– President Bharrat Jagdeo
DESPITE all the attempts to foment hatred and distrust in the minds of the people of the country against Government functionaries, the popularity of the Jagdeo administration, and the President himself, is evident everywhere they go in the country, even though the people are sometimes frustrated by problems they face, and oftentimes stymied by incompetent (and sometimes corrupt) bureaucrats, they largely recognize that the Government is attempting to meet the needs of the citizens of the land.
During an address at a Cabinet Outreach at Region Three, President Jagdeo told the massive crowd gathered at Tuschen: “We don’t only come out here to tell you what our plans are and how we will be willing in implementing the programmes we have worked out with you; we come here because we feel that we have to be accountable to you, the people of our country.  We have to be accountable because this is an essential feature of the Party and the Government I belong to; so many times we come out here and we hear the problems of the community; and some people feel dejected; some say that, ‘Well, when we go out we hear all sorts of things, some are community-based problems, while others are personal problems.’ And sometimes they feel that it may not be the best use of time.  But I think, over the past few years, every member of the Cabinet values the comments when we come out here.  We don’t promise that we will solve everything, because it is virtually impossible to address every issue that you raise, because we don’t have the resources as a country, while some are intractable issues, particularly some of the personal problems that are raised time and time again.  But we want you to know, even in those circumstances, that you have a sympathetic Government, a Government that cares about your concerns.“And many times people give us praise (about) how hard we work, but that praise pales in comparison to the heroic efforts that many of you make in your day-to-day lives as you try to improve your situations (and) change your lives…improving for the better, and by doing so changing our country.

“And many times people give us praise (about) how hard we work, but that praise pales in comparison to the heroic efforts that many of you make in your day-to-day lives as you try to improve your situations (and) change your lives…improving for the better, and by doing so changing our country.” – President Jagdeo

“We are humbled by these efforts, and this is one thing that goes unrecognized in our country – the efforts made by poor people, rich people – everyone, trying to make changes for the better in their lives.  I have seen this story of improvement by following the lives of some people who are poor – from (having) no stake in this land because they felt alienated, because their freedom was never respected – and in countries where people don’t have freedom; in countries where the people have to struggle to ensure that their voices are heard, then those countries can never, in a sustainable manner, rear their children into promising adults with a bright future in the horizon.”
The President told an appreciative audience that we are fortunate in Guyana because of the collective struggle of all of our people, which has ensured that we now live in a country that is free; and he warned that we must seriously guard this freedom, because it was not always there.
He reminded his rapt audience that there was a time when expressing an opinion, if it did not coincide with the opinion of the previous Government, landed one in trouble.  He reminded them that there was a time when the dignity of Guyanese people was not recognized because when they symbolically marked their “X” on a ballot paper it was stolen – which meant that their voices were stolen and they did not have a chance to choose their leaders.
“Today,” said the President, “fortunately for our country, that has changed, so I want all of us to promise that we will never allow our country to go back to such a situation.  We have to do it so that the children in this country can enjoy a future that we never had.  They can enjoy a life that we struggled for and dreamt of, and they can build all their dreams just here in Guyana without having to migrate to another part of the world.
“This is the contract that we have to work together on – the PPP/Civic Government and the people of this country – a contract to change our country for the better; a contract that recognizes that the road will be a difficult road.  It is not easy to realize those dreams in a country like ours without walking a difficult path, but we must never allow lack of will – political will and personal will, to divert us from this path, because that is the only pathway to prosperity.  That is the only pathway that we should think of.
“So it is difficult, because for a long time in our country, rather than accumulating wealth, we de-cumulated wealth.. ..For almost three decades we lived above our means as a country.  If a country lives above its means then you start leaving problems for the next generation, and this is what happened here in Guyana, because the Government in that time spent money it did not have.”
President Jagdeo said that although the PPP/C had inherited all the difficulties that previous speakers had mentioned – like electricity in shambles, water supply, health system and infrastructure destroyed, and that although these manifestations of impotent administrative configurations and expenditure of money that we did not have resulted in a situation, when this Government took over the reins of power, that they were stuck with, not only a legacy of destroyed institutions and infrastructure, but a legacy that was best described by a report by the Caribbean Council of Churches when they visited Guyana in 1990: “a country not only destroyed in physical terms, but a country that was destroyed in mental terms – a country where the people had lost hope.”  President Jagdeo said that in countries where hope is lost, progress cannot be achieved.

