WORD OF ADVICE

Jun 29, 2015 Editorial

Following the defeat of the PPP on May 11, 2015, a number of pertinent questions have been raised in relation to unity, development strategy, quality of leadership and the general capacity of the coalition government to deliver on the promises it made to the people.
These are some timely questions that are worthy of serious consideration by the present government. One of the telling observations that has been made is that since taking office, the leaders of the coalition government have not been communicating effectively with the people.
The nation is starved for information at it relates to the government’s plans to solve crime, reduce corruption and poverty, create jobs and recuperate state assets. The reason is that Guyana, in terms of economic performance, has been lagging behind most of the countries of the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
For the past decade, the former administration, which had been in power for 23 years, was not honest and transparent to the people. They did not practice good governance and did not deliver on their promises to the people and about the kind of growth that should have occurred.
In this period, Guyana had posted a dismal economic record. The reason being the previous administration, to a large extent, had stubbornly refused to move with the times in terms of implementing the necessary reforms to advance the economy for Guyana to participate effectively in the 21st century global economy.
In fact, the PPP government, especially during the last three years had spent much valuable time complaining about the opposition, and had always seemed reluctant to take decisive action to implement appropriate solutions. Somehow they seem to believe that a fairy godmother or godfather will always emerge at the eleventh hour to rescue them.
However, in the context of today’s world, where every country is basically expected to fend for itself instead of relying on the generosity of other countries, such a belief amounts to wishful thinking.
Following the advent of globalization in the early 1990s, the Global South countries (Third World) including Guyana were warned that the world’s economy was poised for fundamental change; that the era of trade liberalization had arrived and that survival required a fundamentally different approach to the traditional way business was done.
Guyana and other Caribbean countries, except when under intense external pressure from, for example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have generally not heeded the call for change.
Today, there are several angry people, especially youths in Guyana, because their dreams and aspirations of a decent life are nowhere in sight. Having angry youths is a recipe for social instability, unrest and crime, which the nation cannot afford. Already, the high crime rate is a major concern to the citizens.
A word of wisdom to the newly elected David Granger-led Coalition government is that they must identify a set of development goals which can make a real difference in the lives of the people and a way to effectively deal with the prevailing malaise of corruption, crime, poverty and the current high unemployment among the youths.
The leaders of the Coalition Government have to be disciplined, honest and committed in order to deal with these vexing problems and to gain the trust and confidence of the people and move the country forward in the right direction.
They must effectively communicate directly with the masses. But, except for during general elections, the leaders of Guyana are generally not known to be effective communicators when it comes to articulating solutions to serious national issues.
Compared with the founding leaders of the past like the late Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan, the leaders of today are unable to vocalize a clearly defined vision of the future that would inspire confidence and rally the population behind national goals. A word of wisdom to the Coalition government is the alternative to decisive action and effective communication is failure.

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