The PNCR’s presidential hopefuls yesterday laid out their plans for Guyana as they kicked off a month-long series of community visits to make their case to be the party’s candidate at the upcoming polls.
At the Queenstown Community Centre, at Essequibo, no clear favourite emerged from the five candidate nominees, James Bond, David Granger, Carl Greenidge, Dr. Faith Harding and Basil Williams. Just over 100 persons turned up last evening at the community centre to question them as part of the new approach the party has adopted in the election of its presidential candidate.
The meeting was moderated by PNCR MP Cheryl Sampson, who fielded questions from the audience before putting them to the nominees in turn. They fielded questions on border security, foreign policy, ethnic tensions, the Value Added Tax, electricity costs, climate change, the disabled and Amerindian issues.
While there were no groundbreaking announcements, the nominees were well received by the attendees. While the audience was largely bereft of young people, the meeting focused heavily on youth policies, which were identified by the majority of the aspirants as planks in their visions for the future.
Bond touted the involvement of all, including youths, while stating that there was discontent with the way national benefits were being enjoyed. “This government is for themselves, this government is not even for its supporters but for their friends, a cabal,” he declared.
According to Bond, his vision is that all will be involved and find work in their involvement.
Meanwhile, retired army Brigadier Granger said a Guyana under his leadership would see Queenstown returned as the breadbasket of the nation. “The problem today on the Essequibo Coast and in Queenstown, in particular, is that young people have no jobs, young people have no hope,” he said. He added that his vision would see the Essequibo Coast providing jobs for all of its school leavers in the next five years. “The problem here is that our education system is not equipping our young people for the new world of work… they’re not equipping young people to be self employed, to be involved in private enterprise,” he said.
According to Granger, he has a vision of a Guyana where youths will not have to migrate.
In addressing economic issues, Greenidge, who up to last month had been an economist with CARICOM, argued that the national policies need to be integrated, taking into account resources available and the particular regional realities.
Additionally, he said there is a need for more transparency in the way policies are implemented.
Further, he stated, hope needs to be re-instilled in the youths and this regard the PNCR had to ensure that its youth arm is doing its part. He added that the education curricula also needed retooling. He emphasised “training of the youths who have left school either without the full educational training [is needed]… as well as training in artisanal skills so that they can enter a place of work confident and equipped to work in a modern society.”
Dr. Faith Harding, a former minister in the PNC government, said she believed that youths were spending too much time out of school and in trouble and the communities have to play a part in remedying this situation.
“My vision is each community itself would ensure that the resources work for those children and those young people,” she explained. “They must see what it is that they can get out of agriculture, out of fishing. We got rivers to fish. Why aren’t we fishing and turning those fish into canned fish, bottled fish, where are the industries?”
Dr. Harding also declared that she would restart the free education from nursery to university policy.
Meanwhile, PNCR Vice-Chairman Williams noted that he was “privileged” to serve two presidents, the late Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte, while in his 20s. He said the experiences imbued him with the knowledge that youths can make a contribution at the national table. According to him, Guyanese are entitled to a “new deal.”
“My vision for this country and for you here in Essequibo is a prosperous, competitive Guyana where we enjoy high standards of living, ready and quality access to social services… and this is what I believe we could do in the Peoples National Congress Reform under my stewardship as the next president of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” he said to applause.
Williams added that he also has a national development strategy for youths to ensure they are properly trained and imbued with a love for the country.
The community meetings are expected to provide the candidates with an opportunity to present their policy positions and vision to the public and for the reaction to them to be gauged before a congress finally picks the candidate next month.
The new procedure for picking the PNCR candidate has been hailed in political circles as progressive and allowing party members and others from across the country to assess the nominees. This system has not been employed before by the PNC. There had been calls for the PPP/C to adopt a similar process but it has declined.
