Dear Editor,
GIVEN the enormous successes of President, Dr. Irfaan Ali’s administration in his first term, Guyana is poised to have its best years ahead of us when the PPP/C assumes a second term. There was a pace of dizzying development in the past five years.

It was hard to keep up with all the ceremonies of new schools being opened up; hospitals and refurbished clinics opening up; bridges dedicated; the new Demerara Bridge opening up soon; commissioning of new wells and water treatment plants; agriculture lands being opened up; new drainage and irrigation projects completed; new pump stations commissioned; thousands of house lots given out; low income housing made available; forgiveness of student loans which kept tens of thousands of dollars in students’ pockets; free GOAL and UG scholarships which kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in families’ pockets; widespread technical and vocational and skills training across the country leading to higher paying jobs; steel and cement subsidies; small business grants given out; ongoing salary increases for government workers; modest increases in old age pensions and public assistance; cash grants for everyone over 18 and for all school children putting thousands of dollars in our pockets, etc.

People of Guyana, which other CARICOM country is doing these kinds of things? As the Pastor would say in church, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it would surprise you what the Lord has done.”
We must give praise and thanks where praise is due; we must not be ungrateful. Our country is blessed and the most resourced in CARICOM. I find some people have fixed mindsets of negativity, and they like to whine.

They see the glass as half empty, not half full. If you say the government built thousands of roads, they retort “You can’t eat roads.” We need both infrastructure and higher incomes and benefits.
Guyana is in the “take-off” stage of development. In the model of economic development by economist Rostow, the “take-off” stage is characterised by rapid and sustained economic growth, driven by industrialisation and the emergence of new industries.

This stage follows the “preconditions for take-off” and is marked by a significant increase in investment, leading to self-sustaining growth. The PPP administration has accomplished most of what it said it would do in the first term. I believe all the projects announced by President Ali will get done in the second term.

We must keep the momentum going. We can’t stop the progress. We did that in 2015 and regretted it bitterly. It took a “no confidence” motion and crossover voters returning to the PPP in 2020 to end the dismal rule of the PNC which tried to rig the election in full view of the world.

Now that the country is back on track, I believe the PPP will consider all the criticism and advice given by the public for greater accountability and quality and develop models to accelerate our purchasing power of all citizens through structured, sustained approaches.

They will look at old age pensions, fix the NIS contribution problems, enhance public assistance support, and address the problems of people in the lower income bracket.
I trust the PPP more to get all these things done. They are the incumbent government with wide experience and a large talent pool to make things happen. There will not need to be a learning curve. They will not have to say, like some people say, “very soon,” “very shortly.” The PPP will hit the ground running on September 2.
Some people like to vent their frustration and make rash judgments based on a single thing that bugs them.

The wiser people look at all the factors, all the variables then decide that despite something the
government did that irritated me, we have to give the government credit for all their abundance of accomplishments.

There are more positives than negatives, and the positives are all around for you to see! Someone said, the PPP at its worst would still be better than the PNC at its best. Our best years are ahead of us!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate