-Ramotar
PEOPLE’S Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) presidential candidate Donald Ramotar has plugged the need for continuous institutional strengthening in the interest of change, despite the contempt with which the subject has been treated in some quarters. “We have to strengthen all our institutions; at the end of the day, this is what counts… It is unfortunate that a lot of the things we have done to fight things like corruption have been used as political footballs, and not how they were supposed to have been used,” he told reporters at a press briefing yesterday at the Party’s Robb Street headquarters, Freedom House.
He belaboured the point that when it comes to issues like good governance and addressing corruption, the key focus must be institutional strengthening: A focus on systems, not outcomes based on individuals.
That said, he promised that should he be successful at the polls tomorrow, he would ensure that there is a review of the procurement protocols, and the establishment of the Procurement Commission to directly tackle the issue of corruption. And this he will do during his first term in office as President, he said.
Noting that accountability is one of the main reasons behind the government’s insistence on having the Auditor General’s Report made public each year, Ramotar said the government has lamentably come in for a lot of flack for taking such a stand, whilst the report itself has been made into another “political football” by the very same opposition under whose administration not a single Auditor General’s Report had been made public.
Another bone of contention and subject of ridicule, he said, was the establishment of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), the whole purpose of which was to ensure the dispensation of justice in a free and fair manner.
On the issue of judicial reform among other advances targeting institutional strengthening, Ramotar said: “This is not a one-man thing… There is work in this direction as we speak.”
And touching on the importance of the parliamentary process, he noted that there have been many advancements in this regard over the last decade, such as the use of select committees in arriving at consensus in the interest of the country’s advancement.

Celebrating democracy
He said that though the functioning of Parliament has seen significant improvement, there is yet more work to be done, and that come tomorrow, Guyana will see the establishment of a government for the people by the people, which will ensure a better tomorrow for all Guyanese.
“This is a celebration of our democracy,” he said. “A renewal of democracy… and we should see elections in this way… and that people now have an opportunity to have a say in government … a government by the people of the people.”
Political democracy, he said, ensures that government remains accountable to the society, as well as ensures that the government delivers equitable progress across the nation.
“This is why the PPP/C spent its life fighting for free and fair elections in Guyana… Free and fair elections are at the heart of democracy; without it, we have nothing,” he said.
October 5, 1992 has been called the “people’s triumph” when the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan took his place as the democratically elected President of Guyana in the first free and fair elections Guyana had seen after decades of rigged elections.