TODAY, three years ago, I took the oath of office as Prime Minister of Guyana. I became the 7th Prime Minister after L.F.S Burnham, Ptolemy Reid, Desmond Hoyte, Hamilton Green, Samuel Hinds and Janet Jagan.

There was, in 1999, I must admit, a “paper” prime minister who held that office when Prime Minister Hinds was required to step down. That episode has since become the most blatant political jiggery-pokery when a person was baptised prime minister for a day, then anointed the next day as a non-elected president. But that is old, cold history.
Today, as I look back at the making of the May 20, 2015 event, I remember the single, short question that was put to me some weeks before by a mediator, as we were drilling down on the Coalition slate for the 2015 elections.
“Is being president a deal-breaker?”
My response was spontaneous but deliberate:
“No. Guyana’s interests come before the presidency.”
With that answer, I had indorsed and supported David Arthur Granger as Presidential Candidate of the APNU+AFC Coalition, and as the incoming President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. I have had no doubt then, and ever since, that I had made the correct decision.

“GREEN” VISION
So when I learned that the World Bank has invited President Granger to address its leaders in Washington, I became elated that he has growingly and glowingly become a symbol of our “green” vision; Guyana’s future. I felt not only pride but renewed confidence in the decision that I had made.

He would not be the first Guyanese leader to project a broader vision, but David Granger certainly is on centre-stage, and he captures attention with his sincerity of purpose, his passion for “green” growth and, even “green” appearance. We may be amused, even cynical, about his green shirt, green folders, green greeting cards or a greenish presidential complex and State House. But we cannot fault President Granger for the discipline and determination with which he pursues the “green agenda”.

GREEN MAN
When I was in Tamil Nadu two years ago, the Green World Foundation of India presented me with a plaque, with the inscription, “The Green Man of Guyana”. The Director disclosed then that he had listened to an address by President Granger at the United Nations General Assembly, and he was assured that Guyana had embarked on a trailblazing path in the interest of humanity.

In extending the World Bank invitation to President Granger, Tahseen Sayed Khan, Director for the Caribbean and Latin America, said that she was impressed with our “green-growth development” and “green-state strategy”, which could become an inspiration to the other 188 countries in the group.

In the past, we have had our own problems with the World Bank, some for “Cold War” and territorial reasons, but the effect was that we could not secure funding for the Malali (Tiger Hill) Falls in the 60s, as well as the Upper Mazaruni Hydro Project in the early 1980s. Either of those projects could have helped to transform Guyana.
Now, the World Bank sees Guyana through clearer lens. While in 2013 Guyana was deemed “the second poorest country in CARICOM”, last year’s report still saw us as poor, but with prospects of being among the richest. “In short,” the World Bank noted, “Guyana is on the verge of unprecedented wealth.”

POSITIVE OBSERVATIONS
The positive observations by the World Bank representative came on the heels of similar favourable comments by Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland on Guyana’s new infrastructure for justice and good governance, and those from Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Akbar Khan, who not only commended the government for promoting a “green agenda”, but for making remarkable strides in fostering social cohesion.

I submit that we should pay close attention to what the world is saying about us; how the world is willing to help us, and not allow ourselves to be lost in the daily cackle of disagreement and disenchantment that is cloaked under a porous veil of dissent.
Our fight-back against a bad press and an ugly image is becoming evident to those who not only look at new or renovated public infrastructures, but at the contours of an orderly, law-governed, stable democracy that has given Guyana a fresh face among the world’s democracies.

However, these three years have also posed challenges. We did our best, but we also made blunders. Our vision of strategic goals at times became blurred as we tried to respond to the multiple daily demands, and indulged in fire-fighting to quell emergencies.
We had to contend with floods and other natural disasters, fires, jailbreaks, as well as structural weaknesses in key sectors of the economy, especially bauxite and sugar. We needed to divert resources to beef-up border protection, coastal anti-piracy surveillance, drug trafficking, money-laundering and trafficking in persons, and enhanced diplomatic and legal defence of our sovereignty.

BIGGER PICTURE
But we never let go of the bigger picture, that of moving our country forward. We never said that this would be easy, especially as we had to deal with problems that we had inherited and which, like a ghost seeking attrition, still hang like a streak of gloom over our land. When he addressed Parliament in November last year, President Granger underlined both the promise and the challenge for Guyana to balance the great prospects of producing oil and gas in commercial quantities, while simultaneously pursuing a “green agenda”.

“Guyana is a beautiful, blissful and bountiful country”.
Since May 20, 2015, when I took the oath of office, that description of Guyana remains an inspiring refrain to strive harder in the years ahead.
For me, Guyana comes first; now and always.