By Ken Danns

THE Guyana Government is in the hands of a seemingly capable and caring coalition administration. No government is perfect and missteps have been evident, but not unexpected. There are however, solid indications that this one-year-old APNU+AFC government is undertaking programmes and policies geared to restoring credible administrative rule, rebuilding trust, improving the nation’s security and in general promulgating initiatives to positively transform the country’s economic, social and political fortunes.
A particularly noteworthy achievement of this new Administration is the timely and successful restoration of local democracy by holding local government elections after many years. The real importance of these elections for local self-governance is that the new leaders trust and are seeking to empower the Guyanese people to make the decisions about their own lives and the development of their communities. The top-down rule from the capital has failed Guyana over the past 50 years of its existence as an independent nation. The confidence this Government is showing in the capabilities, ingenuity and goodness of the Guyanese people is encouraging and an essential first step in galvanising the country’s development.
What is needed now is a nation-wide dialogue on Guyana’s development. What are the key issues affecting the country’s development prospects and how can these be resolved or overcome? How do the people at the local, regional and national levels see development? What are their plans? What resources: natural, human and other resources are available and/or are needed to bring about desired development? How can these be mobilised?
The nation’s mantra should be “Development is everyone’s business. Development is my business.” If individual residents as a whole experience development, then their communities would be developed. If the communities are developing, then the country as a whole will become developed. This development orientation will induce positive nationalism and remove the malaise of negativity and hopelessness that characterise the existence of many in the nation, in particular its young people. The Guyanese people must come to see the nexus of development between “Me and Myself. Me and my Family, Me and my community. Me and my Country.”
What is required is a transformation in thought and vision about Guyana’s development possibilities. There are indications that this is currently being fostered. The Guyanese people should cease to buy in to the fatalistic view that things will never get better in the country. Think positive. Act positive. Guyana’s development is everyone’s business. Commence the dialogue on the development of community and country. (Dr Danns is a former lecturer at the University of Guyana and now Chair, UNG Faculty Senate Professor of Sociology Department of Sociology and Human Services, University of North Georgia.)