Leader of the Opposition David Granger recently told residents of Sawariwau in South Central Rupununi, “You are not ‘bush’, you are part of a 21st century country and your children deserve a higher standard of education; you deserve better roads and bridges; you deserve a good life…”
Brigadier (ret’d) Granger and his team which included Member of Parliament Sydney Allicock; Regional Democratic Councillors Vincent Henry, Carl Parker and Dionysia Thres visited Sawariwau, Kootanarib and Shulinab villages in the South Central Rupununi Savannahs, said a press release from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.
Granger and Allicock addressed toshaos and villagers at well-attended meetings at which their complaints and anxieties were discussed openly and questions were answered about the national budget and Amerindian development.
Granger also thanked residents for their role in the November 28th, 2011 general and regional elections which he said had changed Guyana’s politics forever.
He invited villagers to look around the Rupununi and ask themselves whether they were satisfied with the results of twenty years of the PPP/C administration, and he promised that APNU would work to bring meaningful change to the region and to provide a good life for all Guyanese.
Granger pointed out that the Rupununi region was almost the size of Costa Rica but had no motorable roads. He then iterated APNU’s commitment to work for the construction of a modern highway linking Lethem with Linden and the north savannahs with the south and central, the release said.
He also called on the government to replace what was referred to as “the present primitive tracks and trails” with a modern highway so that residents could transport their produce to profitable markets.
Granger and Allicock told the villagers that much more can be done to stimulate job creation and wealth by agro-processing, aqua-culture and micro-enterprises at the village level.
And Granger encouraged village leaders and local officials to continue to press the central government so that land demarcation could be successfully concluded.
The opposition leader also reminded Rupununi residents of APNU’s commitment to continue to work towards lowering their cost of living and improving their standard of living.
He said that the Rupununi was not a patch of backward ‘bush’ but a part of a modern state.
However, Granger charged that the people were being kept poor by the policies of the PPP/C government.
“I don’t want to see you mired in poverty for the rest of your lives. My dream is of a country with a first-class education system that produces doctors, engineers and scientists who can contribute to the development of the Rupununi and the rest of Guyana,” Granger declared.
