The Story within the Story…50 years later: Our politicians have to stop talking and deliver

May 22, 2016 News

---

By Leonard GildarieThis week, we are celebrating our 50th year since being declared an independent country, away from British rule. There are several events across the country with even a Chinese show at the National Cultural Centre tomorrow.
At the National Stadium and D’Urban Park, there will be foreign and local artistes.

Expected also will be speeches and promises.
Scores of visitors are here, some of them for the first time in decades, for the celebrations. The city has received a cleaning. The time should be used to reflect on what exactly we have achieved and where we want this country to be.
We can speak of Singapore and Anguilla and St. Maarten which have all risen with little resources.
I could not help but being upset on Friday as I was driving to work on the East Bank of Demerara and ran into the congestion around the Eccles area, caused by the commissioning of the Independence arch.
We have the four-lane highway extension from Providence to Diamond that remains incomplete almost five years later. The contractors are battling rains and traffic controls to meet deadlines to complete it. I see sections of the completed phases already showing faults and I could not help but wonder about quality of work and how long it would last.
I must commend the Ministry of Public Infrastructure for pushing to complete this eyesore.  I am now hearing an August completion.
This project is a sad indictment on our capacity and weak systems that allowed incompetent and greedy contractors to participate in contracts despite a track record of poor execution of projects.
One company that has been sacked still owes workers.
Our capacity to handle and monitor projects has cost us deeply. What is more galling to me is seeing our tax dollars being treated in such a cavalier manner. We give our contractors a slap on the wrist and send them along their merry way.
I don’t see our supervising engineers being punished. They are as guilty as contractors. It is not our personal monies so we apparently don’t care.
Back to the East Bank linkage. This is a major problem for the country. Precious man hours are being wasted getting back and forth. We have to complete an alternative and this should become a top priority for this administration.
We are talking about a road link between East Bank and East Coast. We should burn the candles at both ends to make this happen.
We have been talking for years now about bridging the gap and cohesion and shared governance. The David Granger-led administration is about to mark one year in office and one seems to have the feeling that that not much progress has been made in this direction.
The Opposition has refused or delayed its place on the many state boards. Not good.
You cannot seriously talk about development from press conferences held once or twice weekly. We need the Opposition at the decision-making levels too. It is how successful countries become first world ones.
Has the administration done enough to reach across the divide? That would be the big question. We have a little less than half of the country voting for the Opposition. These are very real figures and real people.
Administrations will come and go. The people will remain. The market vendor who awakens at 1am and the farmer who toils from sunrise to dusk will remain.
We should, as leaders, be concerned about the legacy we leave. The job is not about the perks or the dinners we are invited to.
Farmers are concerned about things like drainage and access roads to their farms.
People are concerned about jobs. Businesses have been complaining of fewer customers and less foot traffic. Investors’ confidence and consumer spending are all interlinked.
We can choose now to take the bull by the horns and work together to uplift our people or stay on the fringes and talk about how bad the economy is.
Our benefits from oil are not expected to flow for at least six or seven years, according to estimations.
Our agreement with Exxon Mobil should ensure that Guyana benefits. We see harsh examples of Nigeria, Venezuela and even nearby Trinidad, where abuses have been taking place. These are countries in deep trouble because of poor contracts, corruption and mismanagement.
While we want investors badly, we should not be bending backwards to accommodate anyone that comes. We need to know who the people are and what they are giving us for entering our backyard. Their track records.  We need proper due diligence.
We do have a lot to offer. How well do we negotiate?
We need better laws to ensure our public servants and politicians think twice of stealing.
We cannot be serious if we have our executives and Permanent Secretaries telling us that they carried out an illegal instruction from their minister and that we should forgive them.
We should not tolerate excuses from our leaders about illegal acts being sanctioned under the protection of Presidential powers.
We should learn from lessons like that of the Brazilian president who faces impeachment proceedings because she oversaw her country’s financial figures being manipulated to show better growth.
The people are demanding police who don’t take bribes and a court system that actually works.
We want a public service that takes customer service seriously and doesn’t treat an elderly pensioner as if he/she is a nuisance.
We should not concentrate on Georgetown alone. There are many outlying communities crying for help, in Berbice and Essequibo and those riverain areas.
Yes, it will be argued that we are not a resource-plenty country, but we can be criticized for wastage too. We have to prioritize.
So as we reflect on our 50th year as an independent country, we should tell our leaders that times have changed. Mediocrity and excuses will not be accepted. We want you to deliver. We want to see a genuine effort outside of the National Assembly of working together. We cannot score political points at the expense of our people. But we can make Guyana a better place. The power lies with us.

---

---