“I think, over the past few years, every member of the Cabinet values the comments when we come out here.  We don’t promise that we will solve everything, because it is virtually impossible to address every issue that you raise, because we don’t have the resources as a country, while some are intractable issues, particularly some of the personal problems that are raised time and time again.  But we want you to know, even in those circumstances, that you have a sympathetic Government, a Government that cares about your concerns.” – President Bharrat Jagdeo at Region Three outreach.

The President used the foreign debt the PPP/C had inherited as an illustration of bad policies and a legacy that left this generation with dislocating fiscal problems – where 94% of every dollar collected in revenue went to service debts, with another 20% going to pay wages and salarie
s, which totaled a 114% of national revenue.   He likened this to a householder paying his debt and paying his employee with more than his earnings, and having to borrow to meet those two pressing obligations, then questioned:  “How can you run the house?”  Continuing, President Jagdeo said “That is what the Government started out with – no money for education, no money for healthcare, no money for housing.  There was no housing ministry, nor any housing programme, no money for roads or power, or anything else.”
Today, because of repayment of US$1.5 billion, and in excess of 2 billion being written off because of unremitting lobbying by former President Cheddi Jagan and President Jagdeo himself, Guyana’s debt now uses 4% of revenue instead of 94%.  Today, because of prudent fiscal management and policies, the Government has 96% of revenues to spend on developmental works in this country; but according to Guyana’s President “…it took us almost fifteen years to clear that off – fifteen years of wasted opportunities for our people.  If this generation of Guyanese – of all races and religions, did not have to pay back that debt, then where would our country be today if that money was spent here? We could have built the hydro, fixed every road, fixed every water supply system, completed all the infrastructure in every housing scheme, re-built all the hospitals with that money that we had to spend on paying back debts, so it (debt repayment) represented lost opportunities.”
However, the President said that the PPP/Civic Government did not take the easy path, because Cabinet knew that the problems of the past had to be addressed and dealt with before focusing on developmental works in the country.  He reiterated that, because Guyana did not shirk from honouring its debts, whereby most Caribbean states are today moving from healthy debt figures to where Guyana previously was, Guyana has moved in the opposite direction and that as a result of the fact that the current Government dealt with the debt and managed the economy well over the years, last year Guyana had the second highest growth rate in the entire Americas and the highest growth rate in the entire South America, which is an achievement for any country in this region.  He referred to PPP/C General Secretary Donald Ramotar’s comment that Guyana has now moved from being one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere to a middle-income status.
The President told an enrapt audience that Government wants to accelerate the process of accumulating wealth – not at the governmental level, but wealth in terms of improved lifestyles of every family.  According to President Jagdeo, wealth accumulation in this context means every person who had no land and has acquired a houselot, every person who had no house and begins to build one, an uneducated person who sends his children to acquire a comprehensive education that enables them to earn well in the future, all of which adds to incremental personal development.  He urged that these are the things that the Government and the people have to work on together.
“I know how hard it is for many people,” encouraged the Head-of-State, “it is not easy, just like how it has not been easy at the national level to find money to fund all the things that are so badly needed across our country, and that are needed now…the drainage system here, the road into Tuschen – we have already awarded the contract for that road.   We will also redo the drainage system in here too, because I gather there are problems here.  There are so many unmet demands because we don’t have the resources.
“It has been hard with you too, because things have changed and many persons are struggling maybe to pay their mortgage; but just think about it.  The struggle to pay the mortgage results eventually in your owning your own house, and people who own things can build on that as a foundation, so life becomes a little harder, but no one can deny that in this country there have been changes – huge, huge changes, no-one can deny it”.
Obviously the constant criticisms by the political opposition, who myopically seem to see no progress in the country, have angered the members of the Government who work indefatigably, sacrificing families and personal welfare to restructure the future of this country.  Minister Priya Manickchand is a new mother who most likely would like to spend more time with her newborn daughter, but she has painstakingly driven the Women of Worth project, which was launched recently.
