The Coalition has put Guyana back on track

Feb 09, 2020 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

Are you tired as yet, fed up with the stupid lies, the deliberate twisting of obvious facts by the PPP’s campaigners? If you’re getting yourself worked up because they repeat the same garbage over and over, the same empty promises that you hear time after time, please save yourself the stress. It is bad for your health, because you certainly know the truth.
Try not to quarrel and argue trying to help them open their eyes and see the progress that is so obvious, the same progress that Guyana is receiving high marks for from international organizations. We have to trust and depend on your ability to separate the nonsense they are being bombarded with from the truth that you and they are living and benefiting from.
We understand that some people have been programmed to turn a deaf ear when the Government speaks, especially during this campaign season, and this may never change, though we live in perpetual hope that it does. We may win some and lose some, but the indisputable facts will remain. One particular fact that no one can deny, is that the Guyana economy has progressed beyond expectation in four years, but there is still a long road to travel to bring us to the reality of being called a developed state.
There is one question you have to consider: Who can you trust to steer Guyana safely through the next five years? Who are you certain will manage the country’s revenue from the oil and other minerals industries, the Agriculture and Forestry sectors; to build up the Education, Health, Environment, Technology and other services sectors? Who can you trust to face the world with confidence on your behalf because they are honest and determined to see Guyana win??
Who could you trust to keep this country from once again becoming a narco-state that earned the disrespect of every other nation, even our closest neighbours? As Guyanese, individually and collectively, we bore the brunt of that international disrespect. We are the ones who received the abuse and it happened sometimes while we were standing on our own soil. We used to be subjected to shaming, intimidation and gross disrespect from the minute we entered airports in other countries
Because of the Coalition Government’s honesty, decency and proven determination to govern with fairness and caring for its people and resources, all of that bad treatment has gone away. We are now greeted with welcoming smiles when we travel.
Do we want the captains of big industries and government representatives of foreign countries Guyana does business with to go back to disrespecting us? Imagine what they will think of every Guyanese if we vote to put the destructive PPP back in office! A Trinidadian Calypsonian once said in his winning calypso that a nation ‘deserves the Government it gets”. He was not wrong, because the power to decide who governs this land remains in our hands. We urge you to think about this when you go into the voting booth next month.
THE COALITION HAS PUT GUYANA BACK ON TRACK
The Coalition came to govern with a simple promise: to deliver a good life for all Guyanese. We mean that every last citizen must have a solid job, be able to create your own opportunities to earn a good living, have easy access to proper public services, financial and social assistance for the vulnerable, and good health and education systems for you and your children.
The Guyana we inherited in 2015 was headed backwards. The PPP’s dishonesty and incompetence gave rise to drastic increases in violent crimes; and they had no interest in upgrading to modern infrastructure or maintaining what we had. Unfortunately we are still seeing the residual effects of a poor education system; poor healthcare, and the loss of overseas markets for our traditional exports. The sugar industry was on its knees; the manufacturing sector was tottering because the cost of production was so high, even the clothing and textile sub-sector; building and construction had hit a wall (pun intended), and there were no investors because electricity and water services were just plain poor.
The Coalition Government took on the massive task of fixing all of this mess, because that is the only way this country could have made any progress. We made long term plans and short term plans, and then we went to work to fix the problems in every single sector, all at the same time. This is still in progress, because what was destroyed in 23 years could not be fixed in four.
But Guyana has come a long way since then. This government needs more time to build that better future for Guyanese, a promise we intend to keep!
TRAIL OF CHAOS
When the PPP left office after the 2015 elections, they left behind a trail of chaos resulting from more than two decades of poor management of the entire country. Unfortunately, they have kept a stranglehold on parts of the Berbice Region. They don’t care how important Berbice is for the people’s growth and the nation’s well-being. Agriculture is the traditional way of life for Berbicians, but the region’s potential for diversity is being stifled.
Berbice will only progress when the PPP’s stranglehold on the region is broken. Berbice has to be set free for any development plan to work. This Government’s plan includes a deep water port, industrial parks, factories to process agricultural produce to move the region up to manufacturing and exporting secondary products such as rice cereals. Berbice has been able to use its strong history to become a centre for Heritage and Eco-tourism.
That plan also includes a strategy to strangle crime which has haunted the region for too many years. The Coalition has made some inroads, but there is more to do. This region is too important to Guyana, for the future of the children, to risk placing it back in the hands of the party that still continues to hold back its progress.
President David Granger is fond of saying that Berbice is a sleeping giant that needs to be woken up. This Government believes that this region will play a great role in the plan to return Guyana to being the breadbasket of the Caribbean.

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