The PPP/C has called on Guyanese to resolve to confront the forces of crime and violence so as to ensure that the pace of progress continues in their beautiful country, according to a statement from the party on the occasion of its 10th anniversary in government.
October 5 this year marks ten years since the PPP/C has been in government.
The PPP/C also expressed gratitude to the Guyanese people for the confidence reposed in the party which resulted in three successive electoral victories.
They noted too, their appreciation for the invaluable role that friendly governments and institutions have played in the protection and consolidation of the many democratic gains scored by the party on behalf of the Guyanese people.
“It is common knowledge,” the statement said, “that democracy was restored in October 1992, after some 28 years of dictatorial PNC minority rule.”
According to the ruling party, those were indeed difficult years and citizens who lived through the 70s and the 80s can attest to the extreme hardship of the Guyanese people at the hands of an uncaring regime whose main preoccupation was to perpetuate itself in office by any means at its disposal.
The PNC cannot escape blame for the impoverishment of the Guyanese people, and because it never attained office on the basis of free and fair elections, it did not feel compelled to govern in the best interest of the nation, the PPP/C contended.
It is important, the statement continued, that Guyanese reflect on the turbulent years of dictatorial rule which saw the country deteriorate from a prosperous country in the 1960s to the second poorest in the western hemisphere.
Not only were the masses reeling under the crushing burden of woes, the statement said, but the country was declared uncreditworthy by the International Monetary Fund and therefore ineligible for financial assistance.
The PPP/C charged that “the biggest reversal of Guyana’s economic, social and political gains took place under the Hoyte years.” According to the ruling party, statistics show that the decline in education standards, evidenced in local and overseas exam passes, took place under the administration of Desmond Hoyte.
The Housing Ministry, the statement said, was also scrapped by the PNC while sugar, rice and bauxite, key pillars of the economy, recorded their lowest production levels during the years of the former regime.
However, according to the PPP/C, it reversed the economic and social decline that characterized the greater part of the pre-1992 rule, and a sense of hope and dignity was once again restored to the Guyanese people.
The statement declared that the PPP/C, and indeed all Guyanese, had every reason
to be proud of the enormous progress the country has made over the past decade, “despite attempts by the PNC and its agents to disrupt the development programme.”
The achievements of the PPP/C, the statement concluded, are second to none and include such areas as: social services, particularly health, housing and education; poverty alleviation programmes; infrastructure rehabilitation; expansion of rural electrification; investment incentives; land distribution programme; pro-labour legislation; economic progress and stability and water services