Former minister Dr Faith Harding has announced her interest in being the main opposition PNCR’s first female presidential candidate when polls are held next year.
“I am very upbeat about its [the PNCR’s] future as the next government to lead
our nation,” Harding said in a statement to Capitol News. “I have no doubt that each member of our party will recognize that each and every one of them has a stake in not only our party’s successful representation of the people of Guyana but in the party’s leadership of our nation. We are all together in the party’s successes and failures.”
Harding’s announcement comes in wake of other declarations of interest by former party former party Chairman Winston Murray, current Vice-Chairman Basil Williams as well as former Brigadier David Granger, while the party works to identify a process to select its candidate.
Harding, 63, described the PNCR as a “great” organization that has withstood the most tumultuous of times in its history. She added that it is raising the level of political discourse and change. Further, she also said that it has stood for the principles of giving everyone a fair chance to achieve his or her potential, regardless of race, creed, background circumstances or religion and that she stood affirmed in those values.
With recent divisions spilling into the public arena, Harding stressed that understanding, discipline, camaraderie, maturity and trust will displace the “suspicions, discontent, anger, petty disputes and diversions that may exist in the minds and actions of some members of the party.” Further, she said being focused on the nation’s needs and the horrors being experienced would put to rest any personal differences. For PNCR members, she said “the big picture” is a Guyana that would become the fastest growing nation in the world in the production of goods and services, education, and athletics, and with improved standards of health, family life values, food and national security.
Outlining her vision for a country that opens up “to womanhood at the helm,” Harding noted that foremost on her agenda would be helping the people escape from poverty and the crime that now pervades the country.
Guyana’s only female head of state was late former president Janet Jagan, who led the PPP/C to an election win in 1997 before stepping down for health reasons.
Harding, who served as minister of state in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development as well as minister of public service in the Desmond Hoyte administration, noted that young Guyanese women and children need the self image and self worth of women to be raised. Harding was brought up in Alberttown and the West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme and she said she was in a position to offer a model and show that social background does not deter academic, social and financial success. She said she had acquired over 40 years of experience working to enrich the lives of persons from all strata of society in towns, rural, interior and riverain areas. “I have walked Guyana, in the gulleys, the valleys, the mountains, the hills to bring help, solace, care, love, hugs and education to the people of our country,” she declared.
Harding also noted her foreign policy credentials, having worked in nations around the world at a high level, negotiating on behalf of post conflict countries, helping to set policy in the UN’s Department of Peace Keeping Operations, and working with other leading international institutions, like the World Bank. Harding served as Deputy Head of the Central Fiscal Authority of East Timor before it became an independent nation. She said she also designed the structure for the governance of East Timor. Currently, she is working on similar activities in South Sudan, which is preparing for referendum on separation or continuation with North Sudan.
