In his first New Year message to the nation President Donald Ramotar said that the November 28 elections had created a new political situation in the country, but this provided an opportunity to work together to take the country forward.
“To succeed in this,” he said, we must resolve to have genuine co-operation on important issues.” He admonished that trying to make deals, or ‘ganging up’ against one partner when the aim should be to strive for consensus could be “counter-productive,” for it would continue to “breed suspicion and mistrust.”
The head of state then alluded to the fact that the manifestos of the various parties showed that they had similar ideas on important issues. “To therefore seek short term advantages at the expense of long term gains,” he said, “is myopic to say the least,“ although he acknowledged that working together would not be without problems. However, he continued, he did not see any “viable alternative.”
He went on to say that the PPP/C was prepared to work with all “legitimate forces” in the society, and would strive to strengthen the institutions within it.
The President committed to working to root out corruption and create more opportunities for the populace, so that people could achieve their fullest potential. He saw one of the nation’s priorities as building a society which was safe and cohesive, and which was founded on “tolerance, understanding and solidarity and, on the rule of law.”
He prefaced his comments on the new political situation with an overview of Guyana’s current circumstances, where he said the country had done well, even although our main trading partners in Europe and America were facing economic difficulties.
He told the nation it should be proud of the developments so far, and that the country was on a “solid platform” ready for the second wave of reforms which would be “transformative” and would make possible a more rapid economic take-off, although he injected a cautionary note about the situation in North America and Europe having an impact locally and regionally.
The President went on from there to say that we cannot sacrifice the environment in traditional approaches to economic growth, but should embrace new models of development. Guyana had gained international recognition for its low carbon development strategy, he said, and we would work towards maintaining the progress we had made in the area of climate change.
The government intended to pursue a developmental agenda in 2012, aimed at raising the standard of living, the head of state continued, and it had always believed that economic growth should be accompanied by social development so that everyone benefited. “We will work to ensure that development is sustained and that in the process all communities continue to experience the benefits of a buoyant economy through quality social services, improved physical infrastructure, obtaining greater value for money in the delivery of public goods and services…I intend to look at all methods available to ensure value for money resulting from the government investments in development projects and to tackle inefficiencies and waste where they exist,” the President said.
