This was coined by Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who recognised all the imperatives

of taking people’s empowerment into consideration when planning developmental strategies.
This is reflected in all the successive PPP manifestos; and was the prime motivator for Dr. Jagan’s tasking the Finance Minister with the formulation of a development strategy simultaneously with a poverty reduction strategy, with neither being extraneous to the other.
A circular released by the U.S. President Barack Obama support team for ‘Obama-care’ reads: “Friend — I’m writing with a quick update on the ‘fiscal cliff’ and how you can get involved.
“Right now, President Obama is asking you to think about what US$2,000 a year means to you and your family — because Congress needs to hear it.
“The Senate has passed a bill that stops taxes from going up for 98 percent of American families, and asks those who can afford it to pay a little more. If the House follows suit, President Obama is ready to sign it as soon as it hits his desk.
“If they fail to do so, a typical middle-class family of four will see their taxes go up by $2,000 in just a few short weeks.
“President Obama is asking Congress to do the right thing and act before the New Year, but he needs our help. We’ve got a good track record here: When we make our voices heard and urge Congress to take action — whether it’s about health care, student loans, Wall Street reform, or ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ — they listen.
“For more than 19 months, President Obama campaigned on the idea that if we’re going to be successful, every American has to do their part and pay their fair share.
“A centerpiece of his platform, and the campaign you built, was that income taxes should not go up on the middle class — that the responsible way to pay down the deficit, while investing in education, job training, research, and science, is to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more.
“None of this is a surprise to anyone in Washington. They heard the same arguments we did — they paid attention to the campaign, and then they saw a clear majority of voters deliver a verdict on November 6th.
“If and when the House passes this bill, 98 percent of American families and 97 percent of small businesses will not see a tax increase.
Your story matters and Congress needs to hear it.”
In 1992, the PPP/C inherited a devastated country, a demoralised nation, and a bankrupted economy.  Prior to this, former President Desmond Hoyte had mortgaged this country and its people to the IMF for generations to come.
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo has interesting theories about the IMF and the World Bank – the Bretton Woods Institutions, and they are anything but complimentary.
The Hoyte-driven ERP, which was part of the IMF conditionalities for the restoration of funding to Guyana, consequenced even greater hardship for Guyanese, among which was freezing public servants’ wages at $2000.
Dr. Jagan inherited those economic conditions in 1992 but refused to accede to the IMF’s draconian menu of measures that would ensue in further funding for this then debt-ridden country from that financial institution, but would place greater hardships on the shoulders of the common man.
And only indomitable will and his famed courage of a leader like Cheddi Jagan could have prevailed over such a powerful institution, because he overturned Hoyte’s edict and restored bargaining powers to the trade unions, which during the PNC administration had been reduced to toothless poodles.
Like Obama, Dr. Jagan recognised the ‘fiscal cliff’ of the Guyana of 1992 could have been the suicide point for the nation; but he refused to sacrifice the Guyanese people to the then extant financial paradigm.
History has recorded the unrelenting struggle by Dr. Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo to bring the debt burden to manageable proportions so that the ordinary citizens of the land could once more dream of a better life for themselves and their offspring.
Of course, the opposition collective and their satellites carped, criticised and condemned the two PPP/C leaders for their constant travels as they sought to alleviate Guyana’s debt burden though debt reduction and/or write-offs, calling them beggars and other derogatory names; but today their efforts have paid off and those same naysayers and doomsayers are benefiting from the consequential upswing of Guyana’s fortunes, but they continue to carp, criticise and condemn.
Any leader of a nation who recognises the needs of its people and creates the nation’s development trajectory to move in tandem with the people’s needs, without fear or favour, but through prioritising of those more pressing areas of needs should be given support.
Unlike Guyana’s opposition cabal, the American politicians, by and large, are decent, responsible people; hence the bringing into being of ‘Obamacare’, with all its implications for the poor and vulnerable.
Could one dare to dream that one day Guyana’s opposition will see Guyanese – not as ‘collateral damage’ in their climb to power, but as human beings and join with government in its continued drive for development with a human face?