Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, says that his party will be relentless in ensuring the fair and equitable allocation of the nation’s resources to its citizens.
He made the declaration in his New Year’s address.
“We believe that we need an approach that ensures our people benefit from our resources. To this end we have advocated for a people-centred development in which the allocation of resources in our society is aimed at reducing and ultimately eliminating poverty and giving our people a better quality of life.”
According to Norton, the situation in 2023 will be even more difficult and as such the opposition plans to direct its focus at ensuring biometrics at the place of poll and a clean voters list to guarantee elections which are free and fair, keeping the pressure on the government to implement cost of living relief measures, ensuring fair and equitable allocation of the nation’s resources to its citizens, defending the rights and freedoms of citizens and communities, and stamping out corruption while preserving democracy, rules of good governance, and national unity. He also assured that the Opposition “will not relent on these fronts” as it is of the view that a lot is at stake including people’s livelihoods and the country’s destiny.
The Opposition Leader opined that the quality of life for Guyanese is deteriorating and despite bonuses and salary increases, the real wages of the people continue to decline. He attributed this to the high level of inflation and accused the government of not doing enough to address the issue.
“The government’s style of one-off measures will not work. It cannot reduce or eliminate poverty. Sporadic, knee-jerk responses will not work. Harum-scarum decisions will not work. Gimmicks will not deliver.”
And according to Norton, what Guyana needs is a government with a vision and a plan that cares for the people of Guyana. This, he said, is what the next APNU+AFC government will offer the people of Guyana in 2025 or whenever elections are called.
“We will implement our people-centred vision, a human resource development plan, professionalization of the public service and other institutions, inclusive of the Guyana Police Force… We will implement an economic development plan that allows all sectors of the economy to develop while simultaneously improving the quality of life of the people of Guyana.”
Norton, the head of the PNCR and the APNU coalition, also committed to reinventing Guyana. “We will break the old ways of thinking, unshackle our collective minds, sharpen our vision, explore and implement bold ideas, restore the Rule of Law and confidence in our national institutions. We will build a Guyana where all people can express themselves freely, live satisfying lives, free of undue hardships, strife, and stress; free of insecurities and indignities, while developing confidence in our people and their ability to build a lawful and prosperous society. A lawless Guyana cannot progress”, he said.
He also expressed confidence that Guyana can become one of the best countries to live in and can become the envy of the world as the country where citizens have opportunities to realize their full political, social, and economic potential. He stressed that his party’s people-centred development vision aims to transform Guyana into one of the world’s happiest societies and ensure Guyanese can enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of living.
“We are confident that Guyana can achieve the goal of zero poverty and zero misery. Guyana needs a comprehensive development plan that puts people first and at the centre. That is our vision. This is our Contract with Guyana.”
He explained that this contact enshrines the Coalition’s development goals to creatively transform this country by focusing unwaveringly on its people. “This Contract is the Coalition’s pledge, and commitment to each of our citizens. It is the minimum standard to which the Coalition (in or out of government) holds itself and therefore by which the people can judge us. We will work assiduously to regain government to enable the implementation of our vision and plans which will benefit the people of Guyana.”
