Dear Editor,

Firstly, please allow meto extend Happy New Year’s greetings to all, especially my Guyanese brothers and sisters.
As we enter the dawn of a brand-new year ahead of us, we must reflect on the past year(s) as to what took place, where we were as a nation and as individuals, and where we want to be and what we want to achieve in this new year.

As I reflect on the past years in politics and Guyana, I do not want to go back in giving details as to the years 2015 to 2020, which I will consider as dark days for our nation under the APNU+AFC (PNC).

Why would I want to say that? I say that because the economy was stagnant, no meaningful budgetary allocations for major development or making the lives of our people better, no vision as a government, hardly any job creation for the young people, as a matter of fact jobs were for the boys as we call it, no proper educational programme for our people and I can go on but because of space I won’t.

I am going to deem those years the dark years for our people and nation. Never again should we allow those dark days to return or ever allow the PNC to return to political power in this country, as they tried to rig the 2020 elections.

In the late 2020, when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) went into government and we saw the swearing in of President Irfaan Ali, Guyana’s landscape started changing immediately, especially economically.
From day one, we saw action from all the ministries and its sub agencies and steered the wheels of development and started turning Guyana into a better nation generally. We saw the confidence back in the private sector as they rushed to energise the business sector.

I would just mention one sector that took the breath of the people of this country and I believe the entire Caribbean away and that is the agriculture sector.

This sector is the most important sector because it has to ensure that the nation is being fed and from the day that Zulfikar Mustapha took office it was action galore in that ministry.

In just about three months into office as Minister of Agriculture, Mustapha changed the entire landscape in the “Agri” industry and changed the false narrative of the previous government and minister that sections of the agriculture sector cannot function or be managed.

It was proven wrong. All the sectors were up and running; they started to turn the wheels of growth and development.

That is why today, Guyana could be seen as the food basket of the Caribbean once again, and I know that the minister is working towards the goal of food security for our nation by the given timeline.

Editor, I just mention that ministry alone because of the vast growth and development that is happening and rocking this nation every day in a positive manner. We saw the budgetary allocations for that ministry being increased year after year, and that is because of prudent management and implications of policies and programmes that impacted and more so better the lives of our people.

So, that is just one ministry but in the other ministries such as public works, education, sports, health, local government, social services, home affairs, housing, public service, etc…, we saw the massive works, improvements and developments that took place, or I may say taking place, where all of Guyana, and, yes, I say all of Guyana is benefitting.

Don’t worry about the crocodile tears coming from the opposition that they hadn’t the oil funds to do work to develop this nation and care for our people.

I am sure if they had to manage this country with the oil resources, our nation would have been suffering worse than what they have done in their previous years in office, especially mismanaging all the sectors.

With the oil revenues, we saw major improvements in our country especially in its caring for citizens and infrastructural development.

We can now boast of having asphalt or concrete roads/streets, better drainage and irrigation, farm to market roads, better health care, better human services, major improvement in the education sector, more investments in housing, etc…

Through the budgets of 2020 to 2023, we all as Guyanese benefitted through many ways and we cannot doubt that as the opposition wants us to do. We cannot deny the fact that we all are having a better life under this PPP/C/Irfaan Ali-led government.

While the opposition wants to deny the fact that they are not benefitting, it is evident that they have collected the Because We Care school cash grants, the raise in pension, the agricultural cash grants, the small business grants, etc…. They are walking on better community roads and traveling on more developed highways, etc….

We as a nation have to understand for those things to happen there has to be more and more budgetary allocations, so we can continue to see the nation moving up.

And, yes, I won’t deny that the cost of living is a bit high but there are many factors that contribute to it, such as, COVID-19. COVID-19 played a major part sending the prices of goods and sky high. Lately, we saw the dry weather season that leads to a rise in agricultural produce that we consume every day.

The government cannot be blamed for such. In every developing world the prices for goods and services vary. The cost of living rises and not because of the prices for food.

I also see another major factor that causes us to say that the cost of living is on the rise and people are suffering and that we as citizens, as humans, change our lifestyles and living standards. We dine more in fancy restaurants, party, etc…, and that’s the fact.

In helping to cushion the impact of cost of living, this government has implemented some measures and created thousands of jobs so that people could have an income(s).

This brings me to ask a few questions. How many jobs have the APNU+AFC (PNC) created while they were in government? How many roads/streets/highways have they built or restructured?

How many school children were made to suffer by taking away the cash grants? How many new businesses did they facilitate? How many sports grounds were rehabilitated? How many farmlands had they opened up? How many schools have they built? How many health centers and hospitals have they built and refurbished?

How many scholarships did they given to the young people? How many house lots did they give out or housing schemes they created? Why didn’t they care for the pensioners, single parents, persons with disability, etc…?

And there are hundreds of other questions for them, but we as Guyanese must think and open our eyes to see for ourselves as to the Guyana we are living in today than the Guyana we were in from 2015 to 2020.

We as Guyanese want to see more and more development in 2024 in all sectors in this country, and that means more funds have to be put into those projects and programmes to come.

It means we have to ensure that taxes are being paid to the government because that is what helps the government to bring development to our nation.

So, I would conclude by saying that I am looking forward to Budget 2024being bigger and better for this One Guyana.

Best regards,
Abel Seetaram