Saying that the nearly six decades of rule by the two main political parties have not enhanced Guyana’s development, analyst Ramon ‘Rambo’ Gaskin on Tuesday launched a new political party.
Guyana First, Gaskin told the launch at the National Library, will present a vision of strong economic and social systems for holistic development.
“After 60 years, both parties have proven to be unfit to continue to rule Guyana, protect its resources and serve all its people. The time has come to create new political organisations to defend Guyana, to challenge the duopoly and their patrons, and to guard against corruption,” Gaskin said.
“Guyanese must stand up and be counted. This we intend to do and we ask others to join us in this effort,” he added.
The party was launched following a scathing criticism of the contract government signed with the local ExxonMobil subsidiary and its partners and Gaskin, an attorney, said that he was fed up with the way the country was being run and that it was time for the people to be educated on the mismanagement of the past governments, less they vote for them again in 2020. The new party is not yet open to membership as Gaskin is crafting its manifesto. In the meantime, it is using the tentative name Guyana First.
Gaskin was quick to point out that he was trying to get the focus away from politics to policies.
But he has assured that when the manifesto is crafted, it would not be laden with hundreds of promises that cannot be fulfilled.
“Can you imagine 583 promises? This is people who were in there 23 years and still have 583 promises. The APNU made 397 promises and you can count them if you want. My manifesto don’t have a single promise in it. It says what it is we believe in and what we believe in is what we would do, given an opportunity. What we do or don’t do would flow from that. We don’t have to write 100 pages. We will summarise it in just couple pages. It won’t be 99,” he said.
Gaskin believes that the country is in a state of poverty and peril and needs a paradigm shift.
“The result of these 60 years of misrule is a crisis in the society characterised by low economic growth, low wages, high unemployment, huge budget deficit, massive domestic and external debt, rampant poverty and inequality, together with inadequate housing, infrastructure, disgraceful public health services and poor educational results at all levels, including an unacceptable dropout rate…,” he stated.
“While they ruled over Guyana and its suffering citizens, both the PNC and the PPP, in their various incarnations and make-overs, clearly demonstrated a predisposition to turn over the natural resources of Guyana to foreign companies to exploit the country and pauperise its people,” he added.
He said that will go out to the communities and villages to make them aware of current affairs but also to remind them of past political ills.
“I know that in order for them to be attracted to anything, you have to go out and explain to them and we will be going out,” he added.
