We need a bipartisan sustainable environmental programme

Dear Editor,

As I drove around the city of Georgetown today and saw the extent of the flooding, I could not help but wish tomorrow was 2025 elections, because I am ready, I am ready to mobilize a team for us to take up the challenge of fixing Guyana. Now, I wish that I could say this without the PPP/C and the APNU+AFC taking offence, but I will say it anyway.

In my analysis, both parties are very good at doing politics and running their political parties, while the PPP/C is good at developing a party agenda and mobilizing its supporters around that party agenda, but their weaknesses are in governance, sustainable development and mobilizing the country and its people, around a national agenda; and this is where I would like to build a team around.
Based on my research and practice over the years, I have concluded that many developing and least developed countries are not poor because they cannot and could not reduce poverty and experience higher levels growth but I have come to appreciate the significance of leadership, governance and government to poverty reduction and the growth of a country and its people.

Our economic and social development agenda and policy over the past 30 years, has produced what some see as three class of people – the ‘ruling class’, the ‘wealthy class’ and the ‘poor class’. The ‘ruling class’ is also a part of the ‘wealthy class’ and the ‘wealthy class’ is also a part of the ‘ruling class’.
Now, people say to me that they never knew that I had an interest in politics, so what prompted me to run for President in 2025? Here are some of the things that caused me to essentially challenge the status quo. Having worked on many brilliant and noble initiatives over the past 20 years; these included clean-up campaigns, professional and personal development programmes, mentoring, capacity building, management, administration, community development, institutional and organizational development, etc., I realized that in many cases, in order to really effect change, one has to be in a position of authority or rather, bethe authority.

Someone once said that you cannot motivate a person above his motives and therein lies a fundamental problem for the persistent underdevelopment of developing and least developed countries. Having been involved in all these commendable initiatives, without the authority to institutionalize and build sustainability into these programmes, they were just activities.
For example, in 2003, 2004 and years after, I and so many others were involved in several clean-up campaigns; now I see the young First Lady, Her Excellency Arya Ali, is championing another clean-up campaign, and we are making a big song and dance about it, now we were doing clean-up campaigns for a number of years. However, what has changed, are the messengers and participants. Mind you, I am not reducing the validity of the First Lady’s initiative; it is good that she is getting her hands dirty, but I am speaking to the sustainability aspect.

In 2012, a group of us developed a programme the ‘Cleanliness and Citizenship – Community-Led Total Sanitation programme. We got a bit of support from the then PPP/C government and the international community and that was it. This is a programme, if it is implemented properly, from 2012 to 2020, Georgetown would have been looking like Miami today.
Additionally, the environment in sub-urban and rural communities would have also been much improved. Essentially, it is a sustainable approach to cleaning-up, managing and sustaining a clean and healthy environment in Georgetown and rural areas. With high levels of rainfall over the past three days, Georgetown has again, been flooded and residents and businesses are all suffering.

Nevertheless, while this is happening, the perennial problem between the PPP/C government and the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, has restarted since the PPP/C has taken up office on 2 August 2020. In my analysis, these problems are more relational, and the PPP/C government needs to stop wearing its ‘emotions on its sleeves’ and focus on the substantial issues.
While the City of Georgetown is flooded, the current administration has budgeted $95M to purchase new vehicles for top government officials. No, I do not know if anybody has seen the vehicles that our government officials own and travel in, but to me, they all seem to be in good enough condition. The APNU+AFC government was in office for five years, so these vehicles could not be so damaged that they cannot be used by this current administration.

Our leaders need to be reminded that Guyana, until we started to produce and export oil in 2019, was the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but when you see the vehicles our leaders drive, one would think that Guyana is a first world country. When you see these vehicles at government events, it is amazing to watch.
Where am I going with this? Here is where I am going, the lifestyle of our leaders and the level and pace of development of the country and its people are inconsistent. These luxury vehicles are driven on streets with potholes, flooded, garbage-filled, children begging and homeless people in the streets, traffic lights not working, etc., which says much about misplaced priorities and the values of our leaders.

Development must not only be seen but it must also be felt. My approach would be that quality of life must be reflective across the board – meaning, yes, we will have luxury vehicles, but we must also have clean streets, well managed and maintained drainage and irrigation systems, resilient families, so that our children do not have to beg in the streets. A priority would be the health and well-being of the citizens and commuters in the city, as well as an enhanced business environment for our private sector and investors.
Perhaps, the government can start with diverting the $95M for luxury vehicles towards clearing major drainage systems in Georgetown. Like the major drainage canal behind South Ruimveldt, the one in Sophia, canals around the city. I am sure that if I comb through the National Budget, I would be able to re-prioritize some aspects, with a more people-centered approach to our growth and development.

My approach to leadership, would be to employ the sustainable development approach, with focus on economic, social and environment. With regards to the environment, Georgetown will not only be restored to the Garden City, but it will look like ‘little Miami’, as we aspire to be the ‘Singapore of South America’.

Yours truly,
Audreyanna Thomas