While it may not bother the President in a personal capacity, he most likely takes umbrage at the fact that, not only Ministers of the Government, but other functionaries within the governmental construct are constantly derided for their efforts at national construction and reconstruction, and he said: “Sometimes some in the political opposition and in the newspapers wish this (the progressive changes) away, but I keep saying that you cannot go and see a new hospital at Leonora, or at Suddie, or at Diamond, or at Mahaicony, or at Port Mourant, or in Linden, or in New Amsterdam, or in Lethem, or in Mabaruma, or the upgrading in Moruca and say nothing is happening.  It is impossible to say that…..and when we (once) had a hundred and fifty doctors in our entire public health system, within three years we are going to go up to nine hundred young Guyanese doctors in the public health system.
“You can’t move from a situation where there were no drugs in the hospital, to drugs now being available – maybe we do have some distribution problems…and say that is not progress.
“You can’t see the children – from 35% having access to secondary education, because there was no place in the secondary schools, and most of them had to go to community high…..now close to 70%…and we’re hoping to go to 100%, and say that is not progress. No-one can say that.
“And you can’t look at the financial state of our country, when inflation was in triple digits – over a hundred percent per annum, and see that there has been single digit inflation for over ten years now in this country and say that is not progress, when a fiscal deficit – the deficit comes down from 25% of GDP to less than 5% of GDP, and say that is not progress; and last year the foreign reserves – that is, US dollars that we have in the Bank of Guyana moved to close to three-quarters of a billion dollars.  Never before in our entire history have we had so much US dollars in our banking system, as reserves; so you can’t say that is not progress.
“You can’t drive across this country to Parfaite Harmony, and Tuschen, and Diamond, and a hundred other schemes – in Wismar, in Block 22, or Amelia’s Ward, Foulis, Golden Grove, and see the thousands of houses that are being built on land that was formerly canefields and say that there has not been any progress; but some hope that they can wish this away.  They want to wish this away because they want to create an impression that the Government is not accountable, that the Government is corrupt, and that the Government mismanages things.”
President Jagdeo said that there are many instances where the government is unhappy with services provided by contractors and those in the employment of the State.  He cited instances, such as doctors in public hospitals who cursorily attend a few patients in the public institutions then spend the major part of their time in private practice.
He said that some health care providers close the gates of healthcare institutions early to go and have a drink with ‘the boys’, which seems to be more important than serving people.
The President said there are too many little gods manning many public services and that everywhere there are persons in public institutions who do not recognize that they are there to serve people, not to boss them around or to lord over them, but that they get paid to serve them.  He reiterated that public servants do not do favours to the public whom they serve, but because of their acti
ons the entire Government is judged, based on their performance.
He emphasized that people in public service need to be held accountable, and that those who cannot effectively deliver service to the public should leave their positions.
The Head-of-State said that, because money is so difficult to acquire, there is need to ensure that it is spent wisely, which necessitate value for money.  He informed the audience that, although Cabinet decrees that value is obtained for money spent from the national coffers, sometimes it does not happen, and the Government recognizes that some contractors do not fulfill the specifications and gets away with it because of negligible supervision on the ground.  He also cited instances where, in the health system millions of dollars worth of drugs meant for distribution to the regions are left in the bond in Georgetown until they expire, making special mention where, because of laxity and negligence of one person, vaccines valued at tens of millions of dollars were recently left to expire.
According to President Jagdeo, Cabinet is moving to ensure that better and more cost-effective services are delivered to the people of the country, with standards being set especially for the delivery of patient care and financial accountability.
This is empowering the people – as resources allow, and more and more persons are being taken care of by this Government through various initiatives.
The stellar achievement of the PPP/C Government, among many other people-empowerment initiatives, is the housing drive that has enabled home-ownership of the poorest of the poor, which empowers them even further than providing the priceless security of having a home to shelter their loved ones, because their transported homes become collateral for many other income-generating projects.
Simultaneous to the Government’s debt-reduction efforts were urgent and necessary developmental works all over the country, and despite the doomsayers and naysayers, national development has been expanding and accelerating apace, gathering an unstoppable momentum every day; and while the targets have not all yet been reached because it is only recently that Guyana’s external debt has been reduced to manageable proportions, Guyana’s development paradigm is a dynamic in untrammeled  vigour, the synergy which encapsulates national  parameters of development, and which is uniting this nation as Founder-Leader of the PPP, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, once envisaged before opportunistic politics prevailed and crippled this nation’s upward mobility.
Care should be taken that history does not repeat itself, because the opportunistic wolves are once again gnawing at the door, demanding backdoor entry to the corridors of Government.