During one of his parliamentary budget presentations, then minister responsible for local government, Harripersaud Nokta, gave a list of what the PPP/C intended to accomplish in the sector over the coming year. A shout came from the opposition side: ‘what is your vision for the sector?’ Taking a few seconds to consider the question the minister retorted, ‘it’s in my head’ and the entire parliament roared with laughter. This event came to mind as I was considering President David Granger’s 10-point list of what he and his party intend to accomplish, should they win the 2020 elections, over what he designated a coming ‘decade of development.’
Last week, I argued that a vision is an important motivational and inspirational tool and at the launch of his party’s elections campaign a few days after presenting his 10 points plan, the president referred to himself as a ‘see far man’ and I take it that by this he intended to present himself as a visionary. In politics, one of the advantages of a good visionary presentation is that it could cloak dissatisfaction with present conditions and given the paltry level of the government’s actual accomplishments, I sympathize with the president wanting to so present himself. However, if that was his intention, he fell well short of his mark: a simple taxonomy of future intentions attached to isolate exaltations could hardly be considered visionary and inspiring. Over the decades, Guyana has been plagued with all kinds of maladies and now it has come upon great opportunities, but what kind of society the president envisages would result from amalgamating these with his proposed interventions remains largely in his head!
