Guyana should not be a poor country

Feb 24, 2019 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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On August 29, 1969, the National Assembly passed a Resolution constituting the State of Guyana a Republic, with effect on the twenty-third day of February 1970. This year 2019, we celebrate 49 years as a Republic. This joyous and reflective occasion affords us the opportunity to evaluate our national progress, review the pathway we have travelled on the journey towards the society of our ideals and to gauge our conduct and contributions as a member of the international community.
Our national motto: “One People; One Nation; One Destiny” is a realistic ideal and permanent challenge. An understanding of our history and the nature of slavery and the plantation system and colonialism, explain the need in our case for an ideal that supersedes the tumultuous experiences of our forebears.
The aftermath of slavery and indentureship mitigated against the cohesion necessary for a viable state that has a small population, abundant natural resources, and remains largely poor and underdeveloped. The work of healing historical wounds and building trust necessitated the flourishing of ethnic cultures and simultaneously the formation of cohesive national sentiments.
These three phrases (One People; One Nation; One Destiny) are infused with particular meaning and possess protective guarantees surpassing their linguistic potency. For us Guyanese, they are like guardians watching and protecting us from insecurities born of ethnic rivalries and conflicts, and from possible national disintegration.
It states the present as enshrined in the Constitution that “Guyana is an indivisible, secular, democratic sovereign state;” and for the future it contemplates a common destiny. It is impossible to exhaust its hopes, for the work of achieving its stated ideal can always be made more perfect.
In his address to the nation on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Guyana’s independence His Excellency Brigadier David Granger President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana said, “We are proud of our achievements over the past fifty years. We are proud of our efforts to transfer our people from logies and tenement yards into their own homes. We are proud of the infrastructure that was embedded and the opportunities provided to our people to hold the highest offices in our public service. We are proud of having established a University of Guyana, a Teachers’ Training College, the multilateral schools that provided greater access to education for our children, and the health facilities throughout the ten administrative regions.
Guyana achieved all of these things and more, even as we faced threats to our territory and to internal unity. We resisted, for fifty years, the threat to more than two-thirds of our territory by Suriname and Venezuela. We repelled an incursion into a large part of our country claimed by Suriname. We suppressed an internal insurrection in the Rupununi in 1969. Our nation has faced its tribulations but, because of our unity and strength, we have overcome them”.
As we head towards the first fifty years of Republican status and look towards our centenary, the prospect of achieving economic independence is real. There is no doubt that within the next fifty years Guyana will emerge as a prosperous modern state. The recent discovery of oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs in our territorial waters (the Stabroek Block), signals the beginning of our commercial petroleum industry.
It is reasonable to assume that there will be more Petro-carbon discoveries off-shore and even on-shore. This new development (oil) taken in conjunction with government’s policy to promote social cohesion, national unity and a green economy can work to the benefit of ensuring that Guyana emerges in the short term as a small global player.
President Granger in an address to the nation shared similar optimism when he said, “Guyana should not be a poor country. Guyana is endowed with rich natural resources. We are among the smartest and most industrious persons in the world. We have always been known to possess the values of self-sacrifice and solidarity. We possess the resources – both human and natural – to banish poverty”.
We have all heard time and again that Guyana is a land of great potential. However successive generations have failed to maximize on that potential. We have all boasted that Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the South American continent; an English-speaking state, whose geo-strategic location, natural resources and market access, position us to become a significant regional player.
Our strategic geographical location makes us a natural bridge to CARICOM and the huge South American continental market. Our resources which include gold, diamonds, bauxite, sand, stone, manganese, water, oil and timber are the envy of many, who only possess white sand beaches. We have 15 million hectares of pristine forest, more than 200 types of fruit and vegetables along with large expanses of arable agricultural lands. Guyana is also the signatory to numerous international trade agreements and preferential bilateral arrangements. Guyana is a land that is richly endowed and truly blessed.
Guyana over the next decade must position itself to take advantage of the fact that both food and water are scare global commodities. We must move from producers of raw material to exporters of finished value-added products.
We must become the food-basket of the region again. CARICOM countries import over US$4 Billion annually in food and the global need for both fresh water and food will become more acute in the next two decades. In short, Guyana’s economic prosperity is achievable because of its natural endowments, and we must capitalize on this now.
In his charge to the nation on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of our independence, President David Granger said, “Every generation has the responsibility to move our country closer towards the common aspirations which were ignited on May 26, 1966 Independence – the dream of the good life for us, our children and our grandchildren.
Our fore-parents sacrificed so that we could have a better life than they did. The responsibility of this generation is to lay the foundation for the good life for our children and grandchildren. The next fifty years must find us engaged in realizing that vision.”
Happy Mashramani!

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