Guyanese!
It is my honour to bring a message of national unity and democratic renewal to you today at the start of this very important campaign to win the 2015 General and Regional Elections.
I am grateful to the representatives of A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change for toiling to hammer out the Cummingsburg Accord and for selecting me as their Presidential Candidate. We shall together lead the majority of citizens who struggle daily against disunity and against a dictatorial government and who seek a good life in this, the land of their birth.
We are ‘One Nation.’ We are assured that, in the campaign ahead, the overwhelming majority of Guyanese – young and old, rich and poor, women and men in all ten administrative regions and in the diaspora – want to win. They want to improve their quality of life and to remove the oppressive, undemocratic and anti-working class People’s Progressive Party Civic administration from office.
We are ‘One Nation.’ That is why we agreed on 14th February, in the “Cummingsburg Accord”, to combine our energy and resources to achieve the goal of national unity. Our singular mission is one of service, solidarity and national salvation.
We wrestle against a presidency that has damaged our Republic that has been damaged by the denial of democracy. We wrestle against a presidency which, for the last seven months, paralysed the Parliament by the promulgation of the obnoxious prorogation order. We wrestle against a presidency which, for eighteen years, has prevented the holding of local government elections.
We wrestle against the PPP that, daily, is inflicting damage on our university, teachers’ training college and schools; against a party that is failing our young people and driving talented citizens to migrate to other countries.
We wrestle against crime, corruption and cronyism. It is written, indeed (Ephesians 6:12):
“…we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world; against spiritual wickedness in high places…”
“…we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world; against spiritual wickedness in high places…”
We have come together because the nation is at breaking point. Guyanese have been fatigued by two decades of fickle promises, fatuous platitudes and failed projects.
– Our young people demand jobs, not jails and drop-in centres;
– Our women and children demand safe homes not safe-houses;
– Our fishermen and miners demand protection from pirates and bandits;
– Our paddy farmers and businessmen demand fairness; and
– Our hinterland regions demand development not goodies, gifts and grants.
The People’s Progressive Party has dragged us to the very pit of the human development index. The record rates of arson, armed robbery, murders, suicides, road fatalities, illiteracy, unemployment, trafficking in persons and trafficking in narcotics have made our country a pariah state in this hemisphere. Happy people do not kill themselves; happy people do not kill their wives and one another. Guyana is an unhappy country.
The PPP, worse still, has divided our nation. It offers favours to its favourites and but inflicts unbearable burdens on the masses of housewives, public servants, working people, paddy farmers, fisher folk and students.
We are ‘One Nation.’ And that is why we see the way forward through the establishment of a government of national unity – one that serves every citizen – not just a chosen few; one that serves all our regions – hinterland and coastland.
The APNU-AFC coalition is the boldest step taken in six decades to replace political hostility with unity; confrontation with cooperation; dictatorship with democracy. The coalition has chosen hope over despair and faith over fear. The coalition will give Guyanese:
– An education system that will produce citizens of quality who will be happy to remain here at home to build our great and beautiful country and that will extend access to the information superhighway and support the education of our young people.
– Employment opportunities in science, technology, engineering, mining, agro-processing and the arts to provide jobs and promote economic growth;
– An empowerment policy that regularly renews local democracy by ensuring that local government elections are held every thirty-six months – as is stipulated in our Constitution – so that our villages, towns and neighbourhoods are well-governed;
– An energy policy that utilizes our wind, water and solar power to provide cheap, renewable electricity to Guyanese in our urban, rural, riverine and hinterland communities;
– An enterprise and economic development policy that provides a level playing field for local entrepreneurs and investors and our huge diaspora to develop our abundant resources;
– A social policy that will harness and develop the creative energies of our people and that will support the holistic development of our athletes and young people; and
– A security policy that protects our citizens and our territory, allowing Guyanese to feel safe as they go about their daily lives.
We are ‘One Nation.’ Our APNU-AFC coalition will lead this nation into the celebration on 26th May 2016 – fourteen months away – of the Fiftieth Anniversary of our Independence.
Our parents and foreparents came from different continents of the earth – here in the Americas; from Africa; from Asia and Europe – to labour for a good life. We are their heirs. We shall not deny their descendants the fruits of their sacrifice. We shall not allow a few greedy men and women to steal their legacy or to sell their birthright. We shall not allow the PPP to squander our inheritance. We shall not surrender our God-given right to live in the best, biggest and most beautiful country in the Caribbean – Guyana.
