Guyanese who could well recall some of the social, economic and political horrors of life under the long rule of the People’s National Congress would certainly be appreciative of the latest report originating from the  Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).It has pointed to Guyana’s persistent annual economic growth rate, varying between three and five per cent, over the past five years in particular, with four per cent in 2012.
This observation is not for the purpose of gloating; it’s simply to emphasise the stark contrast between the quality of enlightened economic management and democratic governance, under successive People’s Progressive Party-led administrations, and the litany of failures that the PNC had offered, right up the humiliating tragic status of Guyana as one of the highest indebted and poorest  countries of the world.
Neither today’s Opposition Leader, David Granger, nor his Party’s erstwhile chief spokesman on fiscal and economic matters, ex-Finance Minister Carl Greenidge, can pretend ignorance of this dreaded comparison, although they were functioning in different roles during varying phases of PNC’s “paramountcy” rule.
It was part of the post-Independence ‘dark time’ for Guyana that had lasted for almost a quarter-century. During that period, thousands of Guyanese, of all ethnicities and political affiliations, kept voting with their feet to foreign lands, mainly to the USA, Canada and Britain, but a good many also settled in countries of the Caribbean Community, primarily in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Grenada.
Ironically, in 2013, while the Guyana Government continues to cope with varying challenges to further improve social and economic benefits for the  Guyanese people — including honouring pledges to maintain annual minimum increases for public sector workers, as well as ensuring that GUYSUCO provides bonus payments due to sugar workers — some CARICOM countries are experiencing severe social and economic problems.
The negative consequences of these developments include depressing statistics on gun-related murders and other serious crimes, such as armed robberies and rapes — horrors too well known also to Guyanese — with the latest challenge of spreading unemployment now threatening thousands of public sector workers in various CARICOM states, including, of all countries, Barbados.
It is a period for reflection by Guyana on creative initiatives to help encourage and sustain national unity that could further increase production for wider economic growth. This would require Guyana to be  in a position to also extend employment and other opportunities to affected CARICOM citizens in their pursuit of alternatives to job losses and related displacements at home.
Of course, this is an issue which may require consultations involving the government and opposition as well as the private sector and trade unions. Such a caring approach would reflect a genuine desire to further help in making a reality of our Caribbean ‘neighbourliness’.
Needless to say that at this season of “peace and goodwill”, any initiative to help influence more meaningful cooperation among CARICOM partner states could well  beat back the negative forces currently seeking to foster regional fragmentation, instead of  strengthening integration.
In this context, the recurring cases of Community citizens too often being denied free intra-regional movement at some ports of entry must be seriously addressed by all governments.