– Dr. Hinds says party has run out of ideas
– Resort to old issue such as Amaila Falls project a show of desperation

By Svetlana Marshall
VISIONLESS was the word used by Political Scientist, Dr. David Hinds, to describe the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) as he dissected that party’s plans for Guyana ahead of the much-anticipated General and Regional Elections billed for March 2, 2020.
At the launch of PPP/C’s elections campaign on Sunday, in the capital city – Georgetown, its Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali, in the shadow of the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo, repeated the promise of creating 50,000 jobs and resuscitating the Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project, if elected to office. But Dr. Hinds, said the PPP/C shows a lack of vision for Guyana, at a time when the country’s production of oil and gas creates a window of opportunities, for it to experience vast development across sectors.

Presented to the nation was a set of regurgitated ideas, the Political Scientist opined on Monday, during his appearance on Guyana Chronicle’s online programme – Vantage Point. “I think the PPP has run out of ideas and when you run out of ideas, what you do, you go back to old ideas,” he posited.

In total contrast to the PPP/C, Dr. Hinds said the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition, under the leadership of President David Granger, has presented Guyana with a plan of unprecedented economic growth, massive infrastructural development and equal access to education. The plan, dubbed ‘A Decade of Development,’ will see Guyana being transformed into a Green State, a Digital State, a Petroleum State and an Education Nation over the next 10 years – 2020 to 2029.

Dr. Hinds, who is also an Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) – a partner within the APNU+AFC coalition, said, on one hand, the nation is presented with a developmental plan of action and on the other, it is being given lip service as the PPP/C engages in cheap politics. “If you are a farmer somewhere on the Corentyne in the Black Bush Polder, how in the next five years your life will be transformed? If you are a single mother living in Albouystown, or in one of the villages along the coast, what the next 10 years will look like for you? Yes, people want to hear, I am going to promise you a job but they also want to hear, how my life is going to be transformed, and so I think that is the major difference between what the PPP is putting out there and what the APNU+AFC is putting,” the Political Scientist reasoned.

He said while job creation is critical in any country, it cannot simply be “a campaign promise.” While Ali has promised to create 50,000 jobs, he has thus far failed to clearly outline how those jobs would be created. But that is just a tip of the iceberg, Dr. Hinds said, while noting that the PPP/C has left many questions unanswered.

“What are you going to do about social inequality? What are you going to do about the gap between the rich, the not so rich, and the poor? What are you going to do about school drop out? What is your grand plan and I think the PPP has been found wanting in that regard,” Dr. Hinds told the Guyana Chronicle.

They don’t have ideas

“They don’t have ideas. They lack ideas,” he further added. According to him, Guyanese are thirsting for development, and the PPP/C – with Bharrat Jagdeo, Irfaan Ali and retired Brigadier Mark Phillips at the helm – is clueless.
“We have to speak to people’s reality and people’s emotion. If people are poor, they are emotional about their impoverished situation – they want to feel that the people they are putting in place feel their poverty and the proposals and corrections come from a position of feeling, and I don’t think you hear that from the PPP’s proposal,” Dr. Hinds told this newspaper.

On Sunday, hours ahead of the PPP/C Elections Campaign launch, President Granger – the Presidential Candidate for the APNU+AFC) – made similar predictions. He said the plans proposed by the PPP/C are those already set in motion by his Government.

“There’s nothing that the PPP can add that APNU has not yet embarked on,” the President said. “And we’ve corrected a lot of the errors in those very sectors which the PPP committed. They can’t promise to hold local government [elections], we’ve done that; they can’t promise to empower young people, we’ve done that; they can’t promise to upgrade the education system, we’ve done that; they can’t promise to improve the economy, we’re doing that. So there’s nothing they can add,” the Head of State reasoned.

Brushing the proposals of the PPP/C aside, Dr. Hinds told Guyana Chronicle that APNU+AFC’s Plan for a Decade of Development is simply “refreshing.” He explained that the plan will allow Guyana to capitalise on its petroleum resources for the development of other sectors such as the field of education while safeguarding its environment.

“The world is now one place because of globalisation for good or for worse, but a globalized world means that one has to be able to communicate with the rest of the world at a click of a finger, and therefore, bringing Guyana into the digital age, in itself, is very revolutionary,” Dr. Hinds said as he underscored the importance of the country becoming a Digital State.
Once re-elected to Office, President Granger said Guyanese can expect a higher quality of life over the next five years, higher economic growth, and significantly improved education and health sectors.