THIS paper is a revised version of what I wrote several years ago where I commented on former President of Guyana Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte and the PNC’s performance through a few parliamentary Order Papers of 1986. But prior to immersing ourselves with these Order Papers, let me say a few things about the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP).

Around that time, Finance Minister Carl Greenidge confirmed the country’s bankruptcy. The ERP in 1989 was not Hoyte’s brainchild. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended the ERP, which radically reduced the Government’s role in the economy. The ERP emerged to offer external funding for the sustained balance of payments’ deficit, rescheduling of unpaid loans, clearing up amounts overdue to the World Bank, IMF, and the CDB.

And given Guyana’s record of being a hefty nonpayer, any release of external funding required formulating and implementing the following policies: exchange rate devaluation, price deregulation, wage control in the public sector, increased bank rate, and privatization. These policies were all part of the neoliberalism package, a theory of unregulated economics, increasing debt, and privatization of public services. Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago’s School of Economics won a Nobel Prize for his work in neoliberal economic theory. Let me now return to the Order Papers.

“The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it” (Naipaul). I don’t want to be as hard as Naipaul in describing some politicians as ‘nothing’. Nonetheless, through their administrations, political leaders must face evaluations offering conclusions on whether their outcomes are positive, negative, or nothing, or merely promises. And just that we know, political promises are necessary, but merely rhetoric.

Hence, public evidence of political outcomes is the pathway to informed choice and judgment for the populace. For this reason, political record, largely, will establish the veracity and credibility of promises.

Reviewing the former People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte and the PNC’s political performance offers a judgment on their record. The PNCR flaunted Hoyte’s presidential experience as the winning factor on Election Day in 2001. Consequently, his track record as President of Guyana and, indeed, that of the PNC is fair game.

I will review several Order Papers of the National Assembly for only one year, 1986. Incidentally, some of the Order Papers are on the missing list for those years when the PNC severally extended its life in the National Assembly.

QUOTE: In 2007, Guyana boasted of a mere 11.2% of infants with low birth weight, with infant mortality rate at 19.5 per 1,000 live births. In the Hoyte era, the infant mortality rate of 56 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF 2000) was about three times the rate to that of 2007; and in the 1985-1992 period, most health indicators were shockingly poor.

In Notice Paper #16, published on March 6, 1986, Reepu Daman Persaud presented a motion for the National Assembly (NA) to hold local government elections immediately after the establishment of a reconstituted elections commission, a new voters’ list, and a Commonwealth or CARICOM election observers’ team. The PNC, the majority in the NA, threw it out. Note that this was the period of fraudulent elections from 1968, and the fact that local government elections were long overdue. In fact, the PNC administered the first local government elections in April 1970, with no further local government election 22 years later in 1992, when the PNC ceded power to the PPP/C. The PPP/C Administration held local government elections in August 1994.

Then Janet Jagan tabled a Notice Paper of the same date, calling on the NA to offer adequate medical personnel, medical supplies, and means of communication in all rural and hinterland districts, and in all health centers. The PNC rejected this motion, demonstrating that the PNC placed Hinterland health care on the backburner; and that health sector expenditure was skewed toward better-off groups and the urban population, and not toward the poorest groups.

Janet Jagan moved another motion on March 16, 1986. This motion alluded to the shortage of milk. She called on the PNC Government to ensure that sufficient supplies of milk became available through importation for equitable distribution to all of Guyana’s children. Again, Hoyte’s regime rejected this proposal.

QUOTE: Hoyte and the PNC’s parliamentary record in only one year in 1986 speaks volumes about their paradoxical concerns for the people’s interests; peering into other years may reveal the further backsliding on the nation’s interests. The World Bank/IMF, and then the PPP/C in 1992, rescued the PNC’s regime from its morass.

This was a period in which the incidence of malnutrition and infant mortality rate was high among children. In 2007, Guyana boasted of a mere 11.2% of infants with low birth weight, with infant mortality rate at 19.5 per 1,000 live births. In the Hoyte era, the infant mortality rate of 56 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF 2000) was about three times the rate to that of 2007; and in the 1985-1992 period, most health indicators were shockingly poor.

PPP Parliamentarian Reepu Daman Persaud moved another motion to address charges of discrimination sweeping through the PNC Administration. This motion called on the NA to appoint a Parliamentary Commission, inclusive of TUC representatives, to investigate all charges of discrimination in the PNC Administration and its Agencies, and to present reports to the NA.

The PNC rejected this motion. It was not until the 1990s during the PPP/C Administration that the Race Relations Task Force arrived as the forerunner to the Ethnic Relations Commission in 2000.

Previously, the PPP/C attempted to establish a race relations commission in the 1990s and submitted the name of Bishop Randolph George as its head. But Hoyte rejected the Bishop. The PNC’s position under Hoyte’s tutelage seemingly apportioned low priority to discriminatory matters, a line quite consistent with their 1986 decision to reject Reepu Daman Persaud’s motion.

In 1986, through a motion to the NA, Eusi Kwayana argued that no civilian or other personnel of the Government, or of the public sector, should face dismissal, or a final penalty without the right to due process, and that where a judicial body rules in favour of the worker, reinstatement should ensue. Again, this motion did not find favor with PNC Parliamentarians.

QUOTE: Hoyte and the PNC’s parliamentary tutelage in 1986 demonstrated no interest in holding local government elections, offered low priority to primary health care services in the Hinterland and the poorest groups, sustained low health status among children, apportioned minimum concern for discriminatory matters, mocked around with workers’ rights, showed no interest in an integrity commission, and displayed no apprehension for a checkered school feeding program. This partial list of Hoyte and the PNC’s 1986 parliamentary record, demonstrating not much concern for the populace amounts to ‘nothing’ in politics.

It is useful to note that major labour legislation reforms, addressing the rights of the worker, inter alia, only came during the PPP/C Administration. One of these was the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act 1997 which addressed workers’ rights.

The allegation of corruption, which apparently is in vogue today, first touched the NA in 1986. Kwayana in a motion called on the PNC Government to introduce integrity legislation, impacting senior Government officials, members of the Government, and all Parliamentarians. The NA rejected this motion. The PPP/C Administration instituted the Integrity Commission in 1997.

Next, S.F. Mohamed called on the PNC Government to institute a school feeding program, ensuring a daily supply of milk to all children in kindergartens and other children nationwide. The PNC rejected this proposal. The school feeding programme during the Burnham/Hoyte era received funding through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

During the PNC’s ruling years 1968-1992, there was a limited school feeding programme. And in 1996, the PPP/C Administration made a landmark decision to locally fund a comprehensive school-feeding programme.

And again in 1986, Haripersaud Nokta called on the NA to abolish road tolls because they constituted a burden on overtaxed Guyanese, and resulted in costly collections. Needless to say, the PNC rejected that proposal.

Hoyte and the PNC’s parliamentary record in only one year in 1986 speaks volumes about their paradoxical concerns for the people’s interests; peering into other years may reveal the further backsliding on the nation’s interests. The World Bank/IMF, and then the PPP/C in 1992, rescued the PNC’s regime from its morass.

Hoyte and the PNC’s parliamentary tutelage in 1986 demonstrated no interest in holding local government elections, offered low priority to primary health care services in the Hinterland and the poorest groups, sustained low health status among children, apportioned minimum concern for discriminatory matters, mocked around with workers’ rights, showed no interest in an integrity commission, and displayed no apprehension for a checkered school feeding program. This partial list of Hoyte and the PNC’s 1986 parliamentary record, demonstrating not much concern for the populace amounts to ‘nothing’ in politics.