ONLY a strong person could have taken over this country from the Jagans and, under guidance of their vision for the nation, achieved the plethora of gains and the level of development in Guyana after less than two decades.
When the PPP/C took office in 1992 the despair at the state of the country was palpable, and not even the optimistic thought that this country was salvageable; not with the level of infrastructural destruction, the decay in the moral and social fabric, the depressed morale and hopelessness of the people and, worse than all, the overwhelming debt burden – the mere servicing of which did not allow for developmental works in the country.  Then Guyana was ranked below Haiti in the poverty index.
Today, where is the comparison between Guyana and Haiti?
There is no government in the world; and no institution where the human condition – with all its moral and social frailties, could boast that there are no corrupt individuals within the system; and all the promises of the opposition that they would eradicate this is premised on unrealistic presumptions, if not dishonest programmatic planks.
However, the PPP/C can, with all the mistakes that can be attributed to its governance – and they do not dispute that there have been mistakes- has taken Guyana out of a morass of hopelessness to a plateau where this country is now ranked on international indices as a middle-income country.
Persons who never had a hope of owning their own homes today reside in houses made possible by the Government’s housing drive.
Former President Desmond Hoyte, as a result of his Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), after the administration of which he was a primary policymaker throughout its existence drove Guyana into bankruptcy, followed IMF guidelines and froze the salary of Public Servants at $2000 per month, among other repressive measures that continued to rob Guyanese of a life of hope, where the average person survived without dignity way below the poverty line.
However, Dr. Cheddi Jagan ignored the Draconian conditionalities of the IMF and restored bargaining power to the unions.
Before the PPP/C took office, even, owning a simple transistor radio was out of the reach of the average person.  Today, it is not unusual for one home to have several televisions, not to mention DVD players and the most modern hi-fi equipment. With all the complaints about taxation, owning a vehicle is not out of the reach of the average Guyanese, and this is attested to by the traffic jams on the country’s highways, despite the expansion from two to four lanes countrywide.
In every sector – healthcare, education, social services, the government has expanded and improved the services being offered. There is no community, if one wants to be objective and honest, that is sidelined and neglected by the PPP/C administration, and the popularity of President Jagdeo wherever he goes indicates that the people are appreciative of these truths, even as the opposition parties seek to cast aspersions on the government’s developmental programmes and initiatives.

But all these things have come at a price, and only the President knows the price that he has paid, in personal terms, to wrest the synergies out of the constrained national, regional, and international dynamics to enable this level of growth in Guyana, where all the people are now on the cusp of achieving all that Dr. Cheddi Jagan had dreamt of for his people.

But the psychological fear of the PPP that external forces, which have never been friendly to a PPP government, will once more join with those who destroyed this country in every way, as they have done before, negating the will of the people, is ever-present; because such an eventuality is not improbable, given their constant negative reports on the performance graphs of Guyana – despite all the advances made in the various sectors by the government, regardless of the opposition machinations and tactical strategies to derail developmental works and initiatives driven by the PPP/C administration.
In this year when general elections will be held, it is imperative for young voters to be apprised of the realities of the past, present, and emerging challenges of their country, so that they can make wise choices when casting their ballots.
The accusations made against the President that he made racist and racially inciting comments at Babu John last Sunday by the PNC and the AFC are erroneous and can only be interpreted thus by those who are self-serving and want to hide the truth of their own reality, and the reality of Guyana’s past, and the roles that they played in that past.
The president, in his fiery address, decried the appeal to race-based politics by opposition elements, and their call for citizens to make Guyana an example like Egypt, because Guyana has had its Egypt, which was the PNC era; and he went on to outline some of the atrocities committed on the people (all the people) by the administration during that era. Every word he said was the truth and can be proven through written and pictorial evidence; and this truth is also branded in the souls of the real freedom-fighters, some of whom (even GUARD and WPA members) even sacrificed their lives to enable this reality for the Guyana of tomorrow.
However, the President emphasized that he was not recalling Guyana’s past, and the roles Granger, Corbin and other current leaders played during the oppressive regime in a spirit of recrimination against anyone; but merely to remind the older generation of what they suffered in the past; and to warn the younger generation of what could transpire in the future, because there is no guarantee that these gentlemen, who played such an integral role in destroying the country and devastating this nation would not do this again if they are once more allowed to govern Guyana.
The President’s speech was all about uniting the Guyanese people and providing equal opportunities for enhanced lifestyles, education and development for all, as well as a warning to the people not to be swayed by this new avatar being assumed by the former destructive elements in the nation and gamble away the future of the generations to come.

How this can cause such a furore and be interpreted as racist and divisive comments boggles the mind.