President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has repeatedly said that the approach to governance is based on the concept of inclusivity and participatory democracy. Consistent with this approach, the government has embarked on engagements with a number of key stakeholders, including organised labour, private sector representatives, religious organisations and civil society.

In keeping with the PPP/Cs consultative approach to governance, a high-level team of senior government officials, which included Prime Minister, Brigadier Mark Phillips and Senior Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, led a series of budget consultations with several trade unions. The consultations allowed for the administration to listen to the concerns of workers and garner inputs which could inform policies in the crafting of the 2024 Budget Estimates.

And as pointed out by Dr. Singh, the government is committed to sustained improvements in the lives of the working people of Guyana. Several policy initiatives were already implemented since the government assumed office in August 2020 aimed at enhancing the working and living conditions of the Guyanese people. These continuing engagements will no doubt build on the economic and social gains made by the current PPP/C administration.

Only recently, President Ali met with senior teachers from schools across the country. The interaction with the teachers proved useful in terms of bringing to the fore issues of concern to teachers and finding practical solutions. A number of decisions were taken by President Ali emanating from the engagement with the teachers which would have far-reaching impact not only in terms of enhancing their working and living conditions but also in terms of an improved quality of education delivery.

This approach to governance, however, goes beyond that of representative groups and organisations. It is also about taking actions at the level of the Executive to correct long standing bottlenecks that interfere with the quality of life of the Guyanese people. In this regard, President Ali has announced the establishment of a special secretariat to address festering issues such as National Insurance and the issuance of passports.

Roughly 10,000 cases of pending NIS matters are expected to be resolved by the end of this current year. According to President Ali, “files that deal with appeals, claims, queries, investigations, tribunal matters…we are going to develop a special secretariat and a projectized format to bring an end or to bring closure, these 10, 000 file before the end of the year, so that we will be back in real time.”

It is common knowledge that two of the most problematic issues affecting a significant number of Guyanese revolve around the National Insurance Scheme and passports, and the decision taken by President Ali is a timely and welcomed intervention.

As the modernisation process gains momentum, the need for stakeholders’ inputs in the decision-making processes becomes all the more necessary. Development is all about people and the satisfying of their material and cultural needs. This is why the bottom-up approach to policy-making is so important and President Ali and the PPP/C administration must be commended for their ability to connect directly with the masses.

As the country observes 31 years since the restoration of democratic rule, the words of the late former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan during his inauguration ceremony as Executive President continues to have relevance. “We the people have won,” he said. It is a style of governance in which government is taken to the people, and the people to government.

In this regard, the participation of trade union representatives in discussions with policymakers is indeed a welcome development and certainly augers well for the collaborative role between labour and the Executive in terms of crafting a budget that caters for the wellbeing of the working people. It also serves to debunk a false narrative peddled by the political opposition that the current PPP/C administration is anti-union and bypassing labour representatives in the decision-making process especially on matter of relevance to labour.

President Ali must be given full credit of continuing, indeed intensifying, a governance approach in which people are placed at the centre of development. Putting people first has always been one of the hallmarks of all successive PPP/C administrations. This is indeed how it should be as the country moves forward in the direction of One Guyana as envisaged by President Ali.