BETTER TOGETHER

Dec 29, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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A very prosperous 2020 to Guyanese everywhere!
Guyana stands poised for take-off. We are on the cusp of becoming a developed nation with enough wealth for this nation to take off on the road to massive growth. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s best estimates, Guyana’s GDP is expected to grow from 4.6% in 2019 to 86% growth over the next 12 months!
So, it bears repeating: Happy 2020 to all Guyanese.
Guyana’s time has come to make our great plans real, but there is one proviso – the APNU+AFC has to be voted back to Government so we could continue to build this nation.
We started four years ago, and those who are able to recognize the truth have to acknowledge that this Government has begun to turn the fortunes of our nation around. The new Guyana is already visible. There is hope in the eyes of our people who have suffered from criminal neglect for about 23 years. Some say that at last they feel like they belong to this country because their needs are being met – water, electricity, Internet connections, new airstrips, bridges, local and overseas markets for the products they make, schools for their children and easy ways for them to reach school by bus, boat, bicycles, etc. for free.
This is not magnanimity on the part of Government. This is very necessary! President Granger’s 5 ‘B’s programme has one all-encompassing objective, to re-create Guyana’s external image as an Educated Nation, and as the Breadbasket of the Caribbean. This can only be done by you the people, who have better means to earn well from your labours.
Now we have friends around us in the Caribbean. Guyanese no longer face the embarrassment of being searched three times between CJIA and Piarco’s Baggage Claim, or Grantley Adams, or JFK, or Lester B. Pearson, or Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Guyanese are proud now, and we have every reason to be! There are no tyres around our necks and no invisible signs on our backs saying “I come from Guyana, the Narco State”.
No more do our neighbours treat us with scorn because they believe us to be so poor that we’d come to their country to take what they have – food, clothing, fuel, dry goods, etc. Actually their vendors were happy to sell our Traders their ‘overstock’ at inflated prices, and yes, some damaged goods too.
Well, that’s done, so please let us keep it over and done with. Please remember that what will continue to define us as a nation is our ability to walk over the pettiness that we’re still seeing in the political arena. Certain people are still sowing seeds of confusion and uncertainty, and helping you to believe that you didn’t see what you did see. Please let your eyes guide you towards making the right decisions for you.
There is a piece of the Guyana cake for every citizen with your political representatives working together to build up what we found was broken down.
In the Coalition’s first term, the people of Guyana have been ably represented in Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers by the five parties that make up A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which is its own coalition, and the AFC.
The AFC joined this group on Valentine’s Day 2015 when the Leaders signed the first Cummingsburg Accord to form the historic multi-party, multi-racial Coalition. Together they won the 2015 General Elections. Last week, after a few months of very amicable negotiations and discussions, President David A. Granger and Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan placed their imprimaturs on the new, stronger Accord.
Under this new agreement, the AFC will get 30 per cent of the Coalition’s seats in the National Assembly based on the 70:30 ratio agreed upon. The new formula will also determine the allocation of seats in the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs), and the AFC will retain the Prime Ministerial post.
For the second time, this group of true nation builders will face down the ‘destroyer’ and the new parties contesting the 2020 elections. This time, the Coalition has the benefit of the work it has already done in four short years.
This is a good time to say that in 2015 when the Coalition was the ‘new Kid on the Block’, with each member having little (or no) experience sailing the ship of State, the mess that the new Government met was almost overwhelming. It took much of the next two years to clean up the Governance systems and public service; and to at least slow down corruption (which has proven to be so deeply entrenched that it will take more than four years to erase).
We stayed aware of our people’s expectations for us to fix the problems that kept them from developing faster; for us to implement the new systems faster; and to get rid of the PPP’s ‘elements’ who remained within the public service’s workforce. From Day One, we have had to fight against institutional sabotage and delaying mechanisms designed to hold back and even break up new projects.
We’ve had to work doubly hard to convince certain sections of society that this Coalition Government does not care about which political party you voted for. We have a mandate to serve the people of this nation, and that is what we have been doing.
We’ve worked hard to switch the focus of Government to function like it is working for the People, as servants of the People. For too long, Guyanese were made to believe that they had to pledge their allegiance to the ruling PPP before they could receive running water, or have their road graded or paved. The coalition put an end to that wherever we could, even though we understand that the allegiance card is still being played in certain inland communities.
The coalition returned Local Government Elections in the hope that communities would elect the people they know would work for them. It turned out that the previously entrenched systems have been reinforced instead of stamped out.
However, if you, the electorate, give us the chance to continue the work we began, measures will be put in place to make sure your communities are developed for the benefit of all, not just the few in the NDCs.
The new Accord is an enhanced version of the 2015 Cummingsburg Accord that fits better with the new Guyana.
Happy New Year, Guyana.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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