We are ‘One Nation.’ We assure you today that the “Cummingsburg Accord” is not a crass, short-term, office-sharing bargain. It is a visionary initiative that will:
– Ensure a real government of national unity, not a bogus civic alliance;
– Ensure that our multi-ethnic, multicultural society provides a place for all citizens to prosper;
– Ensure that all Guyanese – regardless of their gender, geographic location, class, creed or ethnic origin – enjoy a good life;
– Ensure the creation of an environment that is free from the ravages of poverty and discrimination, and from the scourge of criminal violence, epidemic disease and ignorance; and
– Ensure that information and communications technology are extended to all corners of our country.
The “Cummingsburg Accord,” therefore, is actually a public Covenant. It is a ‘social contract’ between the combined majority and the people to create a just society, a stable political environment with a prosperous economy. It is a commitment to change the political culture of this country and the way we see ourselves and each other. It is a fresh, new way of looking at this great land that God has given us.
Life in Guyana must not be a nightmare for the next generation as it has been for the last two decades. Neither is it is an idle dream. I see children embarking on a bus a Crabwood Creek on the Corentyne River and driving all the way to Sand Creek on the Rupununi River.
I see children getting close enough to observe the world’s largest anteater, the world’s largest eagle, the world’s largest freshwater fish, the world’s largest river otter, the world’s largest rodent, the world’s largest river turtle; South America’s largest cat and largest snake…right here in Caribbean’s largest, natural zoological park – Guyana’s hinterland.
The backward PPP administration is too blind to see the beauty of this country. It is deaf to the cries of our people. The PPP refuses to invest in the infrastructure of highways and bridges that would integrate our people and our regions and promote social cohesion and economic growth.
We are ‘One Nation.’ We shall have endured, by 11th May, over twenty-two and a half years of PPP corruption and incompetence. We have experienced the erosion of our quality of life and the corrosion of our values institutions, particularly our National Assembly.
We have witnessed how political empowerment at the national, regional and local levels has been damaged; how the environment has been mutilated; how individual equality for the young and social protection for the aged have diminished and how public health care and human safety have been degraded.
We are ‘One Nation.’. We are already more than two parties; we have become a national movement. The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. The momentum that the coalition has generated is evidence of the people’s satisfaction and their desire for change. United, we stand a better chance to fulfil our destiny. Divided, we fall to the divisive tactics of the PPP which could return to office. Life in Guyana could become more nasty and brutish for the majority. The truth is that we are weary. We are fed up with the PPP’s:
– Winner-takes-all strategy for holding on to power at any cost;
– Divide-and-rule tactics that foment hatred and foster hostility;
– One-size-fits-all village policy that impoverishes our countryside and hinterland.
We are ‘One Nation.’ We declare, today, that the APNU-AFC coalition will adopt a unified approach and bring an end to:
– Cronyism at high levels, that is a drain on our financial resources and is blocking our development;
– Crime, that is bleeding the lives and bodies of our women and youths, and scaring away investors;
– Corruption in the law-enforcement and regulatory agencies in the mining, forestry sectors; and
– Constitutional abuse by the President, Cabinet and executive branch of the government.
I am happy today to have at my side my ‘Corentyne colleague’ from Whim Village, Moses Nagamootoo, a committed campaigner who cares about the conditions under which ordinary people now live and work.
I am honoured to have the support of my colleagues in the APNU and AFC who have collaborated over the past three years in the National Assembly. We were together when we elected an AFC nominee as Speaker; when we worked towards making government more transparent; when we demanded the reduction of oppressive taxation and when we disapproved wasteful expenditure in the budget. We were together when we adopted a concerted approach to the passage of enabling legislation for:
– Anti-Money-Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism;
– Establishment of the Public Procurement Commission;
– Conduct of Local Government Elections by 1st August 2014;
– A Motion of No-Confidence in an arrogant administration;
– Resolutions calling for investigations into trafficking in persons, the deaths of Amerindian children from gastroenteritis, river accidents, and much more.
APNU and the AFC have worked together for the people of this country over the past three years. We shall continue to collaborate for the good of the people of Guyana.
We are ‘One Nation.’ The future beckons. We assure all Guyanese, but most especially our women, youth, children and senior citizens, that we will work towards ensuring that we all have a good life.
We are ‘One Nation.’ We shall celebrate our Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence in May 2016 and, then, I assure you that we shall all be able to look back with satisfaction to the restoration of our nation by the APNU-AFC coalition.
A Prosperous Year of the Sheep to our Chinese citizens! A Happy Holi to all Hindus! A Blessed Lenten season to our Christian community! May God bless Guyana!
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