“BECAUSE we Care” has now become a household terminology. Thousands of households are the beneficiaries of direct inflows of cash into their pockets through a variety of government interventions such as the “Because We Care” and the part-time employment programmes.

Those interventions, significant as they are from a financial perspective, speak to a philosophy of governance that is people-centred, especially as it relates to the ordinary working people.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), since its inception, has always embraced a working-class ideology and this is reflected in the class-orientation of successive PPP administrations going way back to the 1953 period, when for the first time in the country’s history, a pro-working class party was elected to office in the first election held under universal adult suffrage.

The election of the PPP, as to be expected, did not go down well with the then colonial office and the PPP was overthrown from government after just six months in office.
The PPP remained undaunted and after again winning the 1957 elections, continued with its pro-people policies, placing emphasis on agricultural development and on the social sectors such as housing, water, education and health.

Those were the days when development financing was hard to come by, mainly because of the working-class orientation of the PPP administration.
A lot has changed since then and the PPP/C administration is now better positioned to pursue its pro-poor policies and programmes, thanks to oil revenues, which have now become a game changer in terms of revenue inflows which are expected to get better in the coming period ahead, as more and more oil wells become operational.

Development financing, however, has to be carefully managed if the country’s long-term growth is to be sustained.
As pointed out both by President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, there has to be the right balance between infrastructural development and recurrent expenditures.

Development is about people and this is why significant sums of money are being spent on raising the standard of living of the Guyanese people, especially those in the low-income bracket and the more vulnerable in our society.

At the same time, massive infrastructural works are currently being implemented which will have a transformative impact on the economy and by extension on the lives of every Guyanese.
There are those in the political opposition who are seeking to project a view, mainly out of partisan political interest, that the government is not doing enough to increase wages and salaries in the public sector, imputing ‘ulterior’ motives in its mischievous and baseless claims.

The intention is to pit one section of the working class against the other by creating the impression that those in the public sector are being discriminated against in favour of those in the agricultural sector, especially sugar workers and fisherfolk. This line of reasoning unfortunately is being parroted by the union representing public sector employees, namely the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).

It matters little, if at all, to the political opposition that, unlike public sector employees, which for the most part enjoy security of tenure and benefit from annual salary increases, sugar workers have had their services terminated due to the closure of several grinding sugar estates by the previous APNU+AFC administration.

What the previous administration did, in effect, was to literally take bread out of the mouths of sugar workers and their families.
It is to the credit of the PPP/C administration that several hundreds of those workers are back in employment as work is currently in progress to bring back the shuttered estates to economic viability.

The cash payments to sugar workers and fisherfolk are “one-off,” unlike salary increases which have to be sustained over time as an additional expenditure on the recurrent budget.
The PPP/C administration, for its part, is aggressively pursuing its development agenda based on its core values and principles which are aimed at providing a better quality of life for all Guyanese, regardless of race, colour, creed or political orientation. As is evident in every society, there will always be those who are possessed by the “sour grapes” mentality and who, as it were, only see the glass as being half empty rather than half full.

Regrettably, there is not much that could be done to help such individuals who see only threats in every opportunity.
But as pointed out by President Ali, the developmental train will continue to pick up momentum. The choice has to be made whether to come on board or be left behind. Fortunately, the vast majority of Guyanese have opted to come on board, as the One Guyana train picks up speed and momentum.