V-DAY IS HERE!  VOTE TOMORROW TO REBUILD THE GUYANA YOU DESERVE

Tomorrow when you cast your ballot for the APNU+AFC Coalition, you –Guyanese citizen, business owner, academic or professional – will be starting the long overdue process to take back what is YOURS.  This is the opportunity you have been waiting for to take back your right to decide what works best for you, your family, your community. You have an inalienable right to choose the people who will form your Neighbourhood and Regional Councils and who will manage the affairs of your communities.  You have the right to work at your chosen trade or profession without being pushed aside and trampled upon at every turn by others who enjoy unbelievable concessions from the PPP/C. You have the right to receive similar concessions so you could operate in a fair, even business environment, and with a system that does not require you to pay excessive charges to process documents or wait for hours to receive a public service. You have the right to be properly educated from nursery to university in an education system that provides all that is necessary to ensure that you graduate with a high degree of knowledge to make you employable and fully functional in your own homeland. You have the right to receive sufficient pension after you have given so many years of service to your country, and medical financial aid from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) when you need it.  The NIS which you contribute to every month was created to help you in difficult circumstances.  It certainly was not envisaged that the Scheme would run bankrupt because billions of YOUR dollars were taken away from it and given to the Berbice Bridge Company and other government projects.  The Coalition government will reclaim your money through any legitimate means. You have the constitutional right to work and earn decent wages in your country, not to stand helplessly aside while projects are farmed out to foreign investors who have been allowed to import the labour they need.  That the PPP/C government agreed to this, perhaps even demanded it, for the construction of the Marriott-branded Hotel and the GPL expansion project, is tantamount to discrediting the value of Guyanese people. Despite all the tall buildings in the city, the new school buildings (no furniture or teaching aids), despite an improved service from the national electricity grid, and despite the availability of imported products, the average citizen still lives in poverty with little hope for betterment.  The 16% value added tax on every product and service has put them out of reach of many of us. We have faced open discrimination daily and the so-called PPP/C administration had no problem trampling on our rights to live, to grow and prosper.  Crime has become an industry in Guyana, and our citizens lose their lives, their children, their property, peace of mind as well as their willingness to remain in the country of their birth.  But the PPP/C does not care, so long as their pockets are full. NO MORE!  Guyana has had enough of this greedy ‘administration’.  It is time for Guyanese to finally reap the benefits of OUR OWN resources. Our LAND, gold, diamonds, forests and everything they contain, and our AIRWAVES do not belong to the PPP/C to give away to friends, family and foreign companies.  THEY BELONG TO US! It was our tax dollars that paid for that fibre-optic cable from Brazil which the government has just given away for free on very questionable terms and conditions.  At the beginning they touted this project as a means of opening up (liberalizing) the Telecommunication Sector.  Later we were told that the cable was to enhance government’s activities and programmes throughout Guyana’s 83,000 square miles (e-governance) while providing connectivity to people living in inland areas and the hinterland who benefitted from the deceptive One-Laptop-Per-Family giveaway. Five years on, today, the Government is singing a different tune with discordant notes as they try to justify this latest kick in our collective teeth, this new contract with a saw miller and civil works contractor who clearly does not understand why he was hand-picked for this dirty ‘deal’.  He does not understand the terms of the contract he signed. Fellow Citizens, we are now standing on a threshold.  At the backside are rampant thievery, pettiness, spite and squandering of our resources.  Ahead of us lies a green Guyana, full of prospects for every Guyanese man, woman and child to live as equals in a productive society. This objective is the main reason why the seven parties that make up the Coalition decided to merge our many resources to finally unify Guyana and all that is in it.  Just like you, we want to see our natural resources and the genuine drive of our people work for the benefit of this nation. Unlike the PPP/C, we will not break down and discard the roads and bridges that have been built.   The coalition is not against the development of Hydro Power.  We firmly believe that we have a responsibility to this nation to utilize the water resources that Guyana is blessed with and join the rest of world in providing renewable energy sources at a cost that is much cheaper than US$800 Million.  The Coalition prefers to see the feasibility study on the Amaila Falls with an assessment of the consequences for a hydro station in the months when the falls runs dry.  We would also commission a study on possibilities for hydro-powered stations in other sections of the Potaro Basin and Mazaruni Rivers. The Coalition is not at all against a new international airport, despite what you’ve been told.  We objected to the plan to construct the new airport with only Chinese labour and at unbelievable prices e.g. G$424,000 for one toilet set.   Highly qualified Civil Engineers have estimated a modern airport building at approximately US$40 Million which is US$110 Million LESS than the PPP intended to spend.   The Coalition will not approve the construction of a national edifice without the input of Guyanese skills and products, especially not at this time when the unemployment rate is so high. In the same vein, we will undertake an intensive audit to determine why the construction of the one-storeyed No. 51 Village Magistrate’s Courthouse cost the Guyanese tax payer G$46 Million.  In any estimation, this building including furniture, plumbing and electrical facilities should not have cost more than G$12 Million.  The same goes for the Marriott-branded hotel that the Government claimed cost US$60 Million. Citizens, do not be fooled by the PPP/C’s rank propaganda.  They have been making the same election time promises to you for 20 years and you could count the number of those promises that came to life and made your lives better. THE TIME IS NOW TO CHANGE YOUR FORTUNE.  The APNU+AFC Coalition will make it happen!