NEW YEAR’S DAY MESSAGES
Jan 01, 2020 , Source -- Kaieteur News Online, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...ears-day-messages-3/
Happy 2020 to all of Guyana from all of us at Kaieteur News!!
Best wishes for the New Year are also extended to you from other individuals and organisations:
PEOPLE’S NATIONAL CONGRESS REFORM
Happy New Year! May Prosperity come to every home, family and community across the far-flung regions of our country.
The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) extends greetings for a Happy New Year to all Guyanese at home and in the Diaspora. As the Year 2019, fades into history, we welcome 2020 and the Decade of Development, 2020-2029.
On this, the first day of the New Year, it is our hope that all of us will realise a measure of prosperity in our personal lives and that each of us, wherever we may be, will endeavour to make some contribution, however small, to the development of our country.
This year, 2020, General and Regional Elections will be held in Guyana. Our Party and its Partners look forward to your continued support as we continue working towards the good life for all.
Guyana is now a petroleum producing state and we are working towards becoming a green state, a digital state and an education nation.
The PNCR calls on all Guyanese, regardless of race, ethnicity, political affiliation or religion, to participate in bringing about the transformation of our country so that Guyana’s vast resources may, at last, be made to serve the imperative for development and social advancement of all the people of Guyana.
The PNCR, therefore, looks forward to participating, as it has successfully done in the past, in the continuing drive for the peaceful development of this dear land of ours.
The Party wishes all Guyanese a very Happy New Year and looks forward to 2020 with optimism and hope.
May God Bless our Nation as we strive to provide a Good Life for all Guyanese!
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PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) extends best wishes to our Guyanese brothers and sisters both at home and in the Diaspora, for a peaceful, prosperous and productive 2020.
Over the past year, the Guyanese people have witnessed the shameless desperation of a government resorting to every legal and arithmetic trick at their disposal to frustrate the Constitution of Guyana, hold on to political power illegally, and avoid facing the Guyanese people in an election that is now long overdue.
Happily, by the end of 2019, their desperate attempts have finally been exhausted, and they have been left with no choice but to name a date on which the Guyanese people will be given a chance to elect a government of their choice.
The dawn of 2020 is also an occasion for guarded optimism in our country. We start this year as the world’s newest oil producing nation. In order for the benefits of this development to be enjoyed by all of the Guyanese people, the gross mismanagement of the sector by the incumbent APNU/AFC government will need to be remedied.
Their sad legacy in the sector comprises abject failure to put in place an effective regulatory framework and local content policy, as well as badly negotiated contracts that do not serve the national interest.
The PPP’s commitment to the Guyanese people for 2020 and beyond is to bring responsible economic management not just to the oil and gas sector, but also to all of the traditional and other new and emerging sectors of our economy.
By ensuring a truly diversified and robust economy, Guyana will soon be joining the fold of prosperous nations of the world and, with good government, every single. May 2020 be a year in which the highest standards of democratic norms are observed including through the conduct of free, fair, and peaceful elections, in which good governance and responsible economic management are restored to our country, and in which the march to a prosperous Guyana proceeds apace. Happy New Year!
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WORKING PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE
The Working People’s Alliance wishes all Guyanese a happy and prosperous New Year.
This coming year promises to be a defining moment for our country. It will be our first year as an oil producing nation and that brings with it, new challenges and possibilities for our beloved country.
This is an exciting time to be a Guyanese. For the first time since Independence, Guyana would have access to resources to be able to address the myriad of challenges our country has faced, thanks to our long history of bondage and exploitation.
The coming Oil and Gas dispensation would forever change Guyana as we know it. With God’s guidance and prudent leadership, our country can be transformed into a space where all our citizens will be able to enjoy a life bereft of poverty.
This is a very significant area for us in the WPA. As a party in and out of government, we are deeply committed to the liberation of the poor and the powerless, the working people, from the shackles of poverty.
It is our considered view that our first order of business should be wiping the scourge of poverty from the face of Guyana. This can be achieved firstly through the elimination of unemployment and the creation of jobs, which pay a living wage.
