THE ripple effect of the global financial meltdown, which caused severe social dislocations even in developed countries, has scarcely impacted Guyana’s fiscal imperatives, which have registered an unprecedented record of growth for over six years, with stable macro-economic fundamentals, which could have accelerated, were it not for the opposition and its satellite NGOs, labour unions, media operatives, lawyers associations, et al, thanks to the prudent management of Guyana’s fiscal affairs by PPP/C’s financial whiz kid, Dr. Ashni Singh.

Thus, while other Caribbean countries have frozen public servants’ wages — a state of affairs imposed on Guyana’s public servants by the PNC regime prior to Dr. Jagan’s defrosting the $2,000 per month wage freeze that he inherited, along with other Draconian impositions on the people by the dictatorship — Guyanese have enjoyed acceleration in social and labour benefits and wage increases for each successive year, with this year being no exception.
But the very PNC — with Carl Greenidge, the worst Finance Minister ever in the history of Guyana, who had run this nation into a financial underground and had declared Guyana to be a bankrupted country under his tenure, causing the wages of public servants to be frozen at $2,000, with no benefits that they enjoy today — has the gall to criticize the amount of wage increases being offered by successive PPP/C Governmetns.
When the PPP/C took office in 1992, the country was in the throes of its last gasp for life, and one of the more pressing needs was to reduce the crippling debt burden, $2.1 billion, which was stymieing rehabilitation and developmental works.
Dr. Jagan and his brilliant and trusted young acolyte, Junior Finance Minister, Bharat Jagdeo, went into overdrive, lobbying at every conceivable forum for a reduction and/or write-off of the albatross of Guyana’s debt. The international world responded favourably over the years, and this, coupled with prudent fiscal management, has enabled Guyana to stabilize its economy, and even allowed some degree of growth in less than two decades, to the extent where, in a recessional global environment where even the most developed nations are collapsing, Guyana has managed to maintain stability and sustain its macro-economic achievements.
The importance of this to the national economic health and the development of Guyana’s macro-economic fundamentals is being attested to by some big leaguers in the entrepreneurial fraternity, most of whom are not traditional PPP supporters, but are honest enough to publicly recognise and appreciate the Government’s policies and strategies, and its willingness to productively engage in interactive programmes that can assist the private sector’s initiatives, especially when these initiatives are adjunctive to Government’s developmental imperatives.
But the perennial naysayers and doomsayers, even while enjoying the benefits of the reversal of Guyana’s fortunes, through a continuum of negative and destructive utterances and actions, have tried in every conceivable way to stymie and reverse this miracle of economic growth and social development, which caused one CARICOM Head to declare Guyana “… the only shining star in the Caribbean.”
And the PPP/C leadership took Guyana’s image away from the beggarly state in the regional and international eyes to one of respect. However, while the powerbrokers of the world were lauding our country, especially under the administration of Past President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo for his LCDS, and the courage and leadership qualities he was demonstrating – enough to position Guyana conspicuously on the global map, with all the initiatives he has driven – whether the LCDS, whether in agriculture, whether it is a lone stance against a draconian regime being forced on our region through an EPA propelled by the powerful EU, which would have severely dislocated our socio-economic imperatives, Guyana’s retrogressive forces were hard at work putting blockades to this country’s developmental dynamics. President Donald Ramotar promised continuity of this paradigm, and he has kept his word.
Our performance indices are climbing – slowly but surely, on global graphs, and powerful world bodies are demonstrating their faith in the governance of this nation, notwithstanding the odd hiccup here and there, by their sustained, and even expanded, support over the years.
Yet the doomsayers and the naysayers continue, unabated, their spiteful and jealous tirades. In their attempt to bring down the Government, they lobby internationally, and within the country, against initiatives that would help in the development of this country and its people – even to the extent of trying to derail our border talks.
In efforts to foster the fallacy that they, or the parties of their choice, would make better leaders for this nation, they are not above peddling lies and distortions in attempts to drive their point home, or to validate their arguments. But how solid is their personal integrity and credibility?
A cursory background examination of the characters of the detractors and critics of the President and the current government, including opposition leaders, would prove the faces behind the public façade that they show to the world have satanic contours and that the lily-white gloves encase hands stained with, if not blood, then rivulets of tears of betrayed trust from persons who know their true colours.
There is an old Guyanese adage: “When you point a finger at someone, four are pointing back at you.”
The joint opposition and their satellites continue to denigrate past and present PPP/C Presidents; but Dr. Jagdeo is a towering figure in the global landscape, and each honour showered on him by the international community reflects on the Guyanese nation – as a collective; and President Donald Ramotar is steadily proving his leadership skills, skillfully guiding the nation past one opposition-driven crisist situation after another.
On the distaff side, those who attempt to denigrate our Presidents for self-serving purposes are blackening the entire Guyanese nation – as they have done in the past, when Guyanese were relegated to the lowest rungs of global graphs, in every context, with dire social consequences for the Guyanese nation, who were seen as pariahs for decades by the international community.
The late Dr. Cheddi Jagan and his chosen successor, former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, have restored dignity and respect to the Guyanese nation; but it is the choice of this nation if they want to revert to the status quo of yesteryears.
Man is supposed to be blessed with intelligence superior to beasts so that they can make wise choices. It is the individual who will choose to support lies, or the pride and respect of his country above personal prejudices.
Once more as the poisonous snakes raise their fangs to strike in the heart of the Guyanese nation the people need to recognize the imperative of making wise choices for themselves and their children; and the choice is between progress and retrogression.