October 10,2016 Source

Dear Editor,

Based on the outcomes being generated by our two major political parties, it is clear that more persons are needed to take up the challenge to become competent, sincere political leaders and offer themselves as alternatives to what is currently available.

Our politics has had a generally retarding effect on our society.  In fact, the only real beneficiaries over the years have been the operatives within these parties and their cronies some of whom are in league with corruption.  It is clear that attempts are being made at re-engineering a structure similar to that which obtained under the previous administration and the former PNC years.  In its short stint at the helm, the PNRC-led administration seems intent on outperforming the PPP in terms of wrongdoing.

African Guyanese need to wake up and smell the coffee.  Their experience over the last seventeen months or so is a glimmer of what lies on the horizon. And there is nothing that they can do about it, except devise mechanisms to save themselves from the encroaching authoritarianism of the PNCR-led administration.  Evidently the largesse of the salaries of their ministers has not been enough, even as I supported their claims for this as a means of obviating the need for corruption as a recourse for financing their welfare.

Governments also exert tremendous influence over what we think through the media.  This is used to distract us from activities they would prefer us not to pay attention to.  For example, propaganda proclaiming the positives of government such as the bus-bicycle-boat programme and issuing wired laptops to children and teachers are used to whitewash issues of corruption and mismanagement of government institutions and agencies.

These boats, bicycles, buses and laptops are fine, but Guyanese want a strongly articulated commitment to addressing our investment and job creation constraints along with deliberate actions directed at delivering defined outcomes.

The PNCR-led administration may be under the illusion that it was responsible for its victory at the polls last year.  This was in fact engineered by people like myself with the assistance of the gross incompetence of the former administration.  We have vested interests in the success of the current administration, but that success cannot be achieved by recourse to slippery dealings in government procurement practices and the installation of unsuitable characters in executive positions.

Those who are old enough will remember we were glad to be rid of the PNC in 1992.  This was not without cause. The installation of Norton and Chase-Green within the executive of the PNCR along with the Van West-Charles affair are evidence of the party’s plans for Guyana, and this is something we have to address in a holistic and constructive manner.  There is no doubt that Guyana desperately needed a change of government last year.

However, we are far from satisfied with the outcomes being realized under the present administration.  Our failure to engage in constructive dialogue with government on the way forward or provide political alternatives, failing some amicable resolution will leave us trapped in a perennial cycle of retrograde government and poverty.

One thing about which we can be certain is that the present administration will have no one to blame but itself for the future it has charted for itself.  Similarly, Guyanese have no one to blame but themselves for the future that will unfold should they sit on their hands and continue whining and complaining about their state of affairs.   We need to come to the table to formulate mechanisms for delivering on our dreams for our future.

Yours faithfully,

Craig Sylvester