The right to work is a human right that any government worth its salt should strive to guarantee all its citizens.
Further, the WPA believes that the Guyanese people should benefit directly from the expected oil wealth. Towards this end, we have proposed and will continue to champion Direct Cash Transfers to households.
We feel this policy measure would greatly help with the alleviation of poverty as all Guyanese, regardless of ethnicity or social class, would be guaranteed an additional income to use as they see fit. We have every confidence in the ability of Guyanese to put that money to good use.
WPA believes that in addition to full employment and Cash Transfers, all Guyanese should be afforded a quality education, from nursery to university. In this regard, we support government subsidised education or free public education, improved wages for teachers and modern classrooms as central to a revolution in our education system.
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MR. PATRICK M. YARDE
PRESIDENT/CEO,
GUYANA PUBLIC SERVICE UNION
In a short while, here in Guyana we will be transitioning from 2019 to 2020. That occurrence often is accompanied with expectations and wishes for improvements in one’s wellbeing, accomplishments and undertakings.
In the New Year, there are opportunities for enormous progress in national development with the discovery of oil in massive amounts, which definitively will boost our economy.
Secondly, National and Regional Elections, which the Guyanese population would be totally in charge of and must accept responsibility for the outcome and consequences.
Members, we must continue to maintain our independence as a Union in 2020. We will continue to struggle for a living wage, we will continue to demand genuine free collective bargaining; we will continue to demand that all outstanding recognition be granted, for example Revenue Authority which has been outstanding since 2001.
We will continue to pursue upward review of travel allowances, which have not been reviewed since 1995 and all other inadequate rates of allowances that are being paid to you, our members.
We will vigorously pursue protection for our members who are asked to travel in unsafe and un-insured vehicles; we will demand conducive work environments for all of our members in compliance with the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
We would pursue the raising of the tax threshold and lowing of tax rates and the reduction of value Added Tax and taxes petroleum products. We will pursue more sponsorship for members for career development.
Members, as you return to work on Thursday, be motivated, energised and committed to the delivery of an enhanced quality public service in the national interest.
Happy New Year to you all.
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INDIAN ACTION COMMITTEE
The Indian Action Committee (IAC) wishes all Guyanese a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
The IAC recognises that 2020 is very significant given the fact that General and Regional Elections, which the organization expects to be free and fair and free from fear, will be held early in the year.
The IAC has noted, with great concern, the efforts of what the Caribbean Court of Justice (the highest court of appeal of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana), described as a caretaker government to act as a fully-fledged government throughout 2019, even though a No Confidence Vote was successfully passed against it in December 2018.
The IAC has also noted the detrimental decisions, made by the caretaker government in 2019, that have negatively impacted the citizens of Guyana especially with regard to the brand new oil and natural gas industry which is almost totally lacking legislation especially the local content and the environment to protect the financial benefits properly due to the Guyanese people.
The IAC is calling upon the new government to immediately begin renegotiations of the
The IAC wishes to inform all Guyanese, especially those of Indo-Guyanese origin, that 1st January 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the cancellation of all indentureship contracts that were in existence up to that time, thus bringing the indentureship system to an end.
The IAC will continue to pursue vigorously its three foci: cultural, educational and social work.
The IAC encourages all citizens and leaders to make 2020 a peaceful and progressive year in which the economy experiences growth and development.
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SHERWOOD CLARKE, GENERAL PRESIDENT,
CLERICAL AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNION
The Clerical and Commercial Workers extends happy New Year to our members and wish a brighter year in 2020. Trade Unions are facing more complex challenges than they did in the 20th century. These challenges demand leadership, which is enlightened, dynamic and focused. These challenges also demand trade unions’ involvement which must be proactive, informed, prepared to influence social and economic policy, ready to find alternative solutions, new strategies and reach out to its membership with new services.
Given the challenges, which Globalisation and the neoliberal model is creating for the Labour market and the economy of the Caribbean, the Trade Union Movement needs to speak with one voice.
To be heard and respected, we need an enlightened leadership supported by an informed membership prepared to confront these new emerging challenges. As the issues become more complex, Guyana needs to be prepared to form alliances with other small unions so as to be able to achieve our goals.
The time is opportune for small unions like CCWU, UAAWU, NUPSE and GLGOU to take initiatives to bring about the reduction of Trade Unions in the county. Over fifteen-odd unions are far too many and our activities are too demanding.
If we are to be equal to the tasks and pressures which will confront our unions now and in the year 2020, mergers will have to be effected to the numbers providing us with the opportunity of strengthening the main Trade Union Centre, Guyana Trades Union Congress and putting ourselves in a position to effectively deal with the problems which inter-alia are: Recalcitrant Employers; Globalization and neoliberal model; Foreign Trade and Investment; The effects of new Technology and the Environment on Working Class peoples; Political Development; The problems of Women and youth in our Society and the problems of the Old and Indigent.
Happy New year to the working class people, let us celebrate 2020!
SAMUEL A.A. HINDS
FORMER PRESIDENT AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER
As we look to this New Year of 2020, all of us are understandably wondering how our year- delayed elections would turn out, and how much of a boon would the recent commencement of the production of crude petroleum far off our shores, bring us. The answers to both questions lie in what our heads and hearts understand and what we make our hands do.
For me, I remain strong in advocating the PPP and the PPP/C in being the better team to be in service of all Guyanese and Guyana, opening up pathways of development which are better matched to our circumstances of an early-stage developing country, providing opportunities for all from whatever their current positions maybe, and such safety nets which we as a society value and can provide.
Some may boast that this year-long delay in our elections demonstrates how smart they are, but for all honest, earnest Guyanese knowing that there was really no question that elections were to be held within 90 days of the passage of the NCM on December 21, 2018, the succession of events of the year-long delay should demonstrate again the commitment of the PPP and PPP/C to keeping Guyana whole, avoiding paths that might lead to the reversal in the gradual coming together of our people. We of the PPP and PPP/C have been putting our people and country first. We have invested more in people and country and therefore have more to lose in any failure of people and country. No fail people and country as far as we go. There shall be No failed people and country as far as we go.
I welcome without any reservations the discovery of and beginning of production of crude oil far-off our shores and I do so as one who as Minister Responsible for the GGMC in the 1990s welcomed Esso (and others) to explore for petroleum (and other) resources within our borders.
Whatever comes, let each of us endeavour our utmost to make ourselves the best human beings we could be.
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CHANGE GUYANA
Fellow Guyanese,
The beginning of a new decade is upon us. People all across the world are hopeful about the possibilities ahead and are excited to build on the success they have achieved.
For Guyanese, however, this is sadly not the case. After 53 years of independence, we are still battling the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment, sustained by incompetent, visionless leaders; widespread corruption and broken systems.
Successive PPP and APNU/PNC governments have failed us all, failed our youth, failed our women, and failed our economy.
Yet our abundant natural resources present tremendous opportunities. We must firstly, however, embrace change, and not allow the politics of race, scarcity and deception to lead us into another decade of being left behind.
An election is imminent, and yet another opportunity for you and I to choose leaders who will fix Guyana, or leaders who will give us yet another five years of underdevelopment, high taxes, joblessness, poor infrastructure, and the same old ethnically divisive politics.
This new decade will present enormous economic opportunities in the emerging oil and gas sector.
Let’s cease this opportunity to strengthen our economy around oil and gas with Value added developments in agriculture, mining, forestry, Information Technology, and other sectors that will provide high paying jobs for our youths and rekindle their hope of a bright future in their country.
The Team of Change Guyana provides Guyanese the opportunity to ignite our economy and put Guyana among the league of progressive countries. We will address the current oppressive taxes and put more money in your pocket, and bring incentives for businesses and investors. We have a pragmatic, private sector driven, people focus agenda that will create jobs across Guyana, bring low cost financing for homes and businesses, end blackouts, fix our poor infrastructure and establish a first world healthcare system.
May this New Year bring you and your family peace, security, happiness and prosperity. May God bless you and bless Guyana.
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