IT WAS way back in the 1980s, and I was only a young boy at the time, but I remember the day well; one does not tend to relinquish memories of these sorts of life’s events.It was a blustery Saturday morning during the August school holidays. My grandfather was making a business trip to the big island in the big river, and he took along a cousin and I on what was at that time the biggest adventure of our young lives.

We left our home village of Vergenoegen on the East Bank of the Essequibo and headed to Parika, where we boarded an early morning ferry to the sprawling island of Leguan. We had known of Leguan. For years, we had yearned to visit. Us boys, in the afternoons after seawall cricket was wrapped up, would sit on the Vergenoegen foreshore and gaze in wonderment at this green expanse of land sitting majestically in the grand Essequibo. As the sun set, it would fade into the darkness, only the flicker of a few lamps visible until it emerged again at morning light.

The tales of the big island were tall and engrossing. Men from the village would speak of the thrills of catching bundaree crabs at Dauntless, Leguan’s outermost point where the Atlantic Ocean waters would mingle with the Essequibo flow. Stories of the size and volume of crabs caught fascinated us boys, not yet wise to the ways of men of the sea, and stories of the one that got away fascinated us as well. Leguan, though, remained embedded in our minds as a place of mystery and appeal. All of us village boys longed to visit. We had even contemplated swimming across at low tide, but good sense prevailed.

And so, on this particular Saturday, Uncle Hassan’s two grandsons were by his side and on their way. The lustre and mystique of the island diminished somewhat upon arrival. Our hosts met us at the stelling with a muddy tractor which was our mode of transportation for the day-long visit, which was primarily to allow my grandfather to inspect some machinery parts which he had been interested in procuring. The tractor made practical sense in view of the condition of the roads, which were more akin to dams. There were craters the size of small houses, and substantial breakages which took skill and guts to manoeuvre without toppling.

30 YEARS OF NEGLECT
2016 makes it almost 30 years since my first visit, encountering those challenging conditions of life in Leguan. Whatever the reason for the neglect, the change of government in 1992 and the ensuing 23 years did not prove to have much improved this aspect of life on the island. Patches and bits and pieces of roads were done over the past two decades. A mile or two here and there, three or four bits in total on an island with about 17 miles of roads. Residents complained about shoddy and substandard work then; that the roads done would quickly deteriorate. Leguan residents felt neglected for too many years.

Come 2016, the situation is changing dramatically. A massive road surfacing project is ongoing on the island, and thus far about 50% of the roads have been paved. The Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s mobile asphalt plant is on the island, and is being worked around the clock to bring relief to the plight of the long suffering residents of Leguan.

These roads are transformative.

Leguan’s economy is agriculture-based, and improved roads would allow farmers to better transport their produce to the stelling for crossing to the bustling Parika Market; and to West Coast Demerara, Georgetown, and East Coast Demerara markets as well. It would shorten the travel time for produce, but would also improve the comfort of road users on the island.

TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES
However, beyond the immediate and obvious benefits, asphalt roads in Leguan would now allow the island to explore tourism opportunities which can result in jobs and enhanced economic activities. With a dramatically improved road network, Guyanese and overseas visitors would be more inclined to visit. This can redound to the benefit of islanders through the creation of tour-guide jobs. Transportation services on the island would benefit; as would restaurants, bars and shops, along with cash crop farmers, whose supplies are likely to be in greater demand in order to prepare cooked meals for island visitors. The chain effect of development from as seemingly a simple development as road improvement can have far-reaching and life-changing impacts.

DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT POLITICAL STRINGS
There is also a political dimension to this development, which cannot be ignored. It is a public fact that the people of Leguan voted resoundingly for the opposition PPP. In the 2015 General and Regional Elections, there were eight polling stations on the island. In each of those polling stations the PPP trounced the APNU+AFC Coalition handsomely. Individual polling station results were the likes of 85 votes to 202; zero votes to 47; 33 votes to 279; 49 votes to 225. This was the general pattern of the electoral results.

Conditioned over many years by certain political forces to believe that development in Leguan can only happen under one administration, the people of Leguan are seeing a different, and perhaps to many surprising, reality.

Rather than Leguan being neglected under the Coalition Government, it has benefited from being prioritized. That speaks to the new thrust of development without political strings, and a mindset that national development must be for all, not some.

There is in Guyana a new reality which espouses that national development must not be tied to political support or used as a carrot for votes. The people must never again be persecuted through neglect of services and infrastructural development because of how they choose to vote.

DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL
Development, quite simply, must be for all Guyanese, regardless of which party is in government. The Coalition Government has set a standard which the public must guard zealously. The example of the development being prioritized in Leguan under the Coalition Government must be held as a shining example that partisanship must be divorced from national development at all levels.

A new day is upon us, and it has been 30 years or so in the making. I look forward to visiting Leguan sometime soon, and seeing with mine own eyes how far the island has come along.

Columnist note: The paving of the Leguan road network is being funded through a 2016 budgetary allocation of $2.5B for the development of roads nationwide.