Renewing his appeal for national unity, President David Granger called for a narrowing of the differences and divisions between political parties through the promotion of dialogue and the intensification of political cooperation and consensus-based decision-making.
In a message to the nation to mark the 46th anniversary of the establishment of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, titled ‘Deeper unity and stronger communities,’ President Granger urged Guyanese to seize the opportunity to work for greater national unity. “We can be one nation only if all sections of our population feel that they are an integral part of and share in our country’s development,” he said.
National unity must be pursued at all levels, he said. Guyanese must, at the national level, eradicate the suspicions that promote tensions and strife. We must dispel prejudice and hatred amongst individuals and groups. We must move forward as a united nation, constantly reaffirming our national motto: one people, one nation, one destiny.
President Granger noted that democracy was about placing power in the hands of the people. “The changes wrought by becoming a republic were part of a process of democratic renewal. They were intended to place power into the hands of the people by making ‘the small man the real man.’ They enabled the common folk, through their communities, collectives and cooperatives, to promote their economic self-improvement,” he also noted
Thus, he stated, government was fulfilling its promise to conduct local government elections in order to empower citizens in their village communities and municipalities “after two nightmarish decades of municipal despotism. Local government elections will empower residents and enrich communities.”
Guyanese were urged to use this opportunity of the holding of local government elections on March 18, to continue the process of democratic renewal.
“Local government elections will re-emphasise the importance of our communities. Local government elections will empower elected local representatives thereby allowing citizens to administer their own affairs more competently and to contribute more fully to the development of their communities,” the President said.
“We have emphasised the importance of communities by naming the Ministry of Communities; by enhancing the role of community policing; by strengthening our community development councils by refurbishing our community centres and by revisiting the idea of community high schools”.
Seize the opportunity of this anniversary to improve communities in order to avert decline, the Head of State urged citizens. He cited social problems like alcoholism and drug abuse, crime, homelessness, interpersonal violence, poverty and suicide and the threat they present to the common good, stressing that these issues demand urgent attention and action, especially at the level of the community.
Communities give primacy to the needs of individuals, families and households, he noted. They recognise that residents are social beings and they seek, therefore, to harmonise the interests of the individuals with those of society as a whole. These problems cannot be addressed by any single group – be it government or non-governmental organisations. These problems are national in scale. They require national responses.
History
President Granger recalled that when independent Guyana declared itself a Republic on this day 46 years ago and assumed the name ‘The Cooperative Republic of Guyana,’ this was by no means a perfunctory, post-colonial affirmation of statehood or the adoption of an ornamental title. It marked a transition from Guyana’s status as a ‘monarchy’ to a constitutional ‘democracy’.
He quoted Guyana’s first prime minister Forbes Burnham as advising, “…In the context of Guyana, there is an indescribable incongruity about having the Queen of Great Britain [as] the Queen of Guyana. Moving to the status of a Republic represents, to my mind, a further step in the direction of self-reliance and self-confidence.”
Granger noted that the declaration of republican status was an audacious and ambitious political decision. It consummated the covenant of independence that had been earned four years earlier in 1966 and severed the residual vestiges of Guyana’s dependency on our former colonial rulers.
Guyana joined the majority of states of the world which, today, are also republics.
By becoming a republic, he stated, Guyana “effaced the incongruous image of the Queen of Britain being the Head of State of our nation and allowed us to appoint a Guyanese, of humble origins, the descendant of indentured labourers, as our first President.”
He said too that it “emancipated our new nation from the ignominy of having our final court of appeal located in the country which, for one hundred and fifty years, had exercised colonial dominion over our citizens.”
Becoming a republic also “elevated the status of our people and enhanced their self-esteem; expedited the ‘Guyanisation’ of society and promoted the mobility of Guyanese in public institutions and international organisations,” the President said.
He ended: “Let us cooperate for Guyana! God bless the Cooperative Republic of Guyana!”
