ARRIVAL OF AMERICAN AIRLINES

THE arrival of American Airlines (AA) on Thursday last on its inaugural flight was clearly the biggest expression of confidence in Guyana. This was affirmed by Robert Wirick, AA’s Managing Director of International Government Affairs, when he stated: “We are committed to this market.”

It is elementary knowledge that foreign companies as huge as American Airlines would not commit themselves to a market unless they have confidence that the host country has a safe and rewarding investment climate.

The image of Guyana as a stable, peaceful, orderly democracy has been returning gradually since 2015. But it has taken tremendous efforts to beat back the spectre of political gangsterism that had once made Guyana into the Caribbean’s “killing fields”. Under the previous regime, favoured drug lords and death squads had driven fear into Guyanese here and abroad, and undermined confidence in our leadership and governance system.

PREFERRED DESTINATION
Today, Guyana is fast becoming a preferred destination, with international passenger traffic reaching 664,624 last year, which, according to Minister Annette Ferguson, was the highest in recent times.

Guyana was at one time notoriously branded the graveyard for airlines. Many dubious companies, some headed by crooks with high connections, had started fly-by-night operations. They ripped off passengers and left them exposed to price gouging from companies that survived.

But confidence in Guyana has now gone past operations in a single sector, be it airline or petroleum, and underlined the reason for the formation of Guyana’s first American Chamber of Commerce that provides networking for US businesses in the Caribbean.

It has also resulted in the relaxation of barriers to Guyanese visiting the United States of America on non-immigrant visas. According to Terry Steers-Gonzales, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy, the Georgetown Consulate has in recent times issued some 86,133 such visas, which represent one-half of all visas issued since 2000.

ILLICIT DRUGS
A key factor in the restoration of this confidence is the resolve by the APNU+AFC Coalition Government to suppress illicit drugs, and the use of Guyana as a transit point for the trafficking of cocaine. Our new government has spared no effort to dismantle the evil empire that had thrived under the previous regime.

Since 2016, the Coalition invited the presence in Guyana of the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA), and has allowed some 1,128 professionals in the judicial, security and defence sectors to receive special training, which, together with new equipment, cost some US$4 million.

This information was provided Friday evening at a farewell ceremony for Ambassador Perry Holloway, who has been the driving force behind the enhanced cooperation between the United States and Guyana, especially in the past three years.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY
The growing confidence in Guyana is also due to the consolidation of democracy. Last evening, Ambassador Holloway reminisced that when he arrived in Guyana, as an American, it was hard for him to understand how you could have a democracy without local government elections.

It is now common knowledge that since 1997, the post-Jagan PPP refused to hold local government elections. It had chosen, instead, to replace broken councils with hand-picked Interim Management Committees (IMCs).

As the Ambassador observed: “We’ve seen two consecutive local elections; something that hasn’t happened for some time in Guyana. And the one the other day, I went out and did some observing; it looked like a very free and fair and credible election. No matter what you say about the turnout, I would say democracy was the big winner…”

But after noting that macro-economic growth started under the previous government, and continued well under the Coalition, he painted a dazzling picture of Guyana by 2020. The Gross Domestic Products, he said, will grow by 300 per cent.
“This means that in one year, the country will produce what it took 300 years to produce. This is gigantic; you will be the richest country in the hemisphere, and perhaps the richest country in the world on a per capita basis.”

As he made that projection, I was watching around to see if there was anyone around who would unleash a “feral blast”, as the Ambassador’s predecessor had experienced, in his own yard, at a similar farewell party. But I was relieved that over these past years, there has been no repetition of that type of public obscenity by government officials. Holloway spoke his mind, and did so openly.

NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION
I have chosen to look at the new Guyana democracy in the wake of the plagiarised, 10-word, No-Confidence Motion that was hastily submitted to the National Assembly last Thursday. Under the Constitution, if approved by a simple majority of the House, the government has to resign and call new elections. So, it is not a trivial matter.

I recalled my own Motion which was submitted to the National Assembly on July 9, 2014, the day before the National Assembly went into recess. The Motion was slated for debate when the House resumed by October 10, but the Ramotar regime refused to summon Parliament then, but did so for November 10, 2014.

We were in Parliament waiting for the session to begin, only to learn that the government had prorogued parliament, which is, that there would be no further sittings for six months. The PPP did that to avoid a debate on the Motion. It feared imminent defeat, as the combined opposition had a one-seat majority in the House. It then dissolved Parliament, announced new elections, and suffered defeat at the polls.

But on this occasion, the Opposition does NOT have a majority of MPs in the House. There is no rational basis for arguing that the Motion could succeed. So, why did the PPP table this Motion?

In the first place, as I noted, it was insensitive to do so, knowing that the President is ill, and is out of the country. The opposition leader has argued that since the prime minister is performing the functions of the President, he should not sit in the House, or vote. This is childish, since the prime minister is an ELECTED MEMBER of the House. Acting as president does not take away his right to vote.

So, the Motion has to be tabled for some other reasons, which is that the PPP is afflicted with a dangerous type of political madness that, titillated by the coming oil wealth, the opposition would do everything to create disaffection or rebellion in the State. It would step up its campaign to stir ethnic and political discord, in naked obsession with putting their hands on our new oil wealth.

I am confident that the Guyanese people will protect the family treasure from the political hordes of yesteryear.
The arrival of the American Airlines, and the vibrant democratic and investment climate have imbued in us all the full confidence we should have in our government.

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