FIGHT FOR FREEDOM ON THIS INDEPENDENCE DAY

May 26, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Independence Day 2020 is reaching us at a time when the progressive and democratic forces are locked in serious struggles to defend freedom, decency and the integrity of our people and nation.
The attempt of the PNC-led APNU/AFC cabal to, barefacedly and openly steal the elections of March 2, 2020, if allowed to succeed will do very serious damage to every aspect of our country’s lives. It will drive us back to the darkest days of the PNC dictatorship and lead to the degradation of our socio-economic advancement.
Cheddi Jagan, the foremost fighter for our independence, was never tired of stating the link between democracy and all-round progress. One of the constants throughout his long and illustrious career was to bring to the Guyanese people, the awareness that there can be no social and economic progress without political democracy.
Guyana’s political history has proven that beyond the shadow of a doubt.
In seven short years, from 1957 to 1964 the PPP transformed Guyana beyond recognition.
Production in every area, bauxite, sugar, rice, coffee, cocoa, coconuts, timber, gold to name a few moved rapidly, many becoming important exports to all parts of the world.
The PPP government at that time created institutions to ensure that the human capital necessary for nation building were in place. Hundreds of schools were built. Education began reaching people for the first time in the remote areas of Guyana. In order to give all Guyanese secondary education, the PPP had established an All Age Schools. Students moved seamlessly from primary to secondary classes.
We were one of the most literate people in the world. We built the University of Guyana with great opposition from the PNC to give us the skills to administer Guyana and not to be totally dependent on foreign specialists.
Health services too expanded and new hospitals were constructed in various parts of the country.
The housing drive witnessed a marked improvement. Many of the houses in town and the countryside are still standing as a testimony of the untiring efforts of then PPP administration to give our people their own homes.
The PPP took major steps in diversifying our agriculture. We produced so much coffee in the North West and Pomeroon areas that, despite colonial sabotages, were sent to Nestle’s in the US to be converted to Guyana Instant Coffee.
The fact today that we are self-sufficient in things like cabbage, peanuts, carrots, blackeye peas and red beans to name a few was because of our policy of broadening the base of the economy.
In that period too, the government launched the ‘Guyanization’ drive. That programme was ensuring that qualified Guyanese were taking over the top administrative jobs from the colonial personnel before independence. Many outstanding Guyanese came to the fore, in that time. One that immediately comes to mind was Gavin Kennard who was the CEO of the new Guyana Industrial Corporation, the Chairman of the Board was Ashton Chase.
Cheddi Jagan is on record of advocating for a Guyanese Governor when Sir Ralph Grey was recalled.
Other institutions such as the Bank of Guyana and the Mon Repos School of Agriculture still stand to reflect the hope and the courage of our leaders.
It was the work done by the PPP government, and Cheddi Jagan in particular, that we often boast our strong foreign service. In preparation for independence, Jagan established a department for foreign relations. Two of the persons recruited at that time were Rudy Insanally and Raleigh Jackson. Both of whom distinguished themselves as outstanding diplomats.
With such great promise, why did we not achieve more in the post-independence period, one may well ask.
There is no one answer. However, at the heart of all the reasons was the destruction of our democracy.
Independent Guyana was born in very difficult times. After changing the voting system from the Constituency system to Proportional Representation, the only country in the Commonwealth at that time with such a system, a government was installed to protect the substance of colonialism under the flimsy excuse of fighting communism.
Guyana is the only country that was granted independence with a State of Emergency in place. Leaders of the PPP were imprisoned and many, including Cedric Vernon Nunes, then Minister of Education under whose watch so much was done for education. PPP leaders remained there long after independence.
As the dictatorship became entrenched, it got more intolerant and brutal that led to political assassinations, the most prominent was Walter Rodney whose ‘crime’ was to condemn the PNC dictatorship.
Those things pauperized us. We became the objects of pity from persons in the region as we tried to smuggle flour, bread and other basic necessities of life. That led to massive migration where today, there are probably more Guyanese living abroad than those of us here in Guyana.
In the last 54 years, we had one period of great hope. That was when our people’s struggle and international solidarity led to a democratic renewal in October 1992.
The PPP transformed Guyana from a Heavily Indebted, Poor Country (HIPIC) to becoming an Upper Middle-Income Developing Country.
I recall, with some pride in the early 2015, I was invited to go to Rome to accept the recognition of the International Community as being one of two countries in the Caribbean that not only reduced poverty greatly, but also significantly improved the nutrition of our people.
This was remarkable when we take into account that in 1992, Guyana had 80% of its people living in absolute poverty. Those were figures that SIMAP had worked out just before the PPP took office.
Unfortunately, I could not go because of the Elections Campaign, but Cde. Sam Hinds did the honours for us. For those who may want to know which was the other country, it was St. Vincent.
We made this achievement under difficult circumstances. The undemocratic cabal that leads the PNC opposed every single project that had the potential to advance our country and benefit our people. Coming to mind immediately are the Amaila Falls Hydro and Marriot Hotel projects. They also set about to deliberately to damage the financial sector, the heart of the economy by refusing to support the Anti-Money Laundering Bill.
The PNC had always been a party that wants power for power sake. It was never about transforming the country in the interest of the people. Now that we have reached that stage, we need to have a broad stage and serious discourse to identify those things that are retarding our developments and fix them. Simplistic suggestions that sound good can lead to even greater frustrations.
I suggest that we look first of all at our Elections System. The evidence is there to show that the vast amount of country with this system have issues of racial and religious problems. The system encourages organizing on the basis of narrow interests, and not national interests. That to me is one colonial imposition that should be removed; after all, we are fifty-four years old.
Today, as we celebrate this occasion all democratic and peace-loving Guyanese must call for the swift and transparent conclusion to the embarrassment that is going on at the Arthur Chung Conference Center.
In concluding, I wish to salute the contribution of so many who came before and those who bore the brunt in the anti-colonial struggles.
Of recent times, we have lost some giants whose contributions were immense and spanned the colonial times, the PPP time in the 1960s and later. They are Cyril Belgrave, Komal Chand and Feroze Mohamed, we remember them and all the others today.
On this Independence Day, all progressive Guyanese must now stand-up and guard our Votes.
Happy Birthday Guyana!
Donald Ramotar

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