HINTERLAND communities in Guyana have been transformed, and the dignity of Amerindians restored under the current Administration. In return, residents of the North West District yesterday reaffirmed their support for the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s return to office when they met President Donald Ramotar at Mabaruma and Port Kaituma. 

With much fanfare and motorcades, the residents turned out in large numbers to meet and greet the Head of State, expressing their support to ensure all the Region One seats are taken by the PPP/C to help safeguard its return to government. Among the highlights of the visit were renditions of “Donald calls elections and vote out Granger”, and “Donald the Winner Man” by a Kaituma youth, Pamela Calistro.

A section of Mabaruma, Region One residents at the community meeting with President Donald Ramotar

In turn, the President committed to modernising the economy and providing greater opportunities and equality for all Guyanese once re-elected.

NEGLECT OF AMERINDIANS
President Ramotar expressed astonishment at the political Opposition’s campaign slogan, ‘It is time to respect Amerindians’, noting that Amerindian development has been prioritised under this Government, as evidenced by the significant physical and social development, particularly education and healthcare.
“You know how much we have done in the interior areas? I was shocked to see a campaign billboard saying, ‘It’s time to respect Amerindians’. Really? These are same people who, in Parliament last year, cut the Amerindian Development Fund; they are the same people who say they love you, and cut one of the funds we have to lend fees to students at the University of Guyana. And now it’s elections time they telling us about respect; I cannot find a single reason for any interior person to want to vote for the Opposition; they did nothing in the past,” the President said.
Outlining some of the key achievements for Amerindians and hinterland residents under this Administration, President Ramotar said: “We have been able to deliver quality education and better health services; we have been trying to improve the economy of the villages and that’s why we have been buying tractors, ploughs, engines and boats, and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) to improve transportation services; build guest houses for them to host people and promote tourism in their communities; fund cattle rearing and other projects through Presidential Grants and other government support,” he said.

This Mabaruma resident ensures she gets her child’s photo taken with President Donald Ramotar

A group of schoolchildren from Port Kaituma being greeted by President Donald Ramotar

“Before the PPP, opportunities, even to primary schools, were limited. Only 30 per cent of the children leaving primary schools could have gone to secondary schools. Today, more than 90 per cent of children are attending schools… And if they did not behave the way they behaved by the end of the year, we would have had universal secondary education.”
The President noted that the government is working to ensure that secondary education is the minimum level of education, and “we are not far away from accomplishing that.”
Hence, the President urged parents to ensure their children complete school, as Government has been providing free education, uniforms, textbooks, exercise books, food, accommodation and a cash grant under the ‘Because we Care’ initiative to ensure parents are not burdened with the expenses of sending children to school. “No one should keep their children home, because we believe that the future development of this country will depend on the quality of people we have in this country, and we want to ensure we have the most educated people in the Caribbean right here in Guyana. We have been spending much money on the interior areas of this country because we want to ensure they are not left behind,” the President said. He explained that such a situation (neglect) occurred both under colonial rule and the People’s National Congress (PNC) government.
“Never before in our history did we have so many Amerindians studying at the University of Guyana, the CPCE (Cyril Potter College of Education) and the Guyana School of Agriculture,” he said.
The government went further by building hostels in various places and providing food, accommodation, uniforms, text books and cash grants for secondary-age students to attend school on the Coast. In this context, the President explained that the government made a decision sometime ago to accommodate hinterland school children in secondary schools in the city and only President’s College had dorm facilities. However, this was met with objection from the political opposition, which accused the government of depleting the standards of President’s College.
The President said government stood its ground and persisted, “and a few years ago it was an Amerindian student that topped President’s College. This shows our investment paid off and we were vindicated. That is why you need to keep your children in school, so that they can be prepared to benefit from new opportunities that are coming…I am very happy today that Guyana has the lowest drop rate from schools in the Caribbean, and the highest enrolment rate of kindergarten children. That is why we place so much emphasis on education because no one can take that from you, and education develops your capacity…We are moving our country forward. We are building a dynamic economy. Over the years we have invested in you to do that…there’s a link between education and poverty.”
The President said the Opposition that are now making election promises are still to launch a manifesto to show their plans to take Guyana forward. He noted that even during the last three years in the National Assembly, the opposition failed to use their one seat majority for the benefit of the people, especially Amerindians.
“Never one day did they use their majority to say Ramotar build a new steamer for North West, new hospital; all they did was try to cut. And they tried to cut $89 billion from the Budget.” He noted that even their pre-coalition discussions did not focus on policies and plans, but on who would be president, prime minister, home affairs minister and so on. “But I believe that political power is not an end in itself,” he said. “If that were the case, I would not have called elections now because constitutionally elections are due until end of next year, early 2017, but I don’t want to be President or we don’t want to be in Government if we cannot deliver a better life for our people. That is why I called elections.”
The President noted that the Opposition has a lot to apologise to Guyanese for as they have continuously blocked progressive measures aimed at raising the standard of living.
“In a short period of time, we can make Guyana a developed country. The only impediment we have is an Opposition that is not interested in development,” he noted, as he explained that its members blocked the airport expansion project and the speciality hospital, as well as failed to support the environmental tax on imported plastic bottled drinks, which has resulted in government having to pay billions to an importer following a court case. Similar non- support was directed at the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, and cheaper electricity through the Amalia Falls Hydro electricity project.

President Donald Ramotar addressing Port Kaituma residents

“They cannot be trusted now elections are coming; they voted against the hydro-power, now (David) Granger says he wants to build hydro. Can you trust him with your future? With your children’s future?” queried the Head of State. A resounding ‘no’ was the loud response from the crowd.
The President said that the Alliance for Change (AFC), which has now collated with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), was the said party that promised sugar workers a 20 per cent salary increase at the last elections. “Now, a year later, APNU says they will shut the industry down. Nagamootoo cannot be trusted; he’s a sell-out. He used to write about rigged elections by the PNC and Walter Rodney; now he’s saying that those things never happened. How can you trust people like that to run the country? Granger was head of the Army; we have never misused the army and police force, never given them political instruction, illegal instruction, but we know how the PNC used to misuse them to rig elections…the real friend of the army and police is the PPP/C because we continue to work to ensure the Guyana Police Force and the Army are professional…they have a right to their political views and to vote for who they want to, but in the discharge of their duties we want to make them professional and that is the way for a democratic society, any other way is a disaster…Granger now saying…he’s the only historian in the world who don’t want to talk about history…because elections is about record and they can’t put their record next to us… These people are just bent on destruction to prevent Guyana from going forward. Granger is the only historian hiding from history.”
The President said that Guyana cannot afford the mistakes it made in 1964 “when another collation came and removed the PPP from office….when they finished with it, Guyana and Haiti were described as the poorest countries in the western hemisphere.” Back then, the President said that campaigners promised free milk and cassava with manifestos labelled ‘New Road’ and ‘Highway to Happiness’ and “both took us down the road to hell. You must ensure this never happens again,” he urged.

THE WAY FORWARD
Outlining his Government’s vision for Guyana, the President said much of it is heavily dependent on the provision of cheaper electricity, which is what government pursued through the Amaila Falls Hydro project, which if materialised will see the country’s fuel importation bill being drastically reduced.” Cheap energy will also aid manufacturing and create more jobs, he said. In fact that project will create the most jobs for Guyana.
The President said Government also aims to create a highly skilled workforce to attract investors. He told the communities of several national projects that will transform Guyana, including the airport expansion project, the new five-star hotel, a speciality hospital, several call centres and universities and the planned hospitality institute, most of which were blocked by the opposition in the last Parliament.
The airport will result in cheaper airfare and “one of the things we are considering is to get a ferry to Trinidad and Barbados to take people and goods there. That is the future we are offering you and we are investing in that future…we are hoping to help you start new crops that are not easily perishable like black pepper, tumeric and ginger, to make the economy more resilient. We hope coconut could be as strong and powerful as rice and sugar. We want to develop that because we can make a lot of products from coconut…including carbon used to trap gold and filter water and “we import that from Sri Lanka, carbon that comes from the coconut shell so you see there’s great possibility…the Brazilians are making several products from cassava, including ethanol, a fuel alcohol that could be used in vehicles. We want to look at new crops, like soya bean and corn in large scale…” the President said, urging residents not to pursue mining at the expense of agriculture.
“At the local level we are putting the infrastructure down. We have ordered an asphalt plant to come here in Mabaruma to fix all the roads in Mabaruma, Port Kaituma and Bartica, because we know that has been one of the big problems we face in these areas, and we intend to pay more attention to maintenance, and that is why we are going to give the regions more equipment so that they can maintain the roads,” he said. “We have already secured financing for a new ferry to ply the Georgetown to Region One route. It’s a modern ferry that will cut transport time by more than half of current time and it will have comfortable accommodation and adequate facilities to transport products to and from Georgetown. And I am confident that we will do it very soon,” he said. Discussions have been held with India on this matter.
In concluding, the President said, “These are very important elections for this country. The PPP has already brought out its manifesto with plans to develop Guyana we have brought this country a far way and we are ready to take it to new levels…” (GINA)