Guyana was born a broken nation forty-six ago. We gained Independence in a state of emergency – proclaimed during the bloody 165-day strike by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, the trade union partner of the People’s Progressive Party.
The PPP, in its disdain for national unity and its contempt for the public will, refused to participate in the talks to draft the Independence Constitution. It refused to participate in the Independence celebrations. It refused to occupy its seats in the National Assembly for several months.
The PPP returned to office again in 1992 and our nation is in a state of crisis again. Guyana is now at breaking point after twenty-two years of PPP one-party rule. Our nation, today, is under siege. Arson and armed robberies, domestic violence, banditry in the hinterland, piracy on the coastland and